[Intro]
Come and gather around me, people and a tale to you, I'll tell
Of my father and his father in the days before the spill
With an endless sky above 'em and a restless sea below
And every blessing flowing from the Gulf of Mexico

[Verse 1]
Well, my Granddad with the shrimp boats
From the time that he was grown
And he scrimped and saved
And bought himself trawler of his own
He was rough and he was ready
And he drank when he was home
And he made his family's living on the Gulf of Mexico

[Chorus]
He was rolling
He was rolling
'Cross the deep blue water
He was rolling

[Verse 2]
Well, my Daddy drove a crew boat
Hauling workers to the rigs
He was sick of mending nets
And couldn't stand the smell of fish
He drew a steady paycheck
Twenty years at Texaco
When he died, we spread his ashes
On the Gulf of Mexico
[Chorus]
He was rolling
He was rolling
'Cross the deep green water
He was rolling

[Verse 3]
As for me, I dreamed of nothing
Any grander than the day
That I stepped out on the drilling floor
To earn a roughneck's pay
Then one night, I swear I saw the devil
Crawling from the hole
And he spilled the guts of hell out
In the Gulf of Mexico

[Chorus]
We were rollin'
We were rollin'
'Cross the blood-red water
We were rollin'