Black Gold Bones

[Intro – Spoken/Gravel tone]
Steel boots hit the mud… diesel smoke in the lungs… another night chasing that black gold.

[Instrumental Lead-In]
(4 bars – dirty slide guitar + toms rumbling, bass creeping)

[Verse 1]
Mud caked up on my jeans, smell of crude in the air,
Long hours, broken backs, man I don’t fucking care,
Pockets low, dreams high, still fight for my pride,
I sold my time, sold my bones, left my soul outside.

Steel pump thumpin’ like a devil-heart rhythm,
Calloused hands, cracked skin, yeah that’s how I’m livin’,
Outlaws ain’t just killers, we’re the workers in the dark,
Chasin’ fortune for the rich, but we never leave a mark.

[Chorus]

Black gold, black gold, I bleed for the black gold,
Burn my body, crack my spirit, but I never fucking fold,
Black gold, black gold, it’s death in the cold,
But I die on this rig before I do as I’m told.

[Instrumental Break #1]
(4 bars – distorted slide guitar + harmonica wailing low)

[Verse 2]
Sun don’t rise here, just a flame in the mist,
My paycheck laughs while my dreams cease to exist,
Boss man’s rich while we rot in the grime,
He buys yachts while we’re killing every minute of our time.

I seen men fall off rigs and never crawl home,
Bodies lost in the dirt, names etched in cold stone,
We ain’t saints, we ain’t sinners, just ghosts in the grind,
Buried deep under money they’ll never fucking find.

[Chorus]
Black gold, black gold, I bleed for the black gold,
Burn my body, crack my spirit, but I never fucking fold,
Black gold, black gold, it’s death in the cold,
But I die on this rig before I do as I’m told.

[Bridge – Dark, spoken then sung]
I ain’t scared of dying, I been dead in my head for years…
We’re the shadows in the dirt, we’re forgotten by the throne,
But the oil they worship? — that’s pumping through our bones.
We’re the ones who built the empire — now where’s our fucking throne?

[Instrumental Solo #2]
(8 bars — heavy guitar solo, bend notes w/ pain, echo of harmonica at the end)

[Verse 3 – Emotional Punch]
Mama cried on the phone, said I sound half gone,
But this check’s the only rope keeping food at home,
I ain’t a saint, ain’t a hero, just a man in the grind,
Tryin’ to make a future that I’ll never fucking find.

Dust in my lungs, black death in my veins,
I’m trading years of life for a pocketful of change,
If fate comes early, tell the devil I’m paid,
Cuz I worked every second while the others prayed.

[Final Chorus – Gritty Harmonies]
Black gold, black gold, I bleed for the black gold,
Burn my body, crack my spirit, but I never fucking fold,
Black gold, black gold, this story ain’t told,
We ain’t dyin’ with nothin’, bury us in the cold.

[Outro – Spoken]
When the flames die, and the pumps stop moaning…
They’ll remember our bones… but never our names…

Slide guitar, harmonica, gritty bass, low toms, After the final chorus can add a fade-out solo, dark country, rock