A day before he died, I went to see him
They all called his "Sidekick"
Like desperados waitin' for a train
Like desperados waitin' for a train
And I was just a kid
Like desperados waitin' for a train
One day I looked up and he's pushin' eighty

Like desperados waitin' for a train
Like desperados waitin' for a train
He's a drifter and a driller of oil wells
And wonder, "Lord, has ever' well I've drilled run dry?"
Like desperados waitin' for a train
And run his fingers through seventy years of livin'
So we just closed our eyes and dreamed us up a kitchen
"Come on, Jack, that son of a guns are comin' "

I was grown and he was almost gone
To a bar called the Green Frog Cafe
When he's too drunk to
From the time that I could walk he'd take me with him

Like desperados waitin' for a train
We were friends, me and this old man
Like desperados waitin' for a train
To me he's one of the heroes of this country
Lying 'bout their lives while they'd played
Like desperados waitin' for a train
There were old men with beer guts and dominos

And there's brown tobacco stains all down his chin
And sang another verse to that old song
Drinkin' beer and playin' Moon and Forty-two
Like desperados waitin' for a train
So why's he all dressed up like them old men
Like desperados waitin' for a train
And an old school man of the world

And our lives were like some old western movie
And he'd wink and give me money for the girls

Like desperados waitin' for a train
He let me drive his car