I Wear The Black For Those Who

Come On Boys, You Must Listen Unto Me, Lay Off The Whiskey And Let That Cocaine Be.

My Contract With Mercury Polygram Nashville Was About To Expire. And I Never Had Really Been Happy. The Company, The Record Company, Just Didn't Put Any Promotion Behind Me. I Think One Album, Maybe The Last One I Did, They Pressed 500 Copies. And I Was Just Disgusted With It. And About That Time That I Got To Feeling That Way, Lou Robin, My Manager, Came To Me And Talked To Me About A Man Called Rick Rubin That He Had Been Talking To That Wanted Me To Sign With His Record Company.

When I Hear That Whistle Blowing, I Hang My Head And Cry.

I Started To Write The Song. And I Was In Gladewater, Texas, One Night With Carl Perkins And I Said, I've Got A Good Idea For A Song. And I Sang Him The First Verse That I Had Written, And I Said It's Called "because You're Mine." And He Said, "i Walk The Line" Is A Better Title, So I Changed It To "i Walk The Line."

I've Never Been Accused Of A Felony. I Never Spent Time Behind Bars Except For A Few Overnight Jail Times Back In The Sixties. [but] I Think There's A Little Bit Of A Criminal In All Of Us. Everybody's Done Something They Don't Want Anybody To Know About.