Let me tell a story, I can tell it all, about the mountain boy who ran illegal alcohol.
His daddy made the whiskey, the sonny drove the load, and when his engine roared, they called the highway Thunder Road.
Sometimes into Asheville, sometimes Memphis town, the revenuers chased him, but they couldn't run him down.
Each time they thought they had him, his engine would explode, and he'd go by like they were standing still on Thunder Road.
Thunder, Thunder, over Thunder Road, Thunder was his engine and white lightning was his load.
Moonshine, moonshine, whence the devil's thirst? The law they never got him, cause the devil got him first.
On the first of April, 1954, the feds were in the town.
The federal man sent word he'd better make his run no more.
He said 200 agents were covering the state, whichever road he tried to take, they'd get him sure as fate.
Sonny's daddy told him, make this run your last, your tank is filled with 100 proof, you're all tuned up and gassed.
Now don't take any chances, and if you can't get through, I'd rather have you back again than all that mountain dew.
Thunder, Thunder, over Thunder Road.
Thunder was his engine.
Thunder was his engine and white lightning was his load.
Moonshine, moonshine, whence the devil's thirst? The law they never got him, cause the devil got him first.
Roaring out of Harlan, revving up his mill, he shot the gap at Cumberland and streamed by Maynard Field.
With teaming on his taillight, roadblocks up ahead, the mountain boy took roads that even angels feared to tread.
Blazing right through Knoxville, out on Kingston Pike, then right outside of Bearden, there they made the fatal strike.
He left the road at 90, that's all there is to say, the devil got the moonshine and the mountain boy that day.
Thunder, Thunder, over Thunder Road.
Thunder was his engine and white lightning was his load.
Moonshine, moonshine, whence the devil's thirst? The law they never got him, cause the devil got him first.
The law they never got him, cause the devil got him first.
The law they never got him, cause the devil got him first.