Empty Chair

We commandeer a corner table At our small town diner Just five or six old men throwin' out corny ol' one-liners They pat the heads of children Give friendly nods to strangers They sure seem quick to laugh Makes you think they're slow to anger Those guys were front-line brothers Their lives depended on each other They were soldiers long before they were men Yeah, the ones that somehow survived Came home, went on to build their lives Never chargin' us a penny for the debt we owe to them But you can almost smell the gun smoke And the foxholes that they shared On the days they raise their coffees And toast the empty chair They'll ask you where you're from What you do, what you've done But don't go thinkin' they're all talk 'Cause you wouldn't wanna piss them off Those guys were front-line brothers Their lives depended on each other They were soldiers long before they were men Yeah, the ones that somehow survived Came home, went on to build their lives Never chargin' us a penny for the debt we owe to them But you can almost smell the gun smoke And the foxholes that they shared On the days they raise their coffees And toast the empty chair They'll tell you anything you wanna know But there's one place they just won't go 'Cause they don't wanna ruin our dreams By tellin' us the things they've seen Those guys were front-line brothers Their lives depended on each other They were soldiers long before they were men Yeah, the ones that somehow survived Came home, went on to build their lives Never chargin' us a penny for the debt we owe to them And you can almost smell the gun smoke And the foxholes that they shared On the days they raise their coffees And toast the empty chair To the brother who ain't there We salute you