I was born in Carolina
Raised with a heavy hand
My mother was a-pushing up daisies
My father was a drinking man
The one night my beating never came
I learned why when I found him in the hall
All five years of his education
Splattered on the wall
So I packed my bags and I moved to the city
No way to make ends meet
I found a bag of grass in a gutter
And I sold it on the street
To a man who said, "You remind me of myself
When I started dealin', why don't you come with me"
And before I'd even touched the surface
I knew I was in too deep
Now everyone I know
Everyone I know is gone
Everything I done
Everything I done is wrong
Some people call me the Sinful Healer
I'm the dealer
The work got easier when the drugs got harder
I should have known it wouldn't last
The golden opportunity to quit came shining
But I watched it turn to brass
I earned my keep from the people who would die
To kill their invincible pain
As long as all the bag brides and pimps and junkies
Had nothing to lose there'd be something to gain
Then all it took was one taste of my poison
And that was it
And I wound up like some bloodthirsty spider
Tangled up in its own web
Oh, temptation never fails
But it only lets you down
And addiction has you decomposing
Long before you're in the ground
Now everyone I know
Everyone I know is gone
Everything I done
Everything I done is wrong
Some people call me the Sinful Healer
I'm the dealer
Tonight the smokestacks in Carolina
Are monuments to our glorious decay
I shiver and I shudder in the alley and I wonder
How it all turned out this way
I guess I don't blame no one, I guess that I could change
But a crooked gun don't shoot straight
Henpecking curbs for coins, I bridge the vein and pay the boy
And as he turns to leave I hear him say,
"Everyone I know
Everyone I know is gone
Everything I done
Everything I done is wrong
Some people call me the sinful healer"
Ah, but mine will be the face that he sees when he looks in the mirror
'Cause I'm the dealer