[Verse 1 – breath-heavy chest voice]
[Am7] I never had a hand to guide me,
[Cmaj7] Never heard “I’m proud of you, son.”
[Em9] You were just a name in stories
[G6] Told by people who barely stuck around.
[Am7] Men came and went like weather,
[Cmaj7] Some showed me how to stand my ground…
[Em9] Every piece they handed me
[G6] Built the man you never found. (yeah)
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[Pre-Chorus – soft falsetto rise]
[Fmaj7] I don’t owe you any credit,
[Em] You were gone before the pain…
[Cmaj7] Every scar I sealed myself
[Dadd9] Became the proof I made my name.
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[Chorus – airy falsetto peaks, warm resonance]
[Am] I don’t need a father,
[Fmaj7] Never needed you to shape my hands…
[Cmaj7] Everything you couldn’t be,
[G] I built it—
[Dadd9] Became a better man.
[Am] I grew past the empty space
[Fmaj7] Where you stood and ran away…
[Cmaj7] All the life you tossed aside,
[G] I lived it—
[Dadd9] And I lived it my own way. (mmm)
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[Verse 2 – fragile tone, slow phrasing]
[Am7] You could’ve shown me how to love,
[Cmaj7] Could’ve taught me how to stay…
[Em9] But silence raised me better
[G6] Than the man you tried to play.
[Am7] So I carried what you dropped,
[Cmaj7] Held the weight until it bled…
[Em9] Turned that burden into muscle
[G6] You never earned inside your head.
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[Pre-Chorus – chest grit, breathy lift]
[Fmaj7] I don’t need a blueprint,
[Em] I don’t need a perfect plan…
[Cmaj7] Every failure you abandoned
[Dadd9] Made me stronger than you can.
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[Chorus – stronger chest, emotional crack]
[Am] I don’t need a father,
[Fmaj7] Never needed what you never gave…
[Cmaj7] Everything you ran from,
[G] I faced it—
[Dadd9] And I walked out unafraid.
[Am] I grew into the kind of man
[Fmaj7] You only dreamed you’d understand…
[Cmaj7] I built a world you couldn’t touch,
[G] Lived the life
[Dadd9] You threw away. (yeah)
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[Bridge – whispered falsetto, live room tone]
[Fmaj7] Maybe someday you’ll wonder
[Em] What a real man looks like now…
[Cmaj7] But you won’t find him in the mirror,
[Dadd9] ’Cause I’m the one who worked it out.
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[Final Chorus – quiet, cracked falsetto end]
[Am] I don’t need a father,
[Fmaj7] Never needed you to raise my name…
[Cmaj7] Everything you left behind,
[G] I turned it
[Dadd9] Into something worth the pain.
[Am] And I
[Fmaj7] Became the man I needed—
[Cmaj7] Not the man who walked away.
[G] I learned to stand
[Dadd9] Without you—
[Am] Every day. (mmm)