I was only nineteen   The morning you were born   With your hair fine and red   And your eyes like my own      Barely a woman   With only a song   I sang to make you smile   And held you all night long      Home through the streets   With you in my arms   Cold winter mornings   In a Colorado town      I've seen you stumble   You've watched me fall   You know I've got nothing   You know we've got it all      Trucks roll by and the rain coming down   Does that old parka keep you dry?   Sixteen years old out on the road   Trying to get to the sky      Back in September   You called me on the phone   "Ma, you know I love you   But I gotta be own my own"      "Comes a time in a boy's life   When he's got to be a man   Please don't try to find me   Please try to understand"      Now he's playing guitar   In a rock and roll band   Looking like a baby   Talking like a man      The life of a guitar man   Is a hard life to live   What can I tell you   You were born to the breed      Rain comes down, the trucks rolling by   I that old poncho gonna keep you dry?   Sixteen years old, January child   Trying to get to the sky      I've watched you growing   Through all these years   You've seen me stumble   I've watched your tears      Sometimes there was roses   Sometimes there was thorns   But I know you're gonna make it   As sure as you were born      And I hope from what you wanted   You get what you need   I know you're gonna make it   You were born to the breed   Sixteen years old, January child   Trying to get to the sky