I got the hook line from Charlie Ray (a promoter down in Nashville). I got the first two lines and the melody from a pretty lousey song I had written over 25 years ago and found on an old cassette tape. My wife and I then proceeded to craft lyrics while dining at Damon's in Portsmouth, Ohio and lounging in a motel room in Beckley, West Virginia. It kind of started out as a song about trysting lovers, but evolved into a song about abused children on the road to some kind of salvation.
Lyrics
VERSE 1
The night bent over the Minnesota skies.
Even the coffee couldn't hold up their eyes.
Twelve hours out of Cleveland,
lost in their disguise
breathing the sweet freedom, seeing with new eyes.
CHORUS
Tonight on that starlit highway, on a fourlane free from pain,
broken children busted free from their chains
running with renewed spirit from what's hard to explain
Out somewhere between the rainbow and the rain.
Check website http://www.tonydzikmusic.com for complete lyrics. Song published by Really Average Tunes (ASCAP), Nashville.