[Verse 1]
If I was runnin' this country
I'd build a big old bar
With a stage for a singer and a fiddle and a steel guitar
If I was runnin' this roost
I'd use an iron fist
You wouldn't hear one lick of that tailgate drum loop shit
It'd be nothin' but Cash
Hank, Waylon and Willie
We'd be the honky tonk party
If I was runnin' this country

[Verse 2]
If I was runnin' this country
I'd go back in time
Between 1953 and '79
There'd be a man in black
An Okie from Muskogee
And Hank Williams in the back of a big old Cadillac
A Buck Owens and Lefty
A Bob Wills and Patsy
We'd be the honky tonk party
If I was runnin' this country

[Chorus]
They never vote us in, but buddy, if they did
I'd be the first ever rhinestone suit wearin' president
And I can play the part on this old guitar
Call it the honky tonk party
If I was runnin' this country
[Verse 3]
If I was runnin' this country
I'd change a thing or two
We'd start The National Anthem with a little bit of workin' man blues
There'd only be one law
You have to be an outlaw
I'll make my oval office out of any ol' hole in the wall
No tax on beer
Free government whiskey
We need a jukebox junkie
To start runnin' this country

[Chorus]
They never vote us in, but buddy, if they did
I'd be the first ever rhinestone suit wearin' president
And I can play the part on this old guitar
Call it the honky tonk party
If I was runnin' this country
We'd be the honky tonk party
If I was runnin' this country