When I was a baby, my mama told me son, always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns. But I shot a man in Reno.

As sure as God made black and white, what's done in the dark will be brought to the light.

Until things are brighter.. I'm the man in black.

Flesh and blood needs flesh and blood, and you're the one I need

I worked there [on Pontiac] three weeks, got really sick of it, went back home and joined the Air Force.

In the Air Force, I had an old Wilcox Gay recorder, and I used to hear guitar runs on that recorder going (vocalizing) like the chords on "I Walk The Line." And I always wanted to write a love song using that theme, that tune.

I started to write the song. And I was in Gladewater, Texas, one night with Carl Perkins and I said, I've got a good idea for a song. And I sang him the first verse that I had written, and I said it's called "Because You're Mine." And he said, "I Walk The Line" is a better title, so I changed it to "I Walk The Line."