[Intro]
The fire burns lower now,
The hand grows slow and scarred.
But memory rides like thunder
Across the prison yard.

[Verse]
I have seen the young men vanish,
I have seen the old trails close,
I have watched the world grow crowded
Where the desert flower grows.
They come to see the old man,
Come to hear the famous name,
But they do not see the ashes
That are sleeping in the flame.

[Pre-Chorus]
I was father, I was hunter,
I was grief with sharpened eyes,
I was not the tale they printed,
I was flesh beneath the skies.

[Chorus]
The Old Warrior carries the stone,
Far from the canyon, far from home.
If the world forgets what the wind still knows,
The Old Warrior never lets go.

[Verse]
They ask me if I regret it,
They ask me if I’m tired,
But how can a heart stop burning
When its first world died in fire?
I remember Chiricahua,
I remember moonlit sand,
I remember children laughing
In a free and holy land.

[Pre-Chorus]
Now my bones are winter branches,
Now my shadow walks alone,
But the mountain in my spirit
Has not turned its heart to stone.

[Chorus]
The Old Warrior carries the stone,
Far from the canyon, far from home.
If the world forgets what the wind still knows,
The Old Warrior never lets go.

[Instrumental]
Acoustic guitar, mourning strings,
Low choir like remembered wings.

[Bridge]
Do not carve me as a legend,
Do not paint me only brave.
I was broken, I was angry,
I was standing by a grave.
I was wrong and I was wounded,
I was fire, I was rain,
I was just a man who carried
More than any heart should claim.

[Breakdown]
Old hands.
Old scars.
Old songs.
Old stars.

[Build-up]
Still the drum beneath the skin,
Still the desert calls within.

[Chorus]
The Old Warrior carries the stone,
Far from the canyon, far from home.
If the world forgets what the wind still knows,
The Old Warrior never lets go.

[Chorus]
The Old Warrior, tired but true,
Keeps the sky in a heart cut through.
When the final evening glows,
The Old Warrior never lets go.

[Outro]
The fire burns lower now,
The hand grows slow and scarred.
But memory rides like thunder
Across the prison yard.
