Published: September 04, 2009 11:00 am

Pistol Pete inspires OSU spirit song

Jessica Jackson

Oklahoma State Cowboy fans will be greeted with a new spirit song Saturday afternoon — a song inspired by their beloved mascot.

Singer songwriter John Martin wrote “Cowboy Forever,” which is loosely based on Pistol Pete’s story, Martin said.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about Oklahoma State and what makes it unique and the one thing that kept coming into my mind was Pistol Pete ... it’s interesting and unique that OSU’s mascot is a real person,” he said. “When thinking about the song and just thinking about the whole cowboys’ theme ... building off of that story is just the best approach.”

Martin is a Stillwater native, having been born and raised in the city, but played for the Baylor University football team as a wide receiver after receiving an athletic scholarship from the university, he said. He pursued music in Nashville, Tenn., before moving back to Stillwater a year ago.

Martin was originally asked to produce the new pre-game video for the home football games.

“And then me, being a singer-songwriter, a song is involved in that together,” he said. “The song was just kind of part of the whole deal.”

The song and video were created for each other as a package, he said. The pre-game video will feature some of the big names in Cowboy football and show video of summer workouts, but that’s all Martin could say about it.

“We wanted to kind of give the fans a behind-the-scene training for this huge season,” he said. “The video is something I really can’t talk about. You’ve got to come to the game and check that out.”

Martin said he wanted to write a song fans could relate to, so he focused on Oklahoma landscape and cowboy terms.

“With the song being written for a video seen at a football game, I wanted to include language that would be easy for OSU fans to be familiar with,” he said.



COWBOYS FOREVER

The prairie wind touches our skin

Another maverick morning begins

Wild west eyes rise before the sun

We are young guns on the run



Hang ’em high, pistols to the sky

We ride, we ride, ‘cross the line



It’s in our veins

The feel of the reins

.45’s, chaps, bandannas and spurs

We are cowboys forever



Stay here today, gone tomorrow

The open range is our home

All that we own lives inside our soul

We are cowboy to the bone



Hang ’em high, pistols to the sky

We ride, we ride, ‘cross the line



It’s in our veins

The feel of the reins

.45’s, chaps, bandannas and spurs

We are cowboys forever



Riding Bullet across the plains

To avenge our kin’s blood and name

In bedlam we will rise and stand

With strength and honor to defend our land



Hang ’em high, pistols to the sky

We ride, we ride, ‘cross the line



It’s in our veins

The feel of the reins

.45s, chaps, bandannas and spurs

We are cowboys forever



We are, we are

Cowboys forever



Listen to the song at www.JohnMartinLive.com.