Well, I was lookin' for my exit on the interstate sign
But the wind went and blew it down
I took a wrong right turn about a half a mile back
My direction's all spun around
Through the sideways rain and the love and the shame
Watched the sunlight disappear
Then the sun so black said, "You'll never make it back
'Til you do some hard time out here"

God gave me the rain
To wash away my pain
And learn from bad mistakes I've made
The hard way

The rain let up as I came to a stop
Right between two cotton fields
I saw a coal-black crow in an old dead tree
Starin' right back at me
Well, I wanted to surrender as my eyes went blind
A thunderbolt split the sky
I noticed I was headed down the same dirt road
That Robert Johnson sang about

Well, God gave me the rain
To wash away my pain
And learn from bad mistakes I've made
The hard way, yeah

Well, God gave me the rain
To wash away my pain
And learn from bad mistakes I've made
The hard way, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, woo

God gave me the rain
To wash away my pain
And learn from bad mistakes I've made
The hard way, yeah

Well, God gave me the rain
To wash away my pain
And learn from bad mistakes I've made
The hard way

Yeah, the hard way, yeah
The hard way
To learn from bad mistakes I've made
The hard way

Yeah, the hard way
Always the hard way
Always the hard way, yeah

Copyright: CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Writer(s): Carey Matthew Ott, Joseph Matthew Warren