Joshua was an old man
his beard like mountain snow
and when i was a boy we'd have jam sessions
i'd sneak off to old sharptop
with my guitar i would go
when i should have been at school
learnin' my lesson
and i'd sip a little moonshine
and i'd smoke a corncob pipe
and we'd pick all day until our fingers bled
and right around supper time
i'd run home in the night
just in time to get a whippin' from my dad
oh way back when
he was 65 and i was 10
and i will never be as free again
oh way back when
the summer flew by quickly
and josh and i spent out time
writing words to songs from memories of his past
he'd tell me bout the way it was
and i'd find the perfect rhyme
and i couldn't believe how we wrote our songs so fast
i never knew an old man
could be so full of life
the love we had was so hard to explain
and i remember how the tears fell when he spoke of his late wife
and i'd give him my 6-string to ease his pain
oh way back when
he was 65 and i was 10
and i will never be as free again
oh way back when
and then in late november
i knocked on his cabin dor
i knocked and knocked but joshua never came
and i still remember
how he layed there on the floor
and i went home cryin' in the rain
oh way back when
he was 65 and i was 10
and i will never be as free again
oh way back when
oh way back when
oh way back when