Songfacts®:

• This song is sung from the perspective of a young man who wants to escape his town. It's a very American sentiment, as the country has so much opportunity, but many people lack the means to ever leave their small towns. The character in this story has a brother who got out by earning a football scholarship, but he is stuck working at the gas station and dreams of one day driving away in his Chevy.
  
  The song is similar in theme to many of Bruce Springsteen's compositions, including "Racing In The Street," and the Muppets classic "Rainbow Connection," where Kermit dreams of leaving the swamp - Steve Earle even uses the rainbow image in the line, "I wanna know what's over that rainbow." >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Dan - Saint Paul, MN
• Before making it as a solo artist, Steve Earle was part of a three-piece rockabilly band that did a lot of touring. It was on one of their touring adventures that this song came to life.
  
  "I pulled into this gas station in the middle of the night," Earle told Rolling Stone. "I'd just forgotten to get gas and was headed out to Texas and I realized I'd left without filling up. So we were trying to find some place open with gas; there wasn't a truck stop at every exit in those days. I found a gas station that wasn't technically open. It was about a mile off the road, two miles; it wasn't as much as I probably sing about in the song. But we had to look for it... And there was a kid working on his own car in the bay in this gas station and he worked there. He was technically supposed to be closed. But we got him to give us some gas and that kid, workin' on his own hot rod, I just started putting words in his mouth."
• The song is part of Steve Earle's debut album, Guitar Town, released in 1986 when he was 31 - well past the traditional sell-by date for new artists. His 11 years toiling away in Nashville before the album was finally released gave him a kind of road-worn wisdom that served him well.