Y'all don't think I'm the Music King?
Let me show you the show.
Yes, I rhymed "show" with "show."
That's a double feature.
Bird, turd... wait.
Somebody take this man's thesaurus.
All right. Joke's over.
Keep the mic on.
I put the crown on crooked just to make the room relax,
Then put a pocket in the beat and parked a Buick in the gap.
Gladwin in the rearview, Michigan inside my chest,
I learned to make an entrance when the door said, "Try the next."
My first crown came with fries. I respect the apprenticeship.
Now I bend the bar till the drummer has to pencil it in.
Got a laugh in my left lung, got a storm in my right,
I can turn a cheap joke till it catches the light.
Little stutter, little stumble, let it tumble into time,
Put the flaw against the snare and make the accident a rhyme.
They said, "Pick a lane." I said, "The band needs room."
Bass backed in. Beep, beep, boom.
I got big dreams packed in a small-town trunk,
And a laugh that starts on the wrong beat. Funk.
But beneath all the clowning, there's a kid at the keys
Who could finally say something when he learned how to sing.
Let the cheap seats hear my name.
Let the front row feel the same.
If a crown can't lift this room,
What's a crown supposed to do?
King of Music, let it ring!
I want the walls to learn to sing.
Hands up high, let it go,
I said I'd show you the show.
If you came here feeling small,
Sing so loud you shake it off.
Who gets a voice? We all do.
I make the room. You make it move.
Watch the consonants ricochet, click into place,
Then I loosen up the syllables and give the chorus space.
I can sprint through a sentence, take the bend on a dime,
Then leave one word waiting till you lean into the line.
Stay.
See? I don't have to fill it.
Silence got a solo and the motherfucker killed it.
I cracked a high note; heard the room pick up the rest.
A hundred strangers carried what got caught inside my chest.
That's a hell of a choir for a crowd that came to doubt.
Now the bouncer knows the hook and he's singing it out.
Shoulders start dropping, everybody knows the tune,
Now a room full of strangers has a thing they can do.
Queen Moon, keep your own light; I can see it from the floor.
We can build a bigger stage without a smaller part for yours.
I'm not here to make your favorite disappear.
There's another chair ready. Pull it over here.
Royal announcement:
The throne's a folding chair.
The crown came free with dinner.
But the song? We built that here.
There's a kid in the back with a song in his teeth,
Swallows it down when they ask him to speak.
I know that mouth. I know that ache.
I know how long a laugh can take
To turn from a shield to a hand held out.
Come on, kid. Let the first note out.
It can crack. It can shake.
There's a whole damn band that'll wait.
So call me King of Music when the small voice gets heard,
When the joke opens a door and the hurt finds a word.
When the song leaves the speakers and it rides with you home,
When you sing at a red light like you're not alone.
I can carry a melody. I can move this room.
If the roof stays put, we got work left to do.
Nelson Ryan Knill, let the record show:
I came with a bad rhyme. Watch how far it goes.
King of Music, let it ring!
I want the walls to learn to sing.
Hands up high, let it go,
I said I'd show you the show.
If you came here feeling small,
Sing so loud you shake it off.
Who gets a voice? We all do.
I make the room. You make it move.
Show you the show.
Show you the show.
Show you the show.
Show you the show.
Show you the show.
Still counts.
Sing it on your way home.
The voice. The light.
The spark. The storm.
