50 Best Rock Songs About Outlaws
Classic Rock Songs on Life Outside the Law
There’s a certain energy that hums in tracks that lean toward chaos. The kind where freedom feels half-earned, half-stolen, like headlights cutting through the desert at midnight. Outlaw songs live in that blur between survival and self-destruction. You can feel the grit on the steering wheel, the static from a cheap radio, the way the world stretches wide and wild. Not every story ends clean. Some don’t end at all. These tracks pull from that space where rebellion sounds like breathing, and every riff feels like a getaway car turning the corner too fast.
In rock, the outlaw spirit shows up even when the lyrics aren’t spelling it out. It’s in the cracked voices, the messy solos, the restless pulse running through the chords. You can hear echoes of it across pop, rock, country, and R&B songs too—artists slipping out of rules, out of reach, out of patience. Sometimes it’s a character on the run, other times it’s a refusal to fit anywhere. A few tracks might not be literally tied to crime or running wild, but they carry that same edge, that flash of defiance that makes you want to drive until the sky turns strange.
The outlaws in these songs don’t all wear boots or leather jackets. Some hide behind metaphors, some crash straight into trouble, and a few sound like they’re laughing through the wreckage. There’s something raw in that, something loud and alive that never asks for forgiveness. These are the best rock songs about outlaws that bring that pulse to life.
Top 10 Outlaw Rock Songs
1. 'Jailbreak' by Thin Lizzy
2. 'Breaking the Law' by Judas Priest
3. 'I Fought the Law' by The Bobby Fuller Four
4. 'Band on the Run' by Paul McCartney & Wings
5. 'Out ta Get Me' by Guns N' Roses
6. 'Bad Reputation' by Joan Jett
7. 'Take the Money and Run' by Steve Miller Band
8. 'Bad Company' by Bad Company
9. 'Street Fighting Man' by The Rolling Stones
10. 'Copperhead Road' by Steve Earle
Best Songs About Rock Rebellion #11 to 20
11. 'Renegade' by Styx
12. 'My Generation' by The Who
13. 'Rebel Yell' by Billy Idol
14. 'Wanted Dead or Alive' by Bon Jovi
15. 'Highwayman' by The Highwaymen
16. 'The Regulator' by Clutch
17. 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' by AC/DC
18. 'Wanted Man' by Ratt
19. 'Hurricane' by Bob Dylan
20. 'Friend of the Devil' by Grateful Dead
Classic Rock Songs About Living Outside the Law #21 to 30
21. 'Rebel Rebel' by David Bowie
22. 'Jailhouse Rock' by Elvis Presley
23. 'Youth Gone Wild' by Skid Row
24. 'Anarchy in the U.K.' by Sex Pistols
25. 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' by The Beatles
26. 'Children of the Revolution' by T. Rex
27. 'Psycho Killer' by Talking Heads
28. 'We're Not Gonna Take It' by Twisted Sister
29. 'Chain Gang' by Sam Cooke
30. '18 and Life' by Skid Row
Rock Songs That Capture the Outlaw Theme #31 to 40
31. 'Wanted' by The Doobie Brothers
32. 'American Outlaw' by Whiskey Myers
33. 'Born to Be Wild' by Steppenwolf
34. 'The Last of the Famous International Playboys' by Morrissey
35. 'God Save the Queen' by Sex Pistols
36. 'Live and Let Die' by Wings
37. 'Roll Me Away' by Bob Seger
38. 'Bad Boy' by The J. Geils Band
39. 'Cocaine Blues' by Johnny Cash
40. 'Run Run Run' by The Velvet Underground
Hard Rock Outlaw Attitude Songs #41 to 50
41. 'Crime in the City' by Neil Young
42. 'The Road Goes on Forever' by Robert Earl Keen
43. 'Shot Down in Flames' by AC/DC
44. 'I Shot the Sheriff' by Eric Clapton
45. 'Runaway' by Del Shannon
46. 'Rebels' by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
47. 'London Dungeon' by Misfits
48. 'Mama Tried' by Merle Haggard
49. 'Criminal' by Fiona Apple
50. 'Folsom Prison Blues' by Johnny Cash
© 2025 Carson McQueen
