Billy said when he was seventeen,
There ain't nothin left here for me now,
A small town boy with American dreams
He was California bound,
He said "I'm gonna make it,
Damned if I don't try,
You know I just won't take it,
This life won't pass me by",

Billy grew into a blue-eyed handsome man,
The road it left him hard and lean,
He lost his heart to a southern girl,
She made him feel just like James Dean,
And her name was Rita,
She said her love was deep,
Billy bought her promises,
She could never keep

[Chorus:]
Strangers in paradise,
Long and lonely nights,
Never had a dream come true,
Strangers in paradise,
Long and lonely nights,
Searched their whole lives through

Billy rode those highway lines,
Till they one day brought him back home,
He took a job,
And he took a wife,
And he worked real hard for things of his own,

Said "I'm gonna make it,
Damned if I don't try,
You know I just won't take it,
This life won't pass me by",

[Chorus]