[Intro – slow clean guitar, distant thunder]
Boots in the gravel, sky burnin’ red
Dust on the Bible, ghosts in my head
Mama said, “Boy, hell’s paved in shale”
Out here where dead men tell no tales
[Verse 1 – gritty country vocal over heavy riffs]
Sun comes up through a curtain of smoke
Iron on iron, every line’s about to choke
Derricks creakin’ like sinners in chains
Black gold rainin’ like brimstone rain
V-bottom rattlin’ down that road
Frac tanks lined like a devil’s throne
Mud on my hands, steel in my veins
Pullin’ up fire from the earth’s dark veins
[Pre-Chorus – tension builds]
Every night I hear that whistle wail
Like the Devil breathin’ on my trail
[Chorus – big country/metal hook]
Dead men tell no tales out here
Where the Devil drinks crude and feeds on fear
But I keep your name carved in my soul
While I’m pullin’ black blood from the Devil’s throat
If hell takes me, don’t you cry
Just know I loved you ‘til the day I died
Through fire, steel, and the gates of shale
Dead men tell no tales
[Verse 2 – heavier, darker imagery]
Hydrovac scream in the dead of night
Steel-toe prayers under sodium lights
Hands cut open, knuckles gone numb
Still chasin’ paychecks and the risin’ sun
But I see your face in the rearview glass
Like heaven ridin’ in a hardhat pass
Your voice cuts through the diesel roar
Like an angel knockin’ on hell’s front door
[Pre-Chorus]
When the ground shakes and the cables fail
I swear I hear your whispered hail
[Chorus]
Dead men tell no tales out here
Where the Devil drinks crude and feeds on fear
But I keep your name carved in my soul
While I’m pullin’ black blood from the Devil’s throat
If hell takes me, don’t you cry
Just know I loved you ‘til the day I died
Through fire, steel, and the gates of shale
Dead men tell no tales
[Breakdown – half-time slam, shouted vocals]
CHAIN THE PIPE
DROP THE BIT
FEED THE FIRE
DON’T YOU QUIT
HELL BELOW
SKY TURNED PALE
DIGGIN’ GRAVES WHERE DEAD MEN FAIL
[Bridge – emotional, melodic clean section]
If I don’t make it home tonight
Lay my boots by the porch light
Tell the Lord I did my time
Fightin’ hell for a better life
And kiss our love like a last goodbye
Underneath that oil-black sky
[Final Chorus – biggest, most emotional]
Dead men tell no tales out here
But your love’s the only thing I fear
Not the Devil clawin’ at my bones
Or the darkness buried in these stones
If hell takes me, don’t you cry
Just know I loved you ‘til the day I died
Through fire, steel, and the gates of shale
Dead men tell no tales
[Outro – fading clean guitar, wind ambience]
Boots in the gravel, sky gone pale
Cross on the hill, wind through shale
Out where the Devil signed his trails…
Dead men tell no tales
Donnie_Hackathorn6
