Well that label man said son now
Can you sing a little bit more clear
Said your voice might be too genuine
Your song's a little too sincere
Can you sing a little more about outlaws
And the way things used to be
He told me you just worry about writing them songs
Leaving everything else to me

Well my daddy was a Highwayman
But he never wrote any old country songs
Papaw never stayed out raising hell
'Til the break of dawn
But he raised a proud coal miners daughter
And I'm proud to be her son
She told me boy I don't care if you hit it big
Because you're already number one

And that's the way it goes in this day and age
Well you ain't gotta read between the lines
You just gotta turn the page
Well the most outlaw thing that I've ever done
Was give a good woman a ring
And that's the way it goes
Life ain't fair and the world is mean (woo)

Well I still got the wife and the dog
And about three kids in the can
I got off the road
And found the end of that long white line in the promise land
Still won't hear my song on the radio
Or see me at the CMA's
But you can always find me in a smokey bar
With bad sound and a dim lit stage

And that's the way it goes in this day and age
Well you ain't gotta read between the lines
You just gotta turn the page
Well the most outlaw thing that I've ever done
Was give a good woman a ring
And that's the way it goes
Life ain't fair and the world is mean

That's the way it goes
Life ain't fair and the world is mean