When you're sitting around at age nineteen
Talking about where you wanna be
In five years, just five short years
It usually means where you're gonna end up
Who you'll be with and will it be love
Will you have yourself together better than you do right now
That's all fine, yeah, that's okay
But really in the big grand scheme of things
When you start staring down the decades
Where you're bound to end up someday
It really makes you ask some different questions
What they gonna say about me
If I live to be
Ninety-seven?
I've been told my whole life
Boy, you got your grandpa's eyes
Never knew what that meant
Till I looked deep in 'em
The more I live the more I discover
They were never talking about color
It was all about me figuring out who I'm growing up to be
All that other stuff's fine, yeah, that's okay
'Cause really in the big grand scheme of things
When you start staring down the decades
Where you're bound to end up someday
It really makes you ask some different questions
What they gonna say about me
If I live to be
Ninety-seven?
Will they say I was good?
Will they say I was kind?
Will they say I never left a single friend behind?
Will they say I had honor
Through hell or high water?
That I was loyal as a husband and a father?
Will they say I was brave?
That I stood my ground?
That I had compassion for the ones the world threw down?
I really wanna be that now, I really wanna be that now
All other stuff is fine, it's okay
'Cause really in the big grand scheme of things
When you start staring down the decades
Where I'm bound to end up someday
Really makes me ask some different questions
What'll they say about me if I live to be
Even half the man at the roots of this family tree
What they gonna say about me?
Hope there's no question
When I'm Ninety-seven?