20 years ago  Jeffrey Steele    I was at that smart ass time of my life  I’d pick a fight just to pick a fight  He said black I said white  If he took one side I took the other side  Dinner table we sat around was   More like a battleground  Where I lost more times than I won  Wouldn’t learn til later on  He was always preachin about his past  I just kept screamin’ come on dad    That was 20 years ago you don’t know me at all  Trying to talk to you is like talking to a wall  Yea you gave me my life but its my life to live  And maybe I don’t wanna live it like you did  20 years ago    He was built from blue collar sweat and blood  Square jaw and a crew cut a purple heart a Viet vet  And he’d tell you every chance he’d get  Always runnin’ down my rock & roll  My friends, my hair, and my clothes  Til it all got out of control  And one night it finally came to blows  That was just enough to get me gone  I couldn’t wait to prove him wrong    20 years ago I struck out on my own  He couldn’t tell me nothin’  I didn’t already know  Yea I was on my way  So what the hell did I care  With my old man and his gray hair  Thought about the road I chose  20 years ago    (spoken)  I left as fast as the leaves fell that autum I never looked back and I never once called him  But every time I talked to moma I wondered if he was there  Or if he even cared I figured I walked out on him and the course of our love  Had run moma said no no you listen to me son he’s a stubborn man and he won’t give in  He believes what he believes and you’re just like him And I could tell by her voice there was something wrong she broke down  and said he ain’t got long So I caught the next plane home thought about all the years gone And how my pride had let so much  time go by ran up those stairs and I stood by his bed and cried    20 years ago I thought I knew it all  but tryin to talk to me is like talking to a wall  Yea thought I was a man but actin’ like I did  But all I want right now is just to be your kid  And just before my dad gave up the ghost   He took my hand and said son let it go  That was 20 years ago  20 years ago