California Heartbreak (The Ballad of Johnny Jenkins)

Johnny was a poor little kid in a poor Southern town

His mama tried to raise him right but she could not hold him down

The only child of a single mom, his daddy never was around

Johnny was a poor little kid in a poor Southern town

Seemed like Johnny wanted to escape since the day that he was born

In the flesh of that Southern town, that poor boy was their thorn

The police and the preachers called, they always tried to warn

But Johnny’s mom knew that he’d escape since the day that he was born

Johnny met a girl one night, she blew him away

They made plans to move out West in his old school Chevrolet

It all came to a crash when his mom kicked him out one day

He grabbed the girl the blew his mind and they were on their way

When those two kids got to the coast, there was nothing that could make them stop

And then Johnny got arrested for selling drugs to an undercover cop

When Johnny got out of jail, his girl was just about ready to pop

But he cut North before the baby came, ‘cause there was nothing that could make him stop

In his defense, he never had a dad, so he never knew what to do

So when he got to Bakersfield, he formed himself a motorcycle crew

He grew a beard and his hair got long and he got covered up in new tattoos

A little boy without a dad is a man that could come unglued

Now, somewhere there’s a poor little kid in a poor West-coast town whose mama’s trying to raise him right, but she cannot hold him down