Copperhead Road

Steve Earle

Well my name's John Lee Pettimore


Same as my daddy and his daddy before


You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here


He only came to town about twice a year


He'd buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line


Everybody knew that he made moonshine


Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad


He headed up the holler with everything he had


It's before my time but I've been told


He never came back from Copperhead Road





Now Daddy ran the whiskey in a big block Dodge


Bought it at an auction at the Mason's Lodge


Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side


Just shot a coat of primer then he looked inside


Well him and my uncle tore that engine down


I still remember that rumblin' sound


Well the sheriff came around in the middle of the night


Heard mama cryin', knew something wasn't right


He was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load


You could smell the whiskey burnin' down Copperhead Road





I volunteered for the Army on my birthday


They draft the white trash first,'round here anyway


I done two tours of duty in Vietnam


And I came home with a brand new plan


I take the seed from Colombia and Mexico


I plant it up the holler down Copperhead Road


Well the D.E.A.'s got a chopper in the air


I wake up screaming like I'm back over there


I learned a thing or two from ol' Charlie don't you know


You better stay away from Copperhead Road





Copperhead Road


Copperhead Road


Copperhead Road