His picture was in all the papers
They said that a legend had passed
The late evening news did a special report
And swore that his memory would last
They're playing his records all weekend
Praising the life that he lived
Nashville is rough on the living
But she really speaks well of the dead
The wife that they interviewed cried
Is the same one who left him last fall
And the record producer who called him a hero
Is the one who wouldn't answer his calls
The ladies they sit over coffee
Bragging bout sharing his bed
They didn't want him around when he's living
But he's sure a good friend when he's dead
They observed twenty seconds of silence
At the Opry on Saturday night
And they're searching the bars and the basements
For some souvenir of his life
They're planning a book for September
Showing his plain country roots
Any they're selling the rights to the movie
And the Hall of Fame's getting his boots
At the funeral somebody recited a poem
That told how he suffered and bled
Nashville is rough on the living
But she really speaks well of the dead
Yeah Nashville is rough on the living
But she really speaks well of the dead