Johnny Paycheck Story                                   by Billy Don Burns
The first time I remember Donald Eugene Lytle a.k.a Johnny Paycheck was at Charlie Ammerman's house in Donelson, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. I met & became friends with Charlie when I recorded for 4-Star Records with Joe Johnson in 1977. I ran into Charlie in 1987 and he asked me if I'd like to co-produce an album with him on Johnny Paycheck. I accepted. We worked out an agreement that satisfied the two of us. Charlie told me that Johnny was staying at his house in Nashville for a few days & that it would be a good time for Johnny and I to meet. He asked me to come by his house the next morning. When I showed up about ten thirty, Johnny was sitting at the kitchen table with Charlie. I gave a friendly knock on the door and entered to the sound of, "Come on in!"	Billy Don and Johnny, 1987 Taping a Television commercial in Nashville, Tennessee
My eyes connected with Johnny's almost immediately. I nodded. Charlie broke the silence with "Check, this is Billy Don Burns". Johnny and I shook hands. Charlie told me to help myself to a cup of coffee, after which I sat down at the table opposite Paycheck and joined in the conversation about a new album on Johnny. I mostly listened to what they had to say, interjecting very little. These guys had worked together before and I wanted to take it easy, not appearing too aggressive to this country music superstar that I had just met. We had a good first meeting. I agreed to get some songs together for the first session while Charlie would make the arrangements concerning the studio, time and place.  Charlie booked the first recording session at Gene Breeden's studio. We had a good session and every thing went great. Johnny recorded a song of mine, "The Outlaw and the Preacher". Again, I kept a low profile, making most of my suggestions to Charlie. I knew I had to win Johnny's respect if we were going to be working together. I could tell he was not the kind of guy that you should move too fast with. I wanted this relationship to work. Charlie made a deal to buy Fireside Studio. We recorded the second session there with Doyle Grisham as the engineer. This was probably the best session ever of the "Outlaw at the Cross" project. Ken McDuffie and I had a music publishing company called Gypsy Women Music. Johnny recorded three or four of Ken's songs from this company. Afterwards, Charlie and I went out and had a couple of cocktails to celebrate the good session while Johnny went home with John Long, his band leader. Part of the agreement we made with Johnny was that his band would be used to record the album. John Long was guitar player and leader. His brother Rick Long played bass. The drummer was Danny Breeden, Chuck Mandez played steel guitar and Jerry Pearson played piano. Johnny didn't have a fiddle player in his band at the time so we hired Kenny Sears, a buddy of mine who was in the Mel Tillis Band. We had another session booked for the next day. It was to start at 2:00 in the afternoon. I left Charlie and went home early to get ready for the next session. Doyle Grisham, the studio engineer, called me and said that Randy Travis was recording tomorrow also and had contacted him to see if he could play steel guitar on the session. Doyle wanted to know if he could get out of his commitment to engineer for us so he could do the guitar gig for Travis. He told me that he knew a guy who subbed for him before as an engineer and that he was really good. I called Charlie to discuss the matter and we agreed that if Doyle said the guy could handle the gig then he would work. I called Doyle back and told him to book the other engineer. Charlie called me the next morning & asked me to go by the bank & pick up a couple thousand dollars to give Paycheck as part of our recording agreement commitment. I picked up the money and by the time I got to the studio it was two twenty in the afternoon. As I walked through the door I heard Johnny say "Could someone move this mic stand out of here for me" I could see Johnny through the glass in the studio. He was in the vocal booth. In the control room I could see the engineer standing behind the console talking to a couple of people. I didn't know any of them. I heard Johnny again say, "Could someone move this boom out of here? It's in my face and I can't move." When I arrived, I had noticed that Charlie was on the phone with someone, upstairs over the studio. Johnny and the band were in the studio getting ready to record. I could see Johnny's dilemma. He was in a small vocal booth & there was this big mic boom in front of him. It was pushed inside the booth so far that Johnny was too cramped to be comfortable to sing his vocal part. I walked up to the front of the recording console and told the engineer to move the mic stand for Johnny. He turned from the people he was talking to & said "He can move it himself! Who the hell are you"? I replied, "I'm the mother fucker who's going to give you a lesson in insubordination". When I said that, he started making his way from behind the console to get to me. As he came closer to me, I noticed that the big boy with the small brain began to lift his pullover sweater up over his head to remove it. I saw my chance & I took full advantage of what would hopefully be his last mistake. I began to pound the insubordinate bastard as hard and fast as I could in his sweater covered face. I pounded him through the control room and out the door into the musician's break room. I could hear a cry for renegotiation from the newly unemployed engineer as I put the boot leather to him. I guided him out of the break room into