(electronic warbling) (sharp electronic hum) (upbeat strumming) (upbeat alternative folk music playing) ♪ The Van Pelt would go late into the night ♪ ♪ Intellectuals and artists and socialites ♪ ♪ Grown-ups getting wasted and eating appetizers ♪ ♪ And me, I was only eight years old ♪ ♪ Watching everyone line up at the punch bowl ♪ ♪ Allegations of things about which we didn't know yet ♪ ♪ Artifacts and art filled up where they lived ♪ ♪ Hardwood floors and antique rugs ♪ ♪ Where drinks were spilled ♪ ♪ Punch and mistletoe, stolen kisses, stolen pills ♪ ♪ I surmised, holding court alone upstairs ♪ ♪ The complexities of dirty jokes and grown-up love affairs ♪ ♪ Secrets spill out amongst the Christmas cheer ♪ ♪ By fourteen, I figured out that no one else would notice ♪ ♪ Helped myself to Christmas punch and silently got loaded ♪ ♪ Jokes would all get funnier, the jokes was duly noted ♪ ♪ Lookin' out car windows, heading home ♪ ♪ 2 AM ♪ ♪ Christmas morning ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ 2 AM ♪ ♪ Christmas morning ♪ ♪ The Van Pelt house stood high upon the hill ♪ ♪ A block from University, I guess it's standing there ♪ ♪ Haven't been in a long time ♪ ♪ The hands of time will kill you ♪ ♪ The hands of time will kill you ♪ ♪ And they're gone and I've moved along ♪ ♪ To punch bowls and drunken Christmas parties of my own ♪ ♪ Somehow less mysterious now that I am grown ♪ ♪ Now that I'm grown with kids of my own ♪ ♪ The hands of my youth are making me atone ♪ ♪ The hands of time, they're still in punch ♪ ♪ I miss those Van Pelt parties so much, woo ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ (upbeat alternative folk music continues) (upbeat alternative folk music continues) ♪ Yo ♪ (folk music softly fades) (guitar strumming) (guitar continues strumming) ♪ I killed Oscar, shot him in the head ♪ ♪ Put the gun in his mouth, watched his brains fly out ♪ ♪ So my worries faded as the hole got bigger ♪ ♪ Solved all my problems with a trigger ♪ ♪ I don't need forgiveness for my sins ♪ ♪ I don't need redemption for my sins ♪ ♪ Got the satisfaction of a job well done ♪ ♪ With my own bare hands ♪ (southern rock music) (southern rock music continues) ♪ Oscar, Oscar was destroying me ♪ ♪ I killed Oscar, burden lifted off of me ♪ ♪ I killed Oscar, now I'm happy, happy, happy ♪ ♪ I killed Oscar before he killed me ♪ ♪ I killed Oscar before he killed me ♪ (southern rock music continues) ♪ I don't need forgiveness for my sins ♪ ♪ I don't need redemption for my sins ♪ ♪ I don't need salvation 'cause I saved myself ♪ ♪ I don't need your help because I helped myself ♪ ♪ Woo ♪ ♪ I don't need nobody trying to save, save, save me ♪ ♪ I killed Oscar and I forgave me ♪ ♪ I killed Oscar and I forgave me ♪ ♪ I killed Oscar and I forgave me ♪ (southern rock music continues) (southern rock music continues) (southern rock music ends in flourish) (guitar plucking) (audience cheering and applauding) I think we might have a friend that's gonna join us for a song if... (audience cheers and applauds) Y'all know this good-lookin'.

(audience applauds) We've been playing together for 40 years this August.

Isn't that something?

(audience cheers) [Audience Member] It's the guy from the day job!

(Patterson laughs) (guitar playing) Alright, here we go.

(guitar plucking) ♪ (soft country folk music) ♪ (soft country folk music continues) (soft country folk music continues) ♪ Something 'bout the wrinkle in your forehead ♪ ♪ Tells me there's a fit 'bout to get thrown ♪ ♪ If we get the van out of the ditch before mornin' ♪ ♪ Ain't nobody gotta know 'bout what I done ♪ ♪ And I never hear a single word you say ♪ ♪ When you tell me not to have my fun ♪ ♪ It's the same old that ain't gonna take off anyone ♪ ♪ And I don't need to be forgiven ♪ ♪ By them people in the neighborhood ♪ ♪ When we first hooked up, you looked me in the eye ♪ ♪ You said "Paw, we just ain't no good."

