Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
Well my name's John Lee Pettimore
Same as my daddy and his daddy before
You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here
He only come to town about twice a year
He'd buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line
Everybody knew that he made moonshine
Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad
Headed up the holler with everything he had
'Fore my time but I've been told
He never come back from Copperhead Road
Now Daddy ran whiskey in a big block Dodge
Bought it at an auction at the Mason's Lodge
Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side
Just shot a coat of primer then he looked inside
Well him and my uncle tore that engine down
I still remember that rumblin' sound
When the Sheriff came around in the middle of the night
Heard mama cryin', knew something wasn't right
He was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load
You could smell the whiskey burnin' down Copperhead Road
I volunteered for the Army on my birthday
They draft the white trash first, 'round here anyway
I done two tours of duty in Vietnam
I came home with a brand new plan
I take the seed from Columbia and Mexico
I just plant it up the holler down Copperhead Road
And now the D.E.A.'s got a chopper in the air
I wake up screaming like I'm back over there
I learned a thing or two from Charlie don't you know
You'd better stay away from Copperhead Road
Copperhead Road
Copperhead Road
Copperhead Road
Same as my daddy and his daddy before
You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here
He only come to town about twice a year
He'd buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line
Everybody knew that he made moonshine
Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad
Headed up the holler with everything he had
'Fore my time but I've been told
He never come back from Copperhead Road
Now Daddy ran whiskey in a big block Dodge
Bought it at an auction at the Mason's Lodge
Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side
Just shot a coat of primer then he looked inside
Well him and my uncle tore that engine down
I still remember that rumblin' sound
When the Sheriff came around in the middle of the night
Heard mama cryin', knew something wasn't right
He was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load
You could smell the whiskey burnin' down Copperhead Road
I volunteered for the Army on my birthday
They draft the white trash first, 'round here anyway
I done two tours of duty in Vietnam
I came home with a brand new plan
I take the seed from Columbia and Mexico
I just plant it up the holler down Copperhead Road
And now the D.E.A.'s got a chopper in the air
I wake up screaming like I'm back over there
I learned a thing or two from Charlie don't you know
You'd better stay away from Copperhead Road
Copperhead Road
Copperhead Road
Copperhead Road
Lyrics submitted by shauncreaney, edited by MacHudde
Copperhead Road Lyrics as written by Steve Earle
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Being from the mountains of NC just across the TN line for many years, and having bought a quart or more ;) of "white", this is what I think Steve Earle's Copperhead Road means ..
FIRST VERSE is talking about John Lee Petemore and how he watched his Daddy & Grandaddy run shine. Most moonshiners would only go to town 2 times a year, which does call a little attention to them. The last run his Grandaddy did, the revenue man was chasing him, and he never came home. Maybe he crashed, maybe the revenue man shot and killed him (not anything out of the ordinary), who knows ... guess we get to use our imagination on that one. SECOND VERSE it's not a Big "Black" Dodge .. it's a Big "BLACK" Dodge ... alot of the sheriff's departments would and still do sell their old cars at auction. So his daddy and uncle bought one, rebuilt the engine that had that "rumblin sound" and ran liquor in it. One night his daddy was going to Knoxville, TN do make his delivery. He crashed either on Copperhead Road, or somewhere else, because corn mash does smell when it's cooking ... guess we use our imagination again. THIRD VERSE, well he didn't volunteer for the army, he is saying that because he was "white trash" that he was drafted for two tours in the Vietnam War and learned how to grow weed, pot, marijuana, etc. and decided to change from making and running shine to growing and selling pot. The DEA has a chopper flying around trying to find his pot he's growing and he wakes up screaming because of flashbacks caused by the DEA chopper. He learned how ol' Charlie set the booby traps and he is warning the DEA to stay away from Copperhead Road because of what will happen.
Also, Copperhead Road is in Hampton Tennessee which is in Carter County. If you want to see where it is, just use whichever map program your computer has and get directions from your address to COPPERHEAD ROAD, HAMPTON, TENNESSEE. Great ride on our Harley ... :)
Without being derogatory - I LOVE this song!! - being Canadian, I did not know what the word "holler" meant as per his lyrics "headed up the HOLLER with everything he had" so I looked it up. One of the on-line dictionaries wrote: <br /> "As a noun, holler has the specific meaning in the Appalachians of "a small valley between mountains": Example: They live up in the holler underneath Big Bald Mountain." It is a another word for "hollow".