another room at the back of the building. He was now in the corner between a coke machine and the wall. Charlie Ammerman had thrown his arms around me and was pulling me backward saying "He has had enough, Hoss". About that time Johnny came running into the room and slid up to the wounded figure lying in the corner. Pointing a finger into his face he said, "I seen everything and you started it". Johnny grabbed me and gave me a big hug and said, "You'll break him of that". I told Johnny that I was sorry about what happened but I couldn't handle the guy's disrespect for him. Johnny said "Don't worry about it Billy, we can record anytime. Hey, why don't you board the bus and go with us to Alabama. We got a show tonight in Huntsville". I went with Johnny and the band. I felt like I was now a legitimate part of the Paycheck organization and it felt good. Charlie called him Check, the band called him Dad, and I called him Johnny. It was a cold icy February morning in 1988. I called my old friend Ken McDiffie a.k.a. Cadillac Johnson, and asked if he wanted to go with me to pick up Johnny in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was supposed to pick him up and carry him to his sentencing in Hillsboro, Ohio where he had been convicted of shooting a guy in a bar. Cadillac said that he wanted to go so we headed to the Cincinnati airport which is actually in Covington, Kentucky. There were several news reporters and TV cameras waiting for Johnny when he arrived. Johnny gave a brief statement. Then the three of us headed for the new Lincoln Continental that I had leased at the time. Johnny and I got in the front and Cadillac got in the back. I didn't want Johnny to go to the penitentiary but I figured that it was inevitable. He had done hard time twice before and after all, this was pretty serious. Johnny said that he was going to think positive that the judge wouldn't send him to prison. I said "If you do go Johnny, why don't I come into the prison and record a live album with you and a prison audience?" He said "Yeah, and if we do, call Merle Haggard. He'll help". When we arrived at the Hillsboro courthouse, two state troopers were waiting for us. When Johnny got out of the Lincoln, one of the troopers cuffed his hands behind his back to take him inside. I do not remember the judge's name, but he didn't look like he was the kind of guy who was impressed with country music. Johnny's lawyer had Cadillac and I get on the stand and give a character reference for Johnny. Star Magazine, the big grocery store rag, was there. When I got back to California a couple days later, I bought a copy of their next issue which had a picture of Johnny with his hands handcuffed and mentioned the names of the players including Ken and myself. Johnny was sentenced to seven years that day. He was to do his time at C.C.I., the Chillocothe Correctional Institution in Ohio. Johnny served about three years of the sentence. The first time I went to C.C.I to see Johnny I met with Warden Arthur Tate. He told me there was no way I could do the prison album. After probably fifteen meetings with him he finally gave me the go ahead. I informed Johnny of the good news. It was the happiest that I had seen him since he was incarcerated. I asked him which musicians he wanted me to hire for the album. He said, "I want Jim Vest on steel, Cliff Parker on guitar, and The Fat Boy on drums. They all played on "Take This Job and Shove It". I said "What about the other musicians?" and he said to choose whoever I wanted. So I made Vest the band leader and he hired the other musicians. I had enough bases to cover trying to get all the people in place and secure $75,000. I had met Merle Haggard a few times but I didn't have a phone number on him. I knew Biff Adams who had been Merle's drummer for years. I called Biff and told him about the prison album and what Johnny had said about asking Merle to be a part of it. Biff took my phone number and said he would give the message to Merle. Merle called me back the same day. He told me the only way he could do the show was if we sent a Lear jet to Kansas City, where he was playing the night before the prison gig. We would have to pick him up and then fly him to Chillocothe for our gig, then fly him on to Dallas, Texas where he was playing after the prison show. I said "No problem Merle". The Lear jet cost over $10,000 but it was worth it. Merle brought three musicians with him, Biff on drums, Mike Leach on bass and the new guitar player that had taken Roy Nichol's place when he retired. I hired Johnny Rosen who had a tractor trailer with a studio inside of it. He brought two 24 track recording machines. We recorded everything. I recorded the rehearsals and the two shows. The auditorium inside the prison only held 1,100 people so we did two shows. When the tape had to be changed on one machine the other was recording so as not to miss anything. I used fifteen rolls of two inch Ampax recording tape. That's one hell of a lot of tape. I hired Neal James to direct the video portion of the event. We had four beta cameras, three stationary and one rover. A sound company came from Nashville so that the prison audience could hear the show. They also supplied the monitor sound for the stage. Wally Dow and his assistant filled that entity. I also hired Steve Singleton to assist me with this production. There were fifty two of us involved in this production who went into the maximum security prison. Then there was the media. I can't remember all the media that I let come, but Warden Tate told me if I did not give his office their names they would not be allowed inside the prison. They had to go through me. I remember the