This Ain't Nothin'

He was standin' in the rubble

Of an old farmhouse outside Birmingham

When some on the scene reporter

Stuck a camera in the face of that old man

He said, "Tell the folks please, mister

What are you gonna do

Now that this twister

Has taken all that's dear to you?"

The old man just smiled and said

"Boy, let me tell you somethin'

This ain't nothin'"

He said, "I lost my daddy

When I was eight years old

That cave-in at the Kincaid Mine

Left a big, old hole

And I lost my baby brother

My best friend, and my left hand

In a no-win situation

In a place called Vietnam

And last year I watched my lovin' wife

Of fifty years waste away and die

And I held her hand

Till her heart of gold stopped pumpin'

So this ain't nothin'"

He said, "I learned at an early age

There's things that matter

And there's things that don't

So if you're waitin' here for me to cry

I hate to disappoint you, boy

But I won't"

Then he reached down in the rubble

And picked up a photograph

Wiped the dirt off of it

With the hand that he still had

He put it to his lips and he said

"Man, she was somethin'

But this ain't nothin'"

He said, "I lost my daddy

When I was eight years old

That cave-in at the Kincaid Mine

Left a big, old hole

And I lost my baby brother

My best friend, and my left hand

In a no-win situation

In a place called Vietnam

And last year I watched my lovin' wife

Of fifty years waste away and die

We were holdin' hands

When her heart of gold stopped pumpin'

So this ain't nothin'"

He said, "This ain't nothin' time won't erase

And this ain't nothin' money can't replace"

He said, "You sit and watch your lovin' wife

Of fifty years fightin' for her life

Then you hold her hand

Till her heart of gold stops pumpin'

Yeah, boy, that's somethin'

So this ain't nothin'

No, this ain't nothin'"