Hard Climb Out is a hard-driving outlaw country song by R.J. Sloane about the grinding, unglamorous work of clawing back from addiction one brutal day at a time.
Nobody sees the hard climb out. No crowd, no celebration — just sweating through the sheets, white-knuckling past the bottle, and crying out from the end of yourself. The will is his. The strength underneath it isn't. He doesn't know that yet. But the brothers who show up do.
VERSE 1
Rough eyes, scratchy beard
Hollow soul
Sweating through the sheets
Stomach turning
Hating myself
Hating the world
Numbness recedes
Agony through my veins
Pain pecking my skin to the bone
Night falls
Mewling like a kitten
Can't do this alone
Exhausted surrender
CHORUS
Shattered
Broken
Everything I buried
Buries me alive
Dark and suffocating
Owns my soul
Ain't strong
Never was
Want to give up
Nowhere left to fall
Except on my knees
Through the hell of it all
You won't hear
You never feel real
VERSE 2
Month sober
Day from the pit
Pull the bottle from the paper bag
Pop it open
Seduced and repulsed by her lure
Be so easy
Numb it all away
Don't want to
Can't stop
Hand shaking
I'm...
CHORUS
Shattered
Broken
Everything I buried
Buries me alive
Dark and suffocating
Owns my soul
Ain't strong
Never was
Want to give up
Nowhere left to fall
Except on my knees
Through the hell of it all
You won't hear
You never feel real
BRIDGE
Brought angels with skin on
Brothers to lift me up
Who answered the call
Carried me on their backs
On the hard climb out
Taught me each day
That's the battle to fight
Minute by minute
Sat with me in the dark
Showed me the path to the Light
CHORUS
Shattered
Broken
Everything I buried
Buries me alive
Dark and suffocating
Owns my soul
Ain't strong
Never was
Want to give up
Nowhere left to fall
Except on my knees
Through the hell of it all
You always hear
Now I believe
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