What She Had To

I was three years old sitting in the seat
Of a Greyhound bus, my brother and me
Mama's tears falling like a Carolina rain
'Cause she pulled out a gun the night before
Said he ain't gonna drink and hit me no more
She pulled the trigger on my father in a moment's range

Thank God that gun wasn't loaded
Didn't know where to go or how she'd survive
Didn't care, anywhere but there that night

Now she held her babies tight
And we rode through the cold of the midnight blue
She was scared, she was broke, but all she knew was
She was gonna do what she had to

She got her a job in a trailer out West
It wasn't much, but she was doing her best
Putting food on the table for her family
But then one day, I came home from school
My mama was crying alone in her room
She said, "I lost my job and we're gonna lose the trailer too"

And she got that Volkswagen loaded
Didn't know where to go or how she'd survive (how to survive)
Didn't care, anywhere but there that night

Now she held her babies tight
And we rode through the cold of the midnight blue
She was scared, she was broke, but all she knew was
She was gonna do what she had to

Whenever things go wrong in my life
I just think of her, what it took that night
To get on that bus in the Carolina rain

Didn't know where to go or how she'd survive
Didn't care, anywhere but there that night

She held her babies tight
And we rode through the cold of the midnight blue
She was scared, she was broke, but all she knew was
She was gonna do what she had to

What she had to, yeah (what she had to)
What she had to
What she had to