Johnny works in a factory And Billy works downtown Terry works in a rock 'n' roll band Looking for that million dollar sound Me, sometimes I don't do nothing Spend a lot of time alone Some nights I go to the drive-in And some nights I stay home I followed that dream Just like those guys do way up on the screen And I drove a Challenger down Route 9 Through the dead ends and all the bad scenes And when the promise was broken I cashed in a few of my dreams Well now, I built that Challenger by myself But I needed money and so I sold it I lived a secret I should've kept to myself But I got drunk one night and I told it All my life, I fought this fight The one that no man can ever win And every day just gets harder to live The dream I'm believing in Thunder Road, oh baby, you were so right Thunder Road, there's something dying down on the highway tonight Well now, I won big once and I hit the coast Oh, but somehow I paid the big cost Inside, I felt like I was carrying the broken spirits Of all the other ones who lost And when the promise is broken, you go on living But man, it steals something from down in your soul Like when the truth is spoken, and it don't make no difference Something in your heart goes cold Well, I followed that dream through the southwestern tracks That dead ends in two-bit bars And when the promise was broken, I was far away from home Sleeping in the back seat of a borrowed car Thunder Road, for the lost lovers and all the fixed games Thunder Road, for the tires rushing by in the rain Thunder Road, oh, Billy and me, we'd always sing Thunder Road, we were gonna take it all and throw it all away