When this song first came out, Steve Earle said it was about how he couldn’t buy anything for his wife because he was wearing an ankle bracelet under house arrest – so he wrote her this song. Which I thought was pretty cool at the time, but he divorced her shortly thereafter and got married again to someone else. (He’s been married seven times, including twice to the same woman. His past relationships have been, shall we say, problematic.) But the thing about bad boys is that they frequently make great art – and if they don’t, they’re not worth the time and trouble.
I have to admit, if Steve Earle wrote me this song, I’d marry him again, too.
