Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder - My Father's Son lyrics

My history is no secret it's written in the stones In the hill beside this river rest my mother's gentle bones And daddy there beside her among his next of kin And their legacy pa**ed down to me the sons of mountain men Raised to be a miner by a miners callused hands Pa**ed my youth between these mountains where I grew to understand That family was the word of God and faith was it's demand And life and d**h the same came from the coal beneath this land Well, a rich man writes the book of laws a poor man must defend But the highest laws are written on the hearts of honest men If that cup is pa**ed to me to do what must be done When they lay me down remind them I was just my father's son I've walked among these people, heard the stories that they tell I've crawled beside them in the mines and touched the walls of hell I've shared their sacred secrets, known their triumph and their pain And right or wrong I'll stand with them on the final judgment day They say God gives his comfort when the time of trouble comes They say we'll know no share of peace till we lay down our guns But will my boy have the chance to do the things I've never done Or will he, like me, be told that he must be his father's son? Well, a rich man writes the book of laws a poor man must defend But the highest laws are written on the hearts of honest men When that cup is pa**ed to me to do what must be done On a chunk of coal just carve these words, ''I was just my father's son''