A Singer's Lonely Road

A music video examining a stage singer's lonely life on the road.

(Written to the tune of Green Grass of Home)

I really have to go now.

It's time to start my show,

But I'm so glad you stopped to see me.

It's been so long.

If we had the time, I could talk on and on.

There's good things to say but the timing's wrong,

But you see it doesn't matter anyway.

You broke my heart so many times --

Women, cards and lies, all the time.

You left me to start all over all alone.

I feel like I'm back home

On the stage where I belong.

I've got hits now.

My career's going strong.

No, I really don't hate you.

It's just that I don't need you.

I found I love my music more than I love you.

So go on and take your new wife home.

She looks so tired sitting there alone,

And a woman needs her rest

With baby on the way.

There's more that I could tell you,

But I won't share that with you.

The nights are long without someone to hold,

And I don't need another cheap affair.

I'll just cry myself to sleep somewhere.

Success is sweet but the lonely road is hard to bear.

So I'll just go do my show again

And pray I'll see my family soon,

Although it seems they have no time left for me.

I'll send their christmas presents,

And I'll mail their birthday cards;

But I'll prob'ly spend another Christmas alone.

They have their own lives to lead

And lots of hungry mouths to feed;

And I've got my career,

And I guess it all seems fair.

So until that final curtain call

I'll think of the good times through it all,

Then I'll take my place in God's heavenly choir.

Author's Note

I wrote this (visualizing my old fav Dolly Partin) for a regional country music star in North Carolina. She declined it as a music video. I included stage direction where she greets her visitors and then shows them to the door. Finally alone, she sings the final verses. She verifies her makeup and leaves her dressing room to take the stage, the last stanza playing in her head as background music. We follow her into the blinding spotlight glare, the finality of her life choices still showing in her face.