C               G7         C 
His picture was in all the papers 

They said that a legend had passed 
    F 
The late evening news did a special report 
                                C 
And swore that his memory would last 


They're playing his records all weekend 
             C7           F 
Praising the life that he lived 
                          C 
Nashville is rough on the living 
        G7                        C 
But she really speaks well of the dead 

                   G7          C 
The wife that they interviewed cried 

Is the same one who left him last fall 
        F 
And the record producer who called him a hero 
                                   C 
Is the one who wouldn't answer his calls 


The ladies they sit over coffee 
         C7               F 
Bragging bout sharing his bed 
                                      C 
They didn't want him around when he's living 
         G7                           C 
But he's sure a good friend when he's dead 

     F                          C 
They observed twenty seconds of silence 
       G7               C 
At the Opry on Saturday night 
    F                                  C 
And they're searching the bars and the basements 
    D7                   G7 
For some souvenir of his life 

        C          G7       C 
They're planning a book for September 

Showing his plain country roots 
    F 
Any they're selling the rights to the movie 
                                   C 
And the Hall of Fame's getting his boots 


At the funeral somebody recited a poem 
              C7              F 
That told how he suffered and bled 
                          C 
Nashville is rough on the living 
        G7                        C 
But she really speaks well of the dead 

     F                         C 
Yeah Nashville is rough on the living 
        G7                        C 
But she really speaks well of the dead