I watched you hold court with
the graduate class of your fan club
Those same tired stories at
the end of your favorite bar
And to give them a bit of suspense
You tell them in the present tense
As if you believe that's the per
son you somehow still are
The assumption was always that
you were a little too special
to pay the same share of
the dues that all of us owe.
You convinced us to change up the plan
And prepare the road for the man
Instead of just simply prepar
ing the man for the road
Well, everything goes out of fashion
You went way over that hill
You couldn't go on as it has been
You had to be king of the never -wills
You used to say that my beers
were a bit too expensive
To get to the heart of what drove
a true seeker to drink
And after we both forced a laugh,
your eyes tried to take that joke back .
Once you could tell that I knew,
that's what you really think.
Well, how did this catastrophe happen
And why is it happening still?
You couldn't go on as it has been
You had to be king of the never -wills
As we walked to my car,
we both heard a small pack of coyotes
Telling the neighborhood they
all found something to eat
And after the howls died away
You sobered up only to say
It's too late to be anything
we never wanted to be
I dropped you at
Hillhurst and
Franklin
To let the long night go in for the kill
You couldn't go on as it has been
You had me king of the never -wills
And now you're the heart of a story
That goes on without you
We've distilled your whole person
to only the best memories
You're a fixture at all open mics
The kids ask me if we were alike
But when I look in the mirror,
yours is the face that I see
And it's worse than I could
have imagined
As I lift up my glass to get filled
I refuse to go on as it has been I'd
rather be king of the never -wills
I'd rather be king of the never -will s
I'd rather be king of the never -wills
you