GODS OF INK & IRONY

Lyrics

My daddy was Dixie Mafia — went down like one. Mama laid me on a stranger's step and said I'm done. Man with no blood ties picked me up off that cold ground — Green Beret iron, thirty-three years — hardest man in town. My blood looked at me like a stray that wandered the gate — Looked back long enough to understand — and walked away straight. [VERSE 2 — JOKER] Daddy built a Brotherhood from South Texas dirt and chrome — Hard school — earn your place or don't come home. Ran with men in denim and leather before I ran in school — Learned respect before the golden rule. Wore that upbringing like it was born into my skin — Black sheep, lion heart — never tried to fit in. [PRE-CHORUS — trading lines] [DOC] Popular as hell — preferred to be alone. [JOKER] Built a world of people — kept my circle bone. [BOTH] Funny how doubters just fuel the flame — God's got a hell of a sense of humor. [CHORUS — BOTH] Gods of ink and irony — Two black sheep who climbed the wrong family tree. Born into the outlaw world, no choice in the matter — Found our purpose when we found our voice. Ink that says what no one else had nerve to say — Irony that turned abandonment into strength we carry today. Gods of ink and irony — built everything from nothing. [VERSE 3 — DOC] IED on a nameless road — world went white and done — Commander pressed his pistol to the medic's head: bring him back or you're going with one. Died three times in the smoke — some surgeon dragged me back from broke. Spent years drowning what I owed the war — till I picked up a guitar and pen — and found what I was actually for. [VERSE 4 — JOKER] Two Guinness records — a needle in my hand — Every one built from what my daddy had planned. New Year's took him — rode on out — Left me his legacy, not a single doubt. Picked up a pen — found words could bleed like ink — The man of iron and chrome had one more language nobody'd been told. [PRE-CHORUS — trading lines] [DOC] Melissa stood by me while I clawed back from the fall — [JOKER] Shelina never flinched — never let me fall — [BOTH] The women they called wrong were the only ones who got it right. [CHORUS — BOTH — REPEAT / electric guitar enters] [BRIDGE — full band] [JOKER — spoken] Reached out to book you for Ink & Iron — [DOC — spoken] I said no. Wrong time. [JOKER — spoken] Something stayed. I didn't let it go. [DOC — spoken] I already knew. [BOTH — sung] Same birth month. Same orbit. Same outlaw DNA — Seventy million streams from a Georgia doorstep — Two world records from a South Texas spark — Top one percent don't happen to quitters — Black sheep always find their kind. [FINAL CHORUS — BOTH, full band] Gods of ink and irony — Hard men's sons, black sheep, walked out as lions. Both sides of the outlaw world — same damn home. Raven Nation — meet your newest — he knew the code. Joker McManus — Black Wing Crew — Ink & Iron on the road. One conversation was all it took — Gods of ink and irony — get ready for the show. [OUTRO — fades to dual acoustic] [DOC — spoken] Born on a doorstep with nothing. [JOKER — spoken] Born into everything my daddy built. [BOTH — spoken] Same blood. Different roads. Same place.