It’s iron that he hangs

And he loves his work

Drives hours each day

He’s never been hurt

Got a back of steel

Burns on the sleeves of his shirt

​

He drinks too much

When stuff gets heavy

He can’t think straight

His mind gets hazy

So he stops at a sports bar

Everybody knows he’s a flirt

​

So he’s driving to work

With his head is split open

From last night’s drinking

And last night’s smoking

And he never got home

And now there will be hell to pay

​

'Cause she’ll be yelling

And he’ll be screaming

And the kid’s will be crying

Like a house full of demons

Says to himself

Why do people live this way

​

Now she says to Luann

He’s the father of my babies

I know you think I’m wrong

I know you think I’m crazy

For sticking around

While he’s drunk all over town

But you don’t see

He can be so sweet

He only gets mean when he gets in his drink

He’s good to the kids it’s just

Sometimes he gets down

​

Well the iron drops bad

And nothing seems to fit

He gets busted on his welds

he wants to just quit

He wants to curl up tight on the cold white ground

Cry

​

But he works full shift

Picks up a six

It's almost Christmas

The roads are getting slick

She is going to be at the door

And it's going to be a hell of a fight

​

So he’s an hour out of Lincoln

No shoulder on the road

And it is dark, and it's snowing

He ought to go slow

But he pushes the Ford

It planes, it slides like a sled

​

The tires hit the edge and he spins like a top

And the truck slides low in the ditch till it stops

It hurts where he banged his head

So he sits in the cab and he can’t read the gauges

And the wipers they whip like wind over pages

It’s loud static on the radio

​

It gets too light to see

He just stared

Gets too light to see

And then he got scared

Then the light was gone

It's just wipers wind turned snow

​

Well she says to Luann

He’s the father of my babies

I know you think I’m wrong

I know you think I’m crazy

For sticking around

When he’s drunk all over town

But you don’t see he can be so sweet

He only gets mean

When he gets in his drink

He’s good to the kids

It’s just sometimes he gets down

​

So he pulls back on

He drives real slow

Throws the last of the six

Out the window

In the snow

Something changed he saw light

He should've seen dark

And that’s the last time he drank

Still a hell of a fight

But she knew he wasn’t lying

When he told her bout the light

She knew he wasn’t lying about the light

​

It is iron that he hangs

And he loves his work

He drives hours each day

He’s never been hurt

Got a back of steel

Got burns on the sleeves of his shirt