Well, I didn't know him best

He'd say we were friends

We both rode the highways on the song

So I'm writing this one here in memory of him

'Cause the King of Alabama has gone home

He was a man among men, the old-school kind

Had a great big heart, a laid-back mind

Let you hold his guitar if you broke his string

If you thought he looked country, outta heard him sing

From Alabama 'cross the Rio Grande

He beat the blacktop down with a five-piece band

Not because he loved it - he did that too -

But he did it man 'cause that's what he was born to do

Some people calculate moves

He never had a thing to prove

He just let the wind take him where it may

It's a damn shame the way things go

It's too bad we have to lose the good folks

But the King of Alabama has gone home

"Nothin' good ever happens after midnight, " so the story goes

You can't trust nobody, it don't matter how close

It was a friend that took him from his family

I keep his chain in my pocket, his son in my prayers

Every stage I'm on, I can feel him there

Some people calculate moves

He never had a thing to prove

He just let the wind take him where it may

It's a damn shame the way things go

It's too bad we have to lose the good folks

But the King of Alabama has gone home

Some people calculate moves

He never had a thing to prove

He just let the wind take him where it may

He'd say Honky tonk's the trick

But get a guitar and grab your pick

Let the old tunes possess you and play yeah

It's a damn shame the way things go

It's too bad we have to lose the good folks

But the King of Alabama

The King of Alabama

The King of Alabama has gone home