He was born a drifter
With the heart of a sad sad song
And he started running around on Main Street
With another tramp that called it home
Teetot was the tramp who taught him
He could make a dollar shining shoes
And playing his guitar
Then pretty soon everybody knowed him
You could hear "The Lovesick Blues"
Everywhere from here to far
And he made it all the way to Nashville
Always scared he never really belonged
Like he ought to be hanging out on Main Street
With the other tramps that called it home
Pretty soon a dollar turned in to hundreds and hundreds in to thousands
And everybody knew his name
But he was just a poor boy from Alabama, who thought he was supposed to be born
And die the same
But he made it all the way to the top
A king who was scared he didn't really belong
Like he ought to be on Main Street
Hanging out with the other tramps that call it home
When he made it to the opry
He was the hillbilly king
Making grown folks laugh and cry
With the words he would write and sing
But through the smoke and whiskey
He would drift back in time
Thinking of teetot down on Main Street
The songs they'd play and the shoes they would shine
Then one blessed New Years
The world cried cause he was gone
And he saw teetot down on Main Street
He said "I'm proud of you boy, welcome home"
Teetot stood on Main Street
He said
"I'm proud of you Hiram, so proud of you Hank, welcome home"