johnny works in a factory and billy works downtown terry works in a rock and roll band looking for that million dollar sound and i got a little job down in darlington but some nights i don t go some nights i go to the drive in or some nights i stay home i followed that dream just like those guys do 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 shoulda kept to myself but i got drunk one night and i told it all my life i fought this fight the fight that no man can ever win every day it 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 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 when the promise is broken you go on living but 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 turns cold thunder road is for the lost lovers and all the fixed games thunder road for the tires rushing by in the rain thunder road me and billy we d always sing thunder road we were gonna take it all and throw it all away2