About The Song
The Statler Brothers included “I’ve Never Lived This Long Before” on their 1993 album Home, released by Mercury Records. Don Reid and Harold Reid wrote the song. Jerry Kennedy produced the track. It runs nearly six minutes and sits as one of the deeper cuts on the album rather than a radio single. No major Billboard Hot Country Singles chart run is recorded for it.
The album arrived late in the group’s recording career, a period when their work often turned toward reflection and the quieter corners of everyday life. Home mixed new material with the familiar blend of storytelling and harmony that had carried them for decades. This particular song stands out for its plain inventory of a life that has lasted longer than expected.
The singer looks back over what he has managed to do. He has met the heroes he once admired and shaken their hands. He has found the women who were once the girls of his dreams. He tracked down the bullies from grade school and high school and finally gave them a piece of his mind. He even located old teachers and apologized for being unkind. He spoke with his mother and admitted he had not done all he could. She smiled, kissed him, and said prayers answered late are still good. Then he turns to his father, who died twenty-five years earlier, and says there are things he would love to tell him now that he is only just learning the lessons he once thought his father never knew.
There is nothing he has done that he wishes he had done less, though there are a few things he wishes he had done more. The hardest part to accept is simply that he is still here. He has never lived this long before. He finds himself reading the Bible more than he did ten years earlier. He looks at young women and remembers they are somebody’s daughters. People call him mister and say things he does not always understand. The song circles back to the same quiet surprise: the years have added up in a way he never quite planned on.
The track later found new listeners through covers and live performances, including versions by artists who grew up on the Statlers’ catalog. Dailey & Vincent, among others, kept the song in circulation, drawn to its straightforward honesty. On Home it sits near the end of the track list, after lighter moments and before the closing number, giving the album a thoughtful pause.
By 1993 the group had already logged more than three decades of records and road work. Songs like this one felt like natural extensions of the stories they had always told—ordinary people taking stock of ordinary lives. The writing stays close to the ground. There are no grand declarations, only the recognition that time has stretched further than expected and that some conversations arrive too late to be finished. The song does not solve anything. It simply names the feeling and lets it stand.
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Lyric
I’ve met all my heroes and shook all the hands
Of all I wanted to meet
I’ve kissed all the women that once were the girls
I dreamed about falling to sleep
I’ve looked up the bullies from grade and high school
And gave them a piece of my mind
I’ve even looked up some old teachers I had
And apologized for being unkind
I’ve talked to my mama and told her I knew
I hadn’t done all that I could
She just smiled and kissed me and said after all
You know prayers answered late are still good
And daddy there’s things I’d love to tell you
But you died twenty-five years ago
‘Cause just now I’m learning a few of the things
I thought for years you didn’t know
And there’s nothing I’ve done that I wish I’d done less
But there’s a few I wish I’d done more
And the thing I find hardest to believe is I’m here
‘Cause I’ve never lived this long before
I find myself reading the Bible more now
Than I did say ten years ago
And I find myself looking at young girls and thinking
That’s somebody’s daughter you know
And what does it mean when they call me mister
And say things I don’t comprehend
And to tell you the truth more often to me
Their mamas look better than them
But there’s one call I haven’t brought myself to make
One memory that I can’t erase
I’ve still got the pictures that I can talk to
But I’m not up to go face to face
But maybe she’s happy and Lord I hope so
And maybe her kids have kids of their own
But to me she’ll always be a dance in the spring
And a memory I can’t leave alone
And there’s nothing I’ve done that I wish I’d done less
But there’s a few I wish I’d done more
And the thing I find hardest to believe is I’m here
‘Cause I’ve never lived this long before
So now that my life is laid out in order
I guess I’m ready to go
I’ll find me a shade tree and build me a cabin
And watch the daffodils grow
But wait just a minute if you’ll excuse me
I just saw someone I used to know
And I’ll come back tomorrow and finish this chorus
Da da da da da da da
Da da da da da da da da da
And there’s nothing I’ve done that I wish I’d done less
But there’s a few I wish I’d done more
And the thing I find hardest to believe is I’m here
‘Cause I’ve never lived this long before
I’ve never lived this long before