My name is Matthew Shepard
My country is the West
My story is the story
Of the worst that breaks the best
There's a Rocky Mountain closet
That no one wants undone
I left and saw the world
But I came back where I'd begun
Cause it's a question of sitting down
Getting closer to the ground
And smoothing out the rough spots
That'll bruise you where you're soft
My name is Matthew Shepard
My country is the West
My story is the story
There's many know the rest
I was following a smile
When it turned a darker road
Leaving Laramie behind us
And wouldn't let me go
And the air was cold as murder
The ground October-hard
The blows rained down like hammers
On my prayers for pa**ing cars
My name is Matthew Shepard
My country is the West
My story is the story
Of the worst that breaks the best
Cardboard signs around my gravesite
Saying God hates my kind
Same voices I remember hearing
On the night I died
And then there's you who say you love the sinners
You just hate the little things they do
You should know that the hands that bound and beat me
Grew up listening to you
Yeah, my name is Matthew Shepard
My country is the rest
My story is the story
Made Jesus bow his head
When I told it to the shepherd
When he took me to his breast