♪ ♪ We were heathens in their eyes at the time ♪ ♪ I guess I'm just a heathen, still ♪ ♪ And I never have repented for the wrongs you say I've done ♪ ♪ Done what I feel ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ (soft country folk music continues) ♪ It was a difficult delivery ♪ ♪ Now he's growing up mean and strong ♪ ♪ When you tell me that it's getting just a little bit tight ♪ ♪ Ain't the first time I been outgrown ♪ ♪ And now I'm gonna push a little harder ♪ ♪ She ain't revved till the rods are thrown ♪ ♪ I'll walk away ♪ (soft country folk music continues) ♪ And I don't need to be forsaken ♪ ♪ By you or anybody else ♪ ♪ And I never had a shortage of people tryin' to warn me ♪ ♪ Of the dangers I pose to myself ♪ ♪ Heathens ♪ (guitar melodically strumming) ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ These times can take their toll sometimes ♪ ♪ And I know you feel the same way too ♪ ♪ It just gets so hard to keep between the ditches ♪ ♪ When the roads wind the way they do ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ (soft country folk music continues) (soft country folk music continues) (soft country folk music continues) (audience cheers and applauds) The Stroker Ace!

(Patterson laughs) Thank you!

(audience cheers and applauds) [Audience Member 2] Thanks a lot!

Thank you, brother!

I told him to grab his banjo and get in the sprinter tonight, and we'll head to Nashville, so who knows?

So, when I was a little kid, from the time I was like, basically still an infant until right around the time I got my driver's license and then I got busy chasing girls and drinking and driving, but, before that, I spent basically every weekend of my life out at my great uncle's farm.

And he lived in McGee Town, which isn't really a town.

It was basically two stop signs about eight miles northwest of Florence, Alabama where I grew up.

And back before they built the highway to get out there, you drove down this really, really creepy, windy road that looked like something out of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", and you would drive the eight miles to this windy road and on the right, you would pass this giant plantation house.

And after you'd pass the house, then you'd go across this really creepy one-lane bridge that all the locals called Ghost Bridge.

And George, my great uncle, we would stop some nights when it was really dark or foggy and kind of extra creepy, he would stop the car and turn it off, and we'd roll down the windows, and he'd say, "Let's see if we can see the headless guy that floats up and down Cypress Creek about right here."

Y'all live on Cypress Creek.

Have you seen the headless guy yet?

[Audience Member 3] A few times.

A few times?

Yeah.

Yeah.

-Well, yeah!

-(audience laughs) You better believe I saw him!

He's like, "I think that might be him."

I was like, "Yeah, I think so, too!"

But when I was two years old, a cluster of lightning... You ever heard of a cluster of lightning?

It's like, multiple lightning bolts at once hit that house.

The house burned down to the ground in five minutes flat, leaving nothing but the great big columns, and the columns are still there, and it's called the Forks of Cypress.

(soft guitar strumming) (soft, slow acoustic music) (soft, slow acoustic music continues) ♪ Twilight in the field as the rains came pouring down ♪ ♪ I waited for your call then drove back into town ♪ ♪ Blood red and golden leaves were falling to the ground ♪ ♪ Cinematic wet streets reflect the clouds ♪ ♪ Wait until morning and I will meet you there ♪ ♪ Even when it's storming, there's sunlight in your hair ♪ ♪ I'll bask in your splendor and your scent upon the air ♪ ♪ Past the Forks of Cypress ♪ ♪ We walk through the trails past the pond on fallen leaves ♪ ♪ Where the panther saw his own reflection in my dreams ♪ ♪ Watching us making love upon the cold hard ground ♪ ♪ Buried in the red clay so freshly plowed ♪ ♪ Threw my coat into the back seat and I drove into town ♪ ♪ Past the Forks of Cypress and the road that wraps around ♪ ♪ The bottomland and one lane bridge before the new highway ♪ ♪ A new life built of all the folks that paved the way ♪ ♪ No one had better ask me and I would never tell ♪ ♪ Something so forbidden, I'll carry it to hell ♪ ♪ And burn it down there with me ♪ ♪ With lips that speak profane ♪ ♪ A love that burned as hot as my secret shame ♪ ♪ Falls that lead to winters into springs and summers green ♪ ♪ The one who shook me most fertilized the ground, serene ♪ ♪ Hazel eyes and blood, beckoning to speak thy name ♪ (soft, slow acoustic music continues) ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ (soft, slow acoustic music continues) (soft, slow acoustic music continues) (gentle guitar strumming) (gentle guitar strumming continues) ♪ My secret shame that haunts me in my dream ♪ ♪ Stalking like the panther in the soybean ♪ ♪ Ghosts that haunt me still as my bones rest in the field ♪ ♪ Past the Forks of Cypress ♪ ♪ Past the Forks of Cypress ♪ ♪ Past the Forks of Cypress ♪ (gentle guitar strumming continues) -(audience cheers and applauds) -Thank you!

