Sunday Morning Country Classic Spotlight to Feature Johnny Paycheck [VIDEOS]

His fans know Johnny Paycheck as a hell-raising country outlaw singer. But he was a songwriter, husband and father, too. Oh, and he was an outlaw.

Born May 31, 1938 in Greenfield, Ohio, his birth name Donald Eugene Lytle. He could play electric, acoustic, bass and steel guitar, sing and was a prolific songwriter. In fact, he wrote Tammy Wynette's debut hit song, 1966’s “Apartment Number 9.”

Paycheck had a string of country hits as well which include “She’s All I Got,” “Someone to Give my Love To,” and “I’m the Only Hell (Mama Ever Raised).”  But it was the working man’s anthem, “Take This Job and Shove It” scoring a number one on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles Chart, written by David Allen Coe and spending two weeks at the top of the chart in January 1978.

Johnny Paycheck had trouble with the law, spent time in a military prison in the 1950s for assaulting a naval officer and court marshaled. He also shot a man in 1985, grazing the man’s head in Ohio.  After several years spent fighting the sentence, he spent 22 months in prison before being pardoned by the Ohio Governor Richard Celeste.  The most successful of his later singles was “Old Violin” which reached number 21 on Billboard’s Country Chart in 1986.  Married twice, Dinorah from 1956-1965 one child and married Sharon Rae from 1969 until his death, they produced one child.  The singer/songwriter died in his sleep February 19

The most successful of his later singles was “Old Violin” which reached number 21 on Billboard’s Country Chart in 1986.  Married twice, Dinorah from 1956-1965 one child and married Sharon Rae from 1969 until his death, they produced one child.  The singer/songwriter died in his sleep February 19.

Paycheck was married twice. First to Dinorah from 1956-1965 whom he had one child with. He was married to Sharon Rae from 1969 until his death -- they produced one child.

Paycheck was diagnosed with emphysema and other medical problems.The singer/songwriter died in his sleep early February 19^th at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He was 64.

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