[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