He came to town with a lot of dreams swapped BMG for KFC
And four strings on his Gibson and now he's frying chicken
He swore someday the world of country music but he held on to his faded dreams
Would be his' his jeans and cowboy hat
He drove a beat up Chevy truck he still leans in that microphone
And he didn't have no money says you want some fries with that
But he was such a god ole boy
Chorus: The last time that I saw him
Back when he was hungry he was singin' down at Tootsie's
He wrote some songs and walked the streets a big tattoo on both his arms
Beggin' folks to listen and his earring was a beauty
Sometimes he crawled just like a snake he said I'm goin' rock' roll
Without a pit to hiss in those guys make all the money
He looked like Garth and sang like Hank from now on you can call me
And everybody loved him the Artist Formerly Known As Hungry
He swore he'd never change a thing back when he was hungry
Back when BMI and CMA were only letters
And R&R was what you took to get to feeling better
And Billboard was a road sign not a chart that came on Monday
Life was oh so simple back then back when he was hungry
And then one day he wrote a song that got someone's attention
The A&R at BMG got J-O-E to listen
Then Joe called James and James called Don
Don called Mrs Hilley and Oermann wrote he's gonna be
The next big hot hillbilly well his record went to Number One
And the good ole boy went crazy he hired a band then fired a band
He toured and then got lazy suddenly he knew it all
The rest of us were dummies he scarcely could remember
Back when he was hungry
Well he married and then he got divorced and met this cute young honey
He thought she craved his body but she only craved his money
She cleaned out his bank account then ran off with his drummer
Left him where he started from back when he was hungry
Well he lost his deal and life got real and he had to give up pickin'