“The Boy I Told Goodbye” by R. J. Carter
From the album ANOTHER SECOND CHAPTER
Available digitally August 14, 2026.
Some songs are stories. Some are memories.
“The Boy I Told Goodbye” is about a drive I made many years ago, a decision no parent should ever have to make, and the pain that never really went away.
This is the official lyric video.
THE BOY I TOLD GOODBYE
There were three of us in the car
Merging onto the Interstate
On a trip from which one of us wasn’t coming home.
Grief sat on the passenger side
Innocence in the car seat in back
And I gripped that wheel and drove like I was all alone.
Dolly Parton started singing
“I Will Always Love You”
And I’d never hear that song again without stopping to cry.
But that drive I held it together
It was the thing I had to do
On that awful day we told the boy goodbye.
Folks talked like they understood
‘Cause they’d seen a Dustin Hoffman film
Hollywood made it look so simple, but it wasn’t to me.
He was smarter than most grown people were
Could memorize everything he ever saw
But he could never be what the world expected to see.
Sometimes storms would rise inside him
Hands would fly and bodies would get hurt
And in the end his Daddy’d bleed, and his mama’d cry.
We knocked on every door that would open
Rang every phone we could find
But the only way we could help was to tell the boy goodbye.
I spent every waking hour pounding on Heaven for God
But the old man wouldn’t even give me a nod.
It wasn’t fair, what He did to that boy, and I told Him so.
I made too much money to get any state help
And not damn near enough to afford it myself.
So the only option that remained was to let him go.
I’ll never know what your life became
But I hope you had kindness and love
And I wish I could give you the answers when you ask, “Why.”
But we weren’t the ones you needed
And God knows how hard we tried
And it shattered my soul to tell you goodbye.
I never met the man.
I wish I knew the man.
God, I miss the man…
Who’s the boy I told goodbye.
Video note: AI-assisted imagery was used to help visualize this deeply personal story; every scene was individually directed, selected, edited, sequenced, and timed to my original recording. The photograph at the conclusion is real.
Written and performed by R. J. Carter
From the album ANOTHER SECOND CHAPTER
© 2026 R. J. Carter. All Rights Reserved.
℗ 2026 R. J. Carter. All Rights Reserved.
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