I woke up in a hotel and didn't know what to do

I turned the TV on, wrote a letter to you

The news was talkin' 'bout a dead man upon the interstate

Seems they were lookin' for a Cadillac with Tennessee plates Well since I left California, baby, things have gotten worse

Seems the land of opportunity for me it's just a curse

Tell that judge in Bakersfield my trial'll have to wait

Down here they're lookin' for a Cadillac with Tennessee plates It was somewhere in Nevada, it was cold outside

She was shiverin' in the dark, so I offered her a ride

Three bank jobs later, four cars hot wired

We crossed the Mississippi like an oil slick fire If they'd known what we was up to they wouldn't let us in

And now we landed in Memphis like original sin

Elvis Presley Boulevard to the Graceland gates

See we were lookin' for a Cadillac with Tennessee plates Well, there must have been a dozen of them parked in that garage

And there wasn't one Lincoln and there wasn't one Dodge

And there wasn't one Japanese model or make

Just pretty, pretty Cadillacs with Tennessee plates She saw him singing once when she was seventeen

And ever since that day she's been living in between

I was never king of nothin' but this wild weekend

Anyway he wouldn't care, hell, he gave them to his friends This ain't no hotel I'm writin' you from

I'm at the Tennessee prison up at Brushy Mountain

Where yours sincerely's doin' five to eight

I'm just stampin' out my time makin' Tennessee plates