From the recording Backroads and Backstories
Man Out of Me is a reflective, hard-earned country song about becoming who you are through everything that didn’t go as planned. It’s an honest look at a life shaped by busted dreams, broken things, and scars that each carry a story of their own.
The song doesn’t glorify the struggle—but it doesn’t deny it either. Every wrong turn, every loss, and every hard lesson leaves its mark, and together they form something solid and real. It may not look like much from the outside, but it’s earned.
Grounded, sincere, and emotionally steady, Man Out of Me is about accepting the past without apology and recognizing that even the failures had a purpose—because in the end, they all made a man out of me.
Lyrics
I got my first six-string at ten years old
Played Folsom Prison till the strings went dull
Grandma’s double-wide and her Johnny Cash 45s
Fished on the lake and rolled spark in the dark
Drank Jack on Fridays tryin’ to fill my heart
Seventeen came and God came near
I quit smokin’ cigarettes that next year
It don’t look like much but it’s me
Every busted dream, every broken thing
Built the life I was meant to lead
I ain’t proud of all my history
Every scar’s got a memory
But it all made a man out of me
Dad’s Ford truck taught me stick shift and grace
Six wrecks in, I learned to step on the brakes
Had a few girlfriends but just the best one stayed
My brother got the brains and the hand-me-downs
I got a broken nose, he got the cap and gown
We laugh about it now over a beer or three
Yeah, the good Lord knew what to do with me
It don’t look like much but it’s me
Every busted dream, every broken thing
Built the life I was meant to lead
I ain’t proud of all my history
Every scar’s got a memory
But it all made a man out of me
I’ve been lost and I’ve been found
Was headed for six feet down
But grace ain’t cheap, it’s just free
And thank the Man upstairs it found me