[Verse 1] Dust blows hard through a dead-end town Another factory shut its engines down The neon buzz hums like a broken prayer While old men stare through a thousand-yard glare There’s a sheriff drinking bourbon by the railway tracks Talking big about justice with a knife in his back And every barstool prophet’s got a gospel to sell While the whole damn county slowly burns itself to hell [Pre-Chorus] You can hear the coyotes crying at the edge of town Like they know something wicked’s going down [Chorus] Oh, the evil that man do Rides in slow with a cold wind through With snake-skin boots and a loaded grin Looking clean on the outside, rotten within And the radio keeps playing songs Like nothing here went wrong Lord, what have we become? Beneath this blood-red western sun The evil… the evil that man do [Verse 2] A mother counts tips at the closing shift Trying to hold together what life left ripped A young boy learns how to fight too fast Cause innocence don’t last around here long, son There’s oil stains bleeding through the ground Ghosts of honest men still hanging around And every crooked handshake leaves another scar Under dim motel lights and rusted-out cars [Pre-Chorus] Everybody’s trying just to survive But survival can eat you alive [Chorus] Oh, the evil that man do Comes wearing denim black as bruises do With silver tongues and whiskey eyes Selling freedom wrapped in lies Still the desperate push on through Cause what else are broken people gonna do? Lord, what have we become? Beneath this blood-red western sun The evil… the evil that man do [Bridge] [Half-time] Slide guitar crying like a wounded train Snare drum cracking through the desert rain And somewhere out there beyond the wire A lonely soul still fighting the fire [Final Chorus] Oh, the evil that man do Can hollow out the best of you But somewhere underneath the scars There’s still a little light in the dark So raise your glass to the lost and bruised The ones this world tried hard to use Lord, we ain’t completely gone Not yet… not while this heart beats on Beyond the evil… the evil that man do [Outro] One last cigarette glowing in the dark Like a tiny outlaw holding on to a spark
