I'm sorry to say that you don't know me 

I'm sad in ways you never understood 

Each time I try to tell the ugly truth 

You always let it pass you by 

You said I 'd never tell you a lie 

Just because I could 

Did you really think I was a bad man? 

You always said that that should be my middle name 

But you don't know the half of it 

You don't know how that name fits 

You don't know my hidden shame 



Hidden shame, shame, shame 

That I can't get free 

From the blame and the torture 

And the misery 

Must it be my secret for eternity? 

Till you know my hidden shame you really don't know me 



Well, there's a different kind of prison 

And it don't even have to look much like a cell 

It's already on your mind 

Boy, we can see it in your eyes 

So, here's the bars and walls as well 



Well, you know I'm never coming home, babe 

You said you'd stand by me until I cleared my name 

Sure it's easy to be strong 

When you know the charge is wrong 

But the days and weeks get long 

When you've got a hidden shame 



CHORUS 



I had a friend when I was just a boy 

We were like brothers, we would run and hide 

And we went walking on a high hillside 

And I really don't how it happened 

He turned to me and had this strange look in his eye 

And not a single word was spoken 

I must have pushed him, but I don't remember why 

And all at once, he lay there broken 

And I walked down without him and I didn't even sigh 



CHORUS 



They say you always hurt the one you love 

And I'm not saying if I did or if I didn't 

But like my shame, that kind of love is always hidden 

They locked me up here for the ideas in my head 

They never got me for the thing I really did 



CHORUS