The song was inspired by an incident Keith experienced at a bar in the early 90s. According to Keith: “This highway patrolman who I had met on the trip, his name was John, he jumps up. He was probably 45 or 50 back then, and he runs over to this 25-year-old cowgirl. He was going to show that he could bust a move. She turns him down. He comes over, and said, ‘She says she doesn’t dance.’ About 15 minutes later, a young cowboy comes in — and off they go on the dance floor. Everybody was making fun of him, and one of the guys said, ‘John, I guess you should have been a cowboy.’ ” The lyrics romanticize the
cowboy lifestyle through references to old
Westerns. The first verse references
Gunsmoke, in which cowboy hero
Marshal Dillon never settled down with his love interest Miss Kitty. The second verse tells of his own adventures if the narrator were a cowboy, such as having "a sidekick with a funny name" (possibly a reference to sidekicks like
Tonto or
Gordito), travelling west to California (including the historical quote "
Go West, young man"), hunting down Western outlaw
Jesse James, joining up with the
Texas Rangers. The chorus refers to famous
singing cowboys
Gene Autry and
Roy Rogers, and lists common patterns depicted in Westerns such as six-shooters (
revolvers) and
cattle drives. ==Response==