tennessee plates

i woke up in a hotel

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 lookin' for a cadillac with tennessee plates

well since i left california baby

things have gotten worse

seems the land of opportunity for me is just a curse

tell that judge in bakersfield

my trial i'll have to wait

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 hotwired

we crossed the mississippi like an oil slick fire

yeah!

yeah if they'd known what we was up to they wouldn't let us in

now we landed in memphis like original sin

elvis presley boulevard to the graceland gates

oh

see we're lookin' for a cadillac with tennessee plates

man

there must have been a dozen of them parked in that garage

there wasn't one lincoln and there wasn't one dodge

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 that wild weekend

anyway he wouldn't care

hell he gave them to his friends

this ain't no hotel i'm writin' you from

the tennessee prison up at brushy mountain

where yours sincerely's doin' five to eight

stampin' out my time makin' tennessee plates