If you're headin' down the highway
Down about route ten,
Get off at the last exit
And take it around the bend
You'll find a small town
But don't go hangin' 'round.
'Cause hate lives in a small town
'Least that's what I have found.
Moms are in the kitchens
And they're baking pies.
They smell so good, they're made to
Cover up the smell of lies
There in a small town.
But pies don't cure all ills.
And hate lives in a small town,
That's why those moms take pills.

Well, I went to the big city
And everyone was wearing black.
They saw that in my home town,
They wouldn't stand for that.
I saw kids all covered in tattoos,
With mohawks and purple hair.
But what really [bad word] me,
Was no one seemed to care!

Well, the Knights they beat the Badgers
When they played down on the square
But they saved the biggest beatings
For a kid with longish hair.
They're in a small town.
That kid was me one year.
'Cause hate lives in a small town
Moreso if you seem [bad word] 

The pastors in the pulpit,
Preaching righteous lies.
And the congregation, they don't know
He slept with all their wives.
They're in a small town,
And it's so plain to see
That hate lives in a small town,
As does adultery.

I went to the big city,
With my clothes in a pack.
When I got off at the station,
There was no turning back.
I met freaks and creeps and weirdos,
Loose women and some geeks.
And they were the nicest gosh darn people,
I could ever hope to meet.

When you roll into a small town,
They're nice as they can be.
But at night they put on sheets,
And hang your sad [bad word] from a tree.
They're in a small town,
Don't dare be different.
'Cause hate lives in a small town
Unless you're just like them.

If you're living in a small town,
And you feel you're in a vice.
Just buy yourself a ticket, kid,
Just take my advice.
And leave the small town,
Be quick as you can be.
Get out of that small town,
And you'll be free like me.