greed kills more people than whiskey

i was standin' outside of a hotel in houston blinkin' my eyes in the bright morning sun

a feller next to me said where are you headed

i told him to nashville cause that's where i'm from

i said i had one or too many last evening brother i damn near fell off of my steed

he said yeah whiskey gets 'em and whiskey gets many

but listen son nothin' kills people like greed

i said huh and i turned to him and he was a cowboy

bout fifty years old in a big western hat

sir if you said that greed killed more people than whiskey

if my taxi don't come tell me more bout that

he said i knew a guy who made millions on millions

then he turned right around and made millions on that

he had crude oil and blue chips and good barns and feed lots

he could touch an old steer and just turn into fat

and he coveted the money that other folks lived on

he never spent nickels he thought he could keep

it was money that made him a night hawk and a worrier

and soon it was money that robbed him of sleep

and they buried him deep in a west texas graveyard

they put up a tombstone of all he had done

and i am the man that he fired for a few beers

but i'm sure feeling good in the west texas sun

i shook hands with that man and i crawled in the taxi

and i thought of the two things that i keep doing wrong

the man said that the greed killed more people than whiskey

and i'm sittin' here hung over writin' a song