Matt Shadows their lead singer says the song was written as per request from the developers of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Watching the initial trailers for the game & looking at production sketches reminded him of the 'S-Town' podcast & its main protagonist, John B. McLemore. Matt also comments specifically on the lyrics: "I decided that the lyrics would shadow McLemore's life." In 2012, antiquarian horologist John B. McLemore sent an email to the staff of the show 'This American Life' asking them to investigate an alleged murder in his hometown of Woodstock, Alabama, a place McLemore claimed to despise. After a year of exchanging emails & several months of conversation with McLemore, producer Brian Reed traveled to Woodstock to investigate. Reed investigated the crime & eventually found that no such murder took place, though he struck up a friendship with the depressed but colorful character of McLemore. He recorded conversations with McLemore & other people in Woodstock. McLemore killed himself by drinking potassium cyanide on June 22, 2015 while the podcast was still in production. In the narrative of the podcast, this occurs at the end of the second episode; subsequent episodes deal with the fallout from McLemore's death while exploring more of McLemore's life & character.
Well you wouldn't read my letters
If I wrote you
You urged me not to call you on the phone
There's something I've been waiting
For to tell you
So I wrote it in the words of this song
You never knew there were honky tonk angels
Or you might have known
I'd never make a wife
You walked out on the only one
Who ever loved you
So I went on back to the wild side of life
Now the climate of all the good life
Oh has led me
To the places where the wine
And the liquor flow
I tried to be your one and only angel
But I'm not that kind of angel heaven knows
No no no no
I cried so hard
The day you went and left me
'Cause the things you said
They cut me like a knife
What you wanted was another kind of angel
And you sent me back to the wild side or life, no
Well I'm just some trussed up honky tonk angel
And I might have known
I'd never make a wife
Well you left the only one
Who ever loved you
And I'm back here on the wild side of life
I'm only a honky tonk angel
And I might have known I'd never make a wife
You walked out on the only one
Who ever loved you
And you left me here
On the wild side of life
If I wrote you
You urged me not to call you on the phone
There's something I've been waiting
For to tell you
So I wrote it in the words of this song
You never knew there were honky tonk angels
Or you might have known
I'd never make a wife
You walked out on the only one
Who ever loved you
So I went on back to the wild side of life
Now the climate of all the good life
Oh has led me
To the places where the wine
And the liquor flow
I tried to be your one and only angel
But I'm not that kind of angel heaven knows
No no no no
I cried so hard
The day you went and left me
'Cause the things you said
They cut me like a knife
What you wanted was another kind of angel
And you sent me back to the wild side or life, no
Well I'm just some trussed up honky tonk angel
And I might have known
I'd never make a wife
Well you left the only one
Who ever loved you
And I'm back here on the wild side of life
I'm only a honky tonk angel
And I might have known I'd never make a wife
You walked out on the only one
Who ever loved you
And you left me here
On the wild side of life
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