I was a school kid

Hiding bruises from the night

Mom was a drinker

She poured a few and picked a fight

And I was growing too fast

Finding trouble of my own

Working doubles on the weekend

Taking tips and getting stoned

Till I turned sixteen

Blowing Smoke out of a car

Home in the rearview

I hoped the wheels could take me far enough

To someday see twenty one

A truck stop youth out on the run again

And then I woke up

From a black out on the floor

Of some apartment

And I worked the night to buy some more

Self medication

For the privileged of the poor

I thought it's better feeling nothing than whatever god's got in store

Woah

Hard luck bad love out again

It's a cold truth out here

Slow life quick high gone again

Same shit new year

Woah woah oh

Same shit new year

Woah woah oh

Then it was the street crowd

Hocking dime bags door to door

I couldn't be worse where I was headed

Than I would've been at war

I've seen friends and brothers drink to death

Seen bullets take them down

Turns out there's not much of a life out there if you like this side of ground

They were calling numbers

To join the fight for Uncle Sam

Well go see the world behind a rifle

Walk through hell in Vietnam

And I'd do anything to get out

But I wouldn't shoot that gun

Still I said Semper Fi I shaved my head

And put that helmet on

Oh

Hard luck bad love out again

It's a cold truth out here

Slow life quick high gone again

Same shit new year

Woah woah oh

Same shit new year

Woah woah oh

I did my service

Cleaned up and got a job

Worked through college

And added love to my lexicon

If I've learned nothing

From anywhere I've been

Oh it's hard to be a saint when the city's caving in

Hard luck bad love out again

It's a cold truth out here

Slow life quick high gone again

Same shit new year

Woah woah oh

Same shit new year

Woah woah oh

Same shit new year

Woah woah oh

Same shit new year

Woah woah oh

Same shit new year

Woah woah oh

Same shit new year

Woah woah oh