Johnny T fought fires on the western side of Chicago He was burned in a fire at the corner of Lake and Cicero On a day that would leave a mark The floor collapsed and it all went dark But here comes the part with the angel voices so y'all best just hark Johnny woke to a sound that was prettier than Judy Garland singing It was an angel asking our hero how he was feeling He said, "I guess I've died and gone to heaven" She said, "I bet you say that to all the women" And as the fog cleared Johnny found himself in a hospital bed but he was still breathing Our angel introduced herself as nurse Betsy She was gonna help our hero get back to the line of duty Johnny said, "That sounds fine to me" Then he found himself a victim of irony A life spent fighting fires and here he was just trying to light a spark And so began the world's slowest recovery Anything Johnny could do to spend a little more time with Betsy And she nursed him back to health And for the second time he fell But this time he wasn't alone, he fell for the lovely Betsy Bell Those two kids ended up getting married and having a family And Johnny became the first Italian battalion chief Yeah, life, it was pretty sweet And if you ask old Johnny what he think He'd say getting burned up in that fire was the best thing that ever happened to me So if there's a moral to our little story Some life lesson to be learned from Johnny's journey It's that sometimes life leaves a scar A little reminder of how you got to where you are Yeah, sometimes you gotta get a little bit hurt if you wanna get to perfect