Slow Burn Horizon

When I was just a little boy,

I watched my brother steal the show,

His friends were laughing,

girls around them, Everybody seemed to know.

I tried to step inside their circle,

Tried to prove that I belonged,

But they pushed me to the outside,

Like somehow I was born all wrong.

They called me strange,

they called me different,

Like different was a thing to hide,

So I made myself a promise,

One day I'd be the one they'd find.

I said, "Just wait until I'm older,

I'll have the whole world knowing my name.

I'll have the girls,

I'll have the spotlight,

And they'll wish they let me in their game." But I don't

need the crowd to know me,

I don't need their hands up in the air.

I don't need a thousand people Just to prove that somebody cares.

'Cause popularity is a moment,

And attention disappears,

But knowing who you are inside Can carry you through the years.

I spent my childhood chasing something I thought would make me proud.

Now I found something much greater:

I don't need the crowd.

Years went by and life got louder,

And that little boy became a man,

I learned that being seen by everyone Doesn't mean they'll understand.

Some will love you for a season,

Some will leave when lights grow dim,

And the people shouting loudest May not even know the man within.

I started looking in the mirror,

Not for someone else's face,

And finally saw the kid they pushed away Had never needed their

embrace.

Funny how the things we hunger for

Can lose their shine with time.

What I thought would make me somebody

Was never really mine.

To the kid standing in the corner,

Watching everybody else belong,

Don't change the rhythm of your heartbeat Just to dance to someone

else's song. Let them laugh because you're different.

Let them wonder who you are.

You don't need their invitation To discover you're a star.

And someday you'll look behind you At the road that brought you

through, And realize the greatest person You ever needed...

was you. I don't need the crowd to love me,

I've got people who know my name.

Not because I'm standing in a spotlight,

Not because I won their game.

Let popularity keep fading,

Let the spotlight come and go.

I'd rather have one heart beside me That truly loves the man

they know.

I was once that lonely dreamer,

Standing somewhere outside the crowd.

Funny thing about getting older...

I'm finally glad they pushed me out.

I wanted everybody's attention,

Now peace is all I want around.

They can keep the fame.

They can keep the noise.

I don't need the crowd. (shhh)