Johnny Paycheck
Johnny Paycheck talks about starting out in his singing career at age fourteen when he ran away from home and hoboed around the country, singing in bars wherever he’d find work a hot meal and a place to sleep.
Johnny Paycheck -I got into something when I was a kid that I couldn’t back out of, and that was country music. It was because of the love I feel for the music and everything that comes with it. And, there’s a lot of pitfalls that come with country music. Especially back then the hardships we had to go through then, these young kids don’t have to go through today.
Johnny Paycheck talks about touring with country legend George Jones who was a close friend and fellow country artists on tours in the late fifties and into the early sixties.
Johnny Paycheck -I knew that I could make in this business because I knew his (Jones) style of country music and I sounded like George ,you know? It was a lot of fun and a lot of heartache and that’s what the country music life was all about back then. Life. When I was touring with George Jones back then, that son of a gun would be sleeping in the back of the car while I drove across the country. I was just a kid, we’d get to places where we’d be getting ready to play and George would go to the hotel and start drinking. I’d have to go to the rehearsals for him. Man, I’ll tell you it was sure some hard living. Me and Jones we’d saw a lot back then!
Where does he see himself fitting in the Grande scheme of things in regards to country music?
Johnny Paycheck-I try to tell these younger folks today, that I am the Huck Finn of country music. I didn’t set out to become him, but when I left home at a young age that’s just what happened. I am someone who stories and movies can be written and made about. I wasn’t trying to prove anything mind you, I was just going through life, it was just my way. I never worried about the dangers of riding a freight train or the trouble messing with another man’s woman could bring me. Sleeping out in ditches, while I was bumming freight trains across the country, that was what just came natural to me.
Now a day, you might get killed doing that, but back then it never entered my mind. I was a gypsy. Now a days, these young kids have got $500,000 tour buses and they’re stayin’ in five star hotels and some of them are make millions of dollars and you know what, they’re cryin’ and whinin’ about how tough they have it and how they’re not a makin’ any money! Well you know, back then when I was first starting out, I’d wander into a town and all I’d need was a guitar to play at the bar and a coach to sleep on in the morning and I was happy. People liked me, I guess I just lived on personality for a lot of years.
I have a God given thing especially back then, people, whoever I met, Really liked me. My ability to sing and do what I did well, I could go to any town, and find the local water hole, and whoever was playing, well I’d get them to let me get up and sing and they would take to me right quick. They’d take me to their house and feed me and let me sleep on their coach. That was in the Midwest and South in the beginning and then of course I finally went west and stayed out West working with old George Jones. I would catch a ride and go west and play with George. Back then there was country music in Nashville country, Country & Western music and Western Swing,and I was a little bit different. Everybody liked me back then. Even Bill Monroe,a great man, and the Bluegrass people like me. I could go anywhere and all faucets of the country music industry liked me. I was blessed with that.
How does Johnny Paycheck see things currently (In 1998) and in the Good OLE Days of country, during his heyday?
Johnny Paycheck-Back when I was trying to make it things were really different. It was done with solely talent, you had to have talent or you went nowhere. Today big money helps to open the door for a lot of younger kids. When I did it talent opened the door. Now a day though, I’ll tell you it’s all big money and there’s not a whole lot of talent to go around. And, I guess the old timers like me, the folks who helped to make this town, well we’re just kind of overlooked by the big money business that’s driving country music today. I watch everything going on in country music today. Because lately, I’ve been starting to work with a lot of the young people. There’s a few young people (Tracy Byrd Mark Chesnutt, Aaron Tippin and Tim McGraw.) I’m working on two projects right now. One is collaboration with Mark Chesnutt for a duet and Aaron Tippin has agreed to do one with me too. All these things and their has been very important has been very important to me. I want to rise right up back to where I was and Aaron has been really helpful to me, those who still care about real country music and us old timers. One problem though, my health hasn’t been all that good, but I’m trying to get a tour together anyway.
What does Johnny Paycheck like about the current, new brand of country music?
Johnny Paycheck-I really love a lot of things that are happening in country music, because it’s gone worldwide now. Instead of selling out 5,000 seaters they’re selling out 50,000 seaters. And do guys like me see a penny of that, no way. I love a lot of the new artists Tim McGraw is a very good friend of mine. When he first started,he came to me and he made me feel really good because he asked me about a lot of advice about how to get his career and music started. He told me he grew up on my music and we became good friends.
What’s Johnny Paycheck see that’s wrong about the big money in country music today?
Johnny Paycheck-Greed. The problem I see now is that everybody at times sounds a like. If you have one Garth Brooks then you have ten Garth Brooks. They’re all competing for that Top 10 sound. Instead of the individuality that was strong when I was doing it years ago.
Johnny Paycheck talks about the Little Darling recording sessions.
Johnny Paycheck -When I was doing the arrangements with the Little Darling songs and working with George Jones, I could take those three or four chord songs and see what I could do with the music and the arrangements. I liked to do arrangements that nobody had ever done or that nobody wanted to do. It’s taken all these years for this stuff to come forward.
Johnny Paycheck talks about his songwriting style.
Johnny Paycheck -I try to write and sing about life because life is what’s important. I don’t write many songs about trucks or trees because I like to sing about the heart, hurt and pain and everything in between that makes people happy. Off beat things, like prisons. I was listening to a little of my music the other day and it really amazed me because I haven’t heard it for years. I listened to the new album I’ve got out while I was on the bus the other day and it would hold up with anything that’s on the country radio stations today.
Johnny Paycheck talks about some personal facts in regards to his hometown and family.
Johnny Paycheck -Right now,I live right outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, my son Jonathan is started in school and I don’t want him to leave that school district until he graduates. I’ve been married to my wife Sharon for 25 years. I’ve been in concert two to four days a week for 42 years. Except for the time I was in prison!
Johnny Paycheck looks ahead and discusses what he foresees for his career at the time of the interview.
Johnny Paycheck-I want to record country music once again. I’ve still got a little to contribute. I’m working on that level. I’ve got two deals I’m working on and another just came out of New York, it’s for a lot of money and they want to and do some things with me and my music. There’s a need for the older country artists like me and Hagg. I’ve watched this happening for a couple of years now. It’s not a comeback, because I never went anywhere! I’ve been out in the honky tonk trenches for all these years. I want some new product, I want some videos, I want to participate. I’m here for a reason and that’s how I look at it. Through all my trials and tribulations , I’ve maintained and the country music fans have stuck with me. They want me. So, I’m here to do this, until it’s over, I really believe this. I’m a fighter of life. I stay with it.