My oldest brother Tommy was a lineman rest his soul
His job was hanging hot wires on them power company poles
I said with all of that high voltage don't it scare you half to death?
He said it makes me kinda nervous but I just can't help myself 'cause

It pays big money and boy I'm into that
It pays big money if you're willin' to take a chance
I'll tell you sonny you ought to see my bank account
It paid big money but he sure can't spend it now

My dear departed cousin used to put in forty hours
Changing all them light bulbs on them television towers
Every morning bright and early he'd climb up in the sky
And I didn't understand it so one day I asked him why, he said

It pays big money and boy I'm into that
It pays big money if you're willin' to take a chance
I'll tell you sonny you ought to see my bank account
It paid big money but he sure can't spend it now

My late Uncle Charlie was demolition man
And he traveled all over the country blasting holes in this great land
And he carried a case of dynamite everywhere he went
And he'd smoke them big long cigar's 'til it got the best of him, but

It pays big money and boy I'm into that
It pays big money if you're willin' to take a chance
I'll tell you sonny you ought to see my bank account
It paid big money but he sure can't spend it now

Now the moral of this story
Is don't go getting yourself killed
And be kind to your rich relatives
And they might just leave you in their will
And that pays big money having foolish kin
It pays big money, I guess I owe it all to them
I'll tell you sonny you ought to see my bank account
It pays big money think I'll go spend some of it now