Andy Budd

Lyrics

COPYRIGHT 2007 – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

When I was five-years-old, I had a green pedal car, I'd race it down the hall. / My Daddy'd say "Son, woncha please slow it down, before you kill us all" / My momma'd say "He's just his Daddy's boy, two speeds are all that he knows, / Full Speed Ahead or Sound Asleep that's how my story goes.

When I turned nine I got a brand new bike and man, she was really neat / Bright cherry-red with a chrome sissy bar and a big long banana seat / I pedal real hard, get up to full speed and throw her into a turn / Slam on the brakes, leave a big skid mark, man, smell that rubber burn.

'CAUSE I'M ONE OF THOSE WHO KNOWS THAT LIFE'S JUST DESTINY AND FATE / SO, I STEP ON THE GAS AND GIVE IT ALL I'VE GOT, I'M NOT ONE TO HESITATE / AND MY DADDY USED TO SAY TO ME "SON, LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP" / BUT, I'D RATHER LIVE ONE DAY LIKE A LION, THAN A THOUSAND DAYS LIKE A SHEEP

Now, I’m all grown up, I've got hot rod Chevy, racin' down the inter-state / My girl says "baby, please slow down, let's not test your fate" / And I say darlin' it'll be alright, we're gonna be just fine. / Full speed ahead is how I live my life, I sure hope you don't mind.

Now when I get older, and I'm not sure I will, but if I do, I'll be driving fast / 'Cause, life's too short for the slow lane baby, I'm steppin' on the gas / Full speed ahead, is all I know and there's things I don't wanna miss / So, here we go baby, hang on tight, Hold my beer and watch this!

'CAUSE I'M ONE OF THOSE WHO KNOWS THAT LIFE'S JUST DESTINY AND FATE / SO, I STEP ON THE GAS AND GIVE IT ALL I'VE GOT, I'M NOT ONE TO HESITATE / AND I KNOW THAT THERE ARE THOSE WHO SAY, LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP" / BUT, I'D RATHER LIVE ONE DAY LIKE A LION, THAN A THOUSAND DAYS LIKE A SHEEP

YEAH, I'D RATHER LIVE ONE DAY LIKE A LION, THAN A THOUSAND DAYS LIKE A SHEEP


STORY BEHIND THE SONG: - I was like most young boys, My mom used to say, “he’s only got two speeds, full speed ahead or sound asleep”

My dad was a US Marine, a real disciplined and controlled kind of guy, which is not to say that he wasnt creative too , he was, his father and his grandmother were artists, but he was more like an architect than a painter. Anyway, I just don’t fit that mold. I’m more of a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy. I get a wild hair to run off and do something, I just do it. So, when I would just run off and do something, and it didn’t work out ( which was frequently the case ) my dad would say “Son, you’ll save yourself a lot of frustration and disappointment in life if you’ll just look before you leap.”And I’d be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever you say dad.

One day when I was about 12 years old and we were living in Hawaii and I was out surfing I had what I have since learned was an NDE (Near Death Experience). I wiped out really bad on this huge wave. It crashed down on me and knocked the wind out of me and pushed me under, and just pounded me on the sand under the water and I couldn’t get to the surface for air and just as I was about to suck in the water and drown, a real peaceful feeling came over me and it was like I was relaxed and watching a movie of my life my whole life every single second of my existence was played out in front of me like it was on big movie screen. It was so incredible, so impossible to be happening in this brief moment. Next thing I knew the movie was over, and the screen went black, and I opened my mouth to suck in some air and I miraculously popped up out of the surf and was washed ashore.

I was so scared. When I was able to catch my breath, I ran up to where my mom was sunning and reading her book and I excitedly started telling her about what happened. I told her that I had almost drowned and that my whole life flashed across this big movie screen and……she just looked at me and said, “Well looks like you survived” and she went back to reading her book.

I can’t explain why, but ever since that day I have not been too afraid of anything. I tend to take bigger chances than other people I know. I don’t worry about much. I just figure things will turn out as they should that life is just destiny and fate.

Later in life I read this old Roman proverb “’tis better to have lived one day as a lion, than one thousand days as a sheep”

And I thought, boy, aint that the truth.