Hidden Shame - Johnny Cash

I’m sorry to say that you don’t know me

I’m sad in ways you never understood

Each time i try to tell the ugly truth

You always let it pass you by

You said i’d never tell you a lie

Just because I could

Did you really think i was a bad man?

You always said that that should be my middle name

But you don’t know the half of it

You don’t know how that name fits

You don’t know my hidden shame

Hidden shame, shame, shame

That i can’t get free

From the blame and the torture

And the misery

Must it be my secret for eternity?

Till you know my hidden shame you really don’t know me

Well, there’s a different kind of prison

And it don’t even have to look much like a cell

It’s already on your mind

Boy, we can see it in your eyes

So, here’s the bars and walls as well

Well, you know i’m never coming home, babe

You said you’d stand by me until i cleared my name

Sure it’s easy to be strong

When you know the charge is wrong

But the days and weeks get long

When you’ve got a hidden shame

I had a friend when i was just a boy

We were like brothers, we would run and hide

And we went walking on a high hillside

And i really don’t how it happened

He turned to me and had this strange look in his eye

And not a single word was spoken

I must have pushed him, but i don’t remember why

And all at once, he lay there broken

And i walked down without him and i didn’t even sigh

They say you always hurt the one you love

And i’m not saying if i did or if i didn’t

But like my shame, that kind of love is always hidden

They locked me up here for the ideas in my head

They never got me for the thing i really did