[Verse 1]

Carhart jacket on 5:30 am

Feelin' like the ace of spades

15 years old, work till the sun comes

Then I'm off to school again

Workin' my back as a young man

Taught me I'd rather work my mind

So we'd cop a little smoke

And crack a couple jokes

Just tryin' to learn to survive

[Chorus]

I wanted to work to live

No not just live to work

I had a pain deep in my bones beneath my t-shirt

Was a young man singin' an old man's song

Payin' with my last dimes

But workin' to live beats livin' to work

Anytime

[Verse 2]

I had a teacher

She told my mother she better find me a trade

Because boys like me well we all grow up

To be long term guests of the state

Now I worked hard because I had to

I never found much luck

Till' I built my world

Round' a Georgia girl

Who told me that I was enough

[Chorus]

I wanted to work to live

No not just live to work

I had a pain deep in my bones beneath my t-shirt

Was a young man singin' an old man's song

Payin' with my last dimes

But workin' to live beats livin' to work

Anytime

[Verse 3]

Sometimes at night I wake with a shiver

Sweat soakin' clean through my sheets

Then I remember I am who I am

Not who they said I would be

I wasn't born with nothin'

Cept' a voice and common sense

Maybe that why I took off runnin'

First chance that I had

[Chorus]

I wanted to work to live

No not just live to work

I had a pain deep in my bones beneath my t-shirt

Was a young man singin' an old man's song

Payin' with my last dimes

But workin' to live beats livin' to work

Anytime

Oh workin' to live beats livin' to work

Anytime