He played guitar in a honky-tonk band He drank Jack Daniels, black label brand He was the life of the party till they closed down the bar In the eyes of a young boy, he was a star He'd say, "Son, don't you run down the roads that I've run And don't go and sing all the songs that I've sung 'Cause this kind of livin' takes its toll on a man And through the smoke and the neon I saw it first hand I got the lowdown on the high-life but still here I am" The blues and the bottle held him under their spell Took him to heaven and put us through hell Well, sometimes I feel him up on this stage His restless spirit still runs through my veins He'd say, "Son, don't you run down the roads that I've run And don't go and sing all the songs that I've sung 'Cause this kind of livin' takes its toll on a man And through the smoke and the neon I saw it first hand I got the lowdown on the high-life but still here I am I got the lowdown on the high-life but still here I am"