Beginning: G5 D5 G5 D5 G5 A5 D5 
 
D5                  G5                D5 
I drove all day to North Mississippi 
D5                        E5             A5 
I drove all night to the place I call home 
D5                          G5                    D5 
I hope that Johnny?s still waitin? there for me 
D5                         A5         D5 
To take me beside him and call me his own 
G5                  D5 
But it?s too late now 
G5               D5 
It?s too late now 
G5               D5 
The smell of magnolias  
G5                 D5 
Still sweet in my mouth 
G5               A5        D5 
And I know it?s too late now  
Johnny got mean when he started drinkin?  
And it wasn?t nobody?s fault when he cried 
So I left one mornin? from North Mississippi 
Cause I couldn?t stand to tell mama I lied 
 
Chorus 
 
Johnny took no time to ask me to marry 
And I said I would though I knew it was wrong 
They played Hank Williams in North Mississippi 
And I played the same girl I had all along 
 
Chorus 
 
Early one mornin? in North Mississippi 
I swore that I could hear somebody cry 
But it wasn?t my Johnny from North Mississippi 
All dressed up in orange on the day that I died 
 
Chorus: 
But it?s too late now 
It?s too late now 
The smell of magnolias 
Now gone from my mouth 
And I know it?s too late now