I want to tell them everything I ever did.
Tell about the cars I jacked off Highway 31.
I would tell about the money we stole,
But they’d take my nephews’ Daddy away from his sons.

Well Tom, he never done no one no harm,
He’s a man as good as you can find.
Hundred times I have him down for dinner,
He had me back each and every time.

Man steals bread for his family,
Man gets locked away.
But today families need more than bread,
And boy does your family pay.

And now he came and visit me in Trenton,
A place I thought I’d never be.
But when he came in, Tom looked so confused,
Like he’d come, and it turned out not to be me.

Says he has a friend on the inside,
Man who knows some tricks of the trade.
For a price he can help me get outta here,
Tom assured me he’d get that man paid.

Man steals bread for his family,
Man gets locked away.
But today families need more than bread,
And boy does your family pay.

Well Jim’s in the cage for 6 years runnin’,
He keeps the guards habits fed.
In exchange he does jobs that could end up real wrong,
But he gives the guards a cut of the bread.

November night everything’s quiet,
Jim wakes me up and says ‘Go.’
In an hour I’m hitchin’ to Delaware,
Waving to cars as it’s startin’ to snow.

Man steals bread for his family,
Man gets locked away.
But today families need more than bread,
And boy does your family pay.

In Virginia, I got a wife now,
Six months ago we had a son.
In our prayers every night, I think of Tom,
And I wonder what these 3 years have done.

Then in the mail, I got a newspaper clipping,
Headline just the other day.
I reckon Tom had no money,
But Jim had found a way to make him pay.

Man steals bread for his family,
Man gets locked away.
But today families need more than bread,
And boy does your family pay.

I went out to start the car,
Told Maggie I’m goin’ for a ride.
I think to myself how silly it is,
That such a good man died.

Man steals a man from his family,
Sometimes he gets locked away.
But a man’s not bread you can just return,
No price that you can pay.