Story Behind the Song
One day at Lisa’s(my upright bass player) studio, she showed me this new thing she had worked up on the bass. I remember how my jaw just hit the floor while she was rockin’ out on this beat, and I swore I would write a song where we could make use of that lick.
Months later, I was running around on a Saturday night with my buddies, Ben & Cody, when I took them to find the Ridgetop, TN train tunnel. I only wanted to look at it, but we couldn’t leave without walking through it. It is about a mile long, and not that wide at all. We figured that we wouldn’t run into a train at 1:00 AM, but we figured wrong. Half-way through the tunnel, we saw a light headed our way, and there was no way we were getting out before the train reached us. We immediately got off to the side of the tracks, and stood in 5 or 6 inches of ditch water, with our backs against the wall. You know what’s worst than being in between a rock and a hard place? Being between a rock and a train headed your way!
I will never forget the rush I felt as that train came closer and closer to us. The whistle was amplified by the tunnel walls, and nearly blew my eardrums as the sound of the engines rumbled my soul. Then the front of the train passed, we were surrounded by pitch darkness, and the remaining mile of passing and screeching railroad cars. I opened up my cell phone for light at one point, and I realized that if I reached my arms straight out, my hands would be knocked off by the train. That is how close we were.
As soon as the train passed, me and my buddies said “That was awesome!” We were ok, so now it was cool. Not long after that, Ben fell in between the tracks, and skinned his leg. While he was trying to get out of the unexpected hole, another train let us know he was coming! We went through the same drill as the last one, and once again the train rumbled by. We felt relieved that nobody was hurt. By the time we got to the other side of the tunnel, we decided to walk over the ridge, instead of going back through.
By the time we got the the car, we were chased by junkyard dogs, and picked up by cop. After explaining why were wondering around in the town at 2:30 AM, with mud on our pants, we were scolded for being so crazy, but no charges were filed. It was a night that we will never forget, and one that we often look back on with a laugh.
After that experience, my mom told me a story about a young man that committed suicide by stepping out in front of a train. The engineer had to live with the memory of the victim’s last glance, the lost eyes looked right up at his before he died.
All these events led to the creation of this song. I just tried to pay tribute to the engineer’s that can only hope people respect the railroad, and understand the dangers involved with tempting fate. We didn’t respect it the proper way that night, but I do now. Some engineer that travels between Louisville and Nashville earned that respect from me, so, here is a song for them. Plus, I finally found a song that Lisa could do her bass thing in. |
