I never quite understood the meaning of the chorus either (despite knowing the phrase "knock on wood" until this morning) Let me see if I can explain the semantics of it...
He's not saying he's "never had to knock on wood" as in - he's never had to perform the action of knocking on wood - though that seems to be what the common interpretation is.
It seems instead that there are all these lyrics about rising above adversity in a do-or-die situation. He's never had to do that. Knock on wood.
So if you added a bit of punctuation to the song, it would look like this:
Never had to - knock on wood,
but I know someone who has...
I never quite understood the meaning of the chorus either (despite knowing the phrase "knock on wood" until this morning) Let me see if I can explain the semantics of it...
He's not saying he's "never had to knock on wood" as in - he's never had to perform the action of knocking on wood - though that seems to be what the common interpretation is.
It seems instead that there are all these lyrics about rising above adversity in a do-or-die situation. He's never had to do that. Knock on wood.
So if you added a bit of punctuation to the song, it would look like this:
Never had to - knock on wood, but I know someone who has...
Does that make any sense?