The Day I Learned What I Didn’t Know

I’m a high-top oilfield rigger,
Riskin’ my life for pay,
And there ain’t no evenin’ bigger,
Than the darkness on pay day.

I’m makin’ America Great Again,
With black gold from underground,
Being proud ain’t a sin,
When you know you’re lost, and found.

I’m a high-top oilfield rigger,
Riskin’ my life for pay,
And there ain’t no evenin’ bigger,
Than the darkness on pay day.

I fell in love with a country singer.
Not with a man, but with his voice.
When he leaned into that microphone
There weren’t really any choice.

I’m a high-top oilfield rigger,
Riskin’ my life for pay,
And there ain’t no evenin’ bigger,
Than the darkness on pay day.

When I heard him in ’67,
I knew he’d see the light of day.
Chet heard a word from Heaven,
And signed him with RCA.

I’m a high-top oilfield rigger,
Riskin’ my life for pay,
And there ain’t no evenin’ bigger,
Than the darkness on pay day.

I flew the flag of Dixie
From the top of every spire.
And when I’d play his singin’
It was heaven’s own church choir.

I’m a high-top oilfield rigger,
Riskin’ my life for pay,
And there ain’t no evenin’ bigger,
Than the darkness on pay day.

Fifty-two BIG hit songs
Were sold to the highest bidder,
After we saw an album cover
That made us reconsider.

I’m a high-top oilfield rigger,
Riskin’ my life for pay,
And there ain’t no evenin’ bigger,
Than the darkness on pay day.

His songs itched me like chigger.
I climbed up that spire and back.
I was like a finger on a trigger
When I learned Charlie Pride was black.

I’m a high-top oilfield rigger,
Riskin’ my life for pay,
And there ain’t no evenin’ bigger,
Than the darkness on pay day.

I took down that Flag of Dixie
When I learned it didn’t mean
The same thing to my friend Charlie
That it had always meant to me.

© Roy H. Williams, July 12, 2020

Written at 5AM on a Sunday morning after deciding that I would write a second country song in 30 minutes. This time it would be about something that really happened to a person I really know.