A Country Boy Can Survive

Hank Williams Jr.

The preacher man says it's the end of time
And the Mississippi River, she's a going dry
The interest is up and the stock markets down
And you only get mugged if you go downtown

I live back in the woods, you see
My woman and the kids and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun and a rifle and a four wheel drive
And a countryboy can survive, country folks can survive

I can plow a field all day long, I can catch catfish from dusk 'til dawn
Make our own whiskey and our own smoke too
Ain't too many things these boys can't do
We grow good old tomatoes and homemade wine
And countryboy can survive, country folk can survive

Because you can't starve us out and you can't make us run
'Cause we're them ol' boys raised on shotguns
We say grace and we say ma'am
And if you ain't into that, we don't give a damn

We came from the West Virginia coal mines
And the Rocky Mountains and the Western skies
And we can skin a buck, we can run a trot line
And a countryboy can survive, country folks can survive

I had a good friend in New York City
He never called me by my name just hillbilly
My Grandpa taught me how to live off the land
And his taught him to be a business man

He used to send me pictures of the Broadway Nights
And I would send him some homemade wine
But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife
For forty three dollars, my friend lost his life

I'd love to spit some beechnut in that dudes eyes
And shoot him with my ol' forty-five
'Cause a countryboy can survive
Country folks can survive

'Cause you can't starve us out and you can't make us run
And we're them ol' boys raised on shotgun
We say grace, we say ma'am
If you ain't into that, we don't give a damn

We're from North California and South Alabama
And little towns all around this land
We can skin a buck and run a trot line
And a countryboy can survive, country folks can survive
Countryboy can survive, country folks can survive