This is a song about, well, it's about a lot of things, but this song is the last song on the record, but in the timeline of this record, it's like the first song.

And it is, I'm seven years old and like, as I've gotten old, and I turned 61 this week, -as I've gotten older, -(audience cheers) it's dawned on me that I'm a little bit obsessive.

And, duh, I didn't know that!

And so, you know, now that I have kids, it's like, I'll learn all these things about myself -based on their diagnoses, -(audience laughs) and like, "Hmm, never heard of, you know, sensory, what is it called?

[Audience Member 4] Processing Disorder?

Sensory Processing Disorder.

Okay, that explains a whole lot.

(chuckles) But anyway, I think the first thing I was ever obsessed with was my dad's Beetle records, 'cause one of my earliest memories is being three years old, and he had just come from the record store and he had bought "Magical Mystery Tour", which had come out that day.

And he opened it, and I remember looking through the booklet with all the pictures of all the, you know, they're all in the animal costumes, and "In Strawberry Fields Forever" is playing, and I'm like, "This is the coolest in the world."

But the second thing I ever got obsessed with was Walt Disney's "Pinocchio", and it came out in 1940, but they re-released it to the theaters when I was seven years old, the summer right after my first grade year.

And I wanted to see it over, and over, and over, but in my day, to go to a movie over and over, you had to talk some grownups into taking you to see that movie over, and over, and over.

But, you know, but grandmothers and great uncles are really good about that, so I saw it so many times, I memorized it, and I would act it out for the kids in the neighborhood, in my grandmother's neighborhood, in her backyard.

-And they hated it.

-(audience laughs) I learned a lot about bad reviews at a young age.

This song's called "Pinocchio".

(gentle melodic strumming) ♪ Life's a hard lesson that keeps piling on ♪ ♪ Trying to learn which star to wish upon ♪ ♪ Wish upon a star like Geppetto did ♪ ♪ Turn this block of wood into a well-formed kid ♪ ♪ Trying to figure out like a sad detective ♪ ♪ Pushing out thoughts like my brain's defective ♪ ♪ Pushing out words from my ill-formed mouth ♪ ♪ Trying to see the light when the sun hides out ♪ ♪ Trying to see the light like a Rundgren song ♪ ♪ Standing in the darkness, trying to sing along ♪ ♪ Raise our voice to heaven so our friends will hear ♪ ♪ Then pull a little softer just to pull them near ♪ ♪ Life's a hard lesson but it's always reaching ♪ ♪ Arms ain't long enough but they're always teaching ♪ ♪ Just reaching for a line that can save my soul ♪ ♪ Spending all my favors just to pay my toll ♪ ♪ Pay my toll, it's getting kinda old ♪ ♪ Lookin' for the truth like Pinocchio ♪ ♪ It's a whale of a tale with so many miles to go ♪ ♪ But I get a little closer each day to my long-term goal ♪ (soft, slow acoustic music continues) ♪ Trying to get a grip on my constant ♪ ♪ Heaven is a house with a modern kitchen ♪ ♪ Heaven is the pace of a slow news day ♪ ♪ A closer look at someone with a lot to say ♪ ♪ A closer look at someone in the morning's light ♪ ♪ Yellow sunglasses make my mood just right ♪ ♪ The devil's in the details but pull us through ♪ ♪ 'Til my blue fairy makes my wish come true ♪ ♪ I've learned that Heaven ain't Pleasure Island ♪ ♪ More to teaching love than to keeping on smiling ♪ ♪ Truth can hurt a lot, but a lie destroys ♪ ♪ Deep inside of every man is a real live boy ♪ (soft, slow acoustic music continues) -(audience cheers and applauds) -Thank you!