It was released in January 1977 as the second and final single from the album Kenny Rogers.

It became Rogers' first major hit as a solo artist after leaving the successful country/rock group the First Edition the previous year.

[5] The song, told by the narrator (Rogers), tells the story of a man in a bar in Toledo, Ohio, who acquaints himself with a downhearted married woman named Lucille.

An inebriated Lucille admits her unhappiness in life and her longing for adventure.

The brokenhearted husband, starting to shake, scorns her for her inconvenient timing in abandoning him "with 4 hungry children and a crop in the field", leaving him with a "hurtin'" that won't heal.