day before the event. A producer with Entertainment Tonight called me and said that they were not going to come because they heard Current Affairs would be there. I had a lot on me at the time. I did not even have the money for the project in place at this point and was still using my own and whatever I could borrow. I told the Entertainment Tonight producer "That is great! Don't come and don't call me again either!" I slammed down the phone and hung up. He immediately called back and said "Hey, I apologize and we will be there. I just thought we had an exclusive" I didn't get the $75,000 that I needed in place until the afternoon before we left for Chillicothe. Jim Vest suggested that I call Hank Cochran, who would have the money. I had only briefly met Hank one time at a party at Mel Tillis' house in Ashland City, TN, but I figured it was worth a try. I called Hank and he said he was definitely interested. I drove out to his house in Hendersonville and we made a deal. The album was going to happen. I believe the version of "Sing Me Back Home" by Merle that we captured on tape that day inside C.C.I. is his greatest version. I remember Merle telling the prisoners "You know I wrote a lot of songs in the joint and most of them wouldn't have been worth
much unless I could have sold them by the pound. But one day I wrote this one & it was just how I was feeling at the time". Merle began to sing: The warden led a prisoner...Down the hallway to his  doom...I stood up to say goodbye like all the rest…And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell...Let my guitar playing friend do my request…Let him sing me back home… It was so intense, so real. And then Merle played the ride on his Telecaster. It was like a simple ride but with such feeling it touched me deeply. It seemed like Merle's knees buckled at some point. I remember it put chill bumps on me. It was so great. I will never never forget that moment. On the way to the prison, Merle wrote a song exclusively for for the prison album, "I'm Learning From Inside The Walls". The song came off great and the prisoners loved it. This is probably Merle's only recording of the song. At one point we had to shut down and everyone was told to stay put. There had been an escape attempt. Two inmates were missing. It took over an hour but they found the two guys lying on
	The Prison Project Billy Don Burns, Merle Haggard, Neal James, & Johnny Paycheck
top of a building. I never learned exactly what their plan was. After we got the go ahead to proceed, I asked a guard where the two convicts were that made the escape attempt. He said that Warden Tate probably had them in his office and was beating the hell out of them. I studied the guard's face and I believed he was telling it like it was. The warden was a big man and I had looked him in the eyes enough to know that he was a man who meant what he said and who could handle himself sufficiently to say the least. I think that Warden Tate and I won each other's respect. I found him to be a fair man, and a no nonsense, no bullshit person. I was inside C.C.I. many times and there were over 2,200 inmates. The warden had a lot of responsibility. It was a big outfit for one man to ride herd over, and these weren't school children who were being disciplined. This was a maximum security prison with some of Ohio's most notorious outlaws. I eventually got to know my way around in there. Almost everybody doing time at C.C.I. that I met had shot or killed someone - a lover, a stranger in a robbery, whatever. Most of them were in for homicide. Johnny was a celebrity. He wasn't treated any differently than any other prisoner by the staff, but every inmate knew who he was and Johnny was the man. He was a superstar who had something in common with them. He had messed up & he was doing time just like them at C.C.I. Johnny introduced me to a gentleman incarcerated with him that I'll always remember. His name was Elmo Lincoln. Johnny introduced him as Tippy, his best friend. Elmo was somewhat of a celebrity himself. I believe he was 67 years old and had been down as they call it for over fifty years. He told me his story once when we sat down and talked for an hour or so. I believe it was a grocery store robbery. Elmo told me that his brother and a state trooper had died that day and Elmo had been wounded. He said he had been on the floor board of the car using his hand to accelerate the automobile. He crashed the car and was captured. Elmo sang and wrote songs and Johnny wanted him to sing a couple on the prison show. I worked it out with Warden Tate . Johnny also recorded two of Elmo's songs that day. Johnny also recorded two of my songs on the prison album. "Old Country Song" and one I wrote on my way back to Nashville after one of my first visits with Johnny in prison. The song was called "Chillicothe". I wrote it before I became friends with the warden. I went into this room to visit Johnny and there were probably 25 or 30 other visitors. The inmates were brought in from another entrance. There was a guard with a shotgun sitting in a chair elevated above us and another who was walking around inside the room. At one point Johnny whispered to me, "Watch what you say to that yard dog", referring to the guard who was walking around in the room. "He listens to everything we say". On my way back to Nashville that night I was thinking about Johnny whispering and calling the guard a yard dog. I wrote the prison song "Chillicothe" that night. Every show that I was ever at with Johnny, he had always closed with "Shove It". On the two shows we did that day at the prison, Johnny closed with "Chillicothe". There’s a lot of other places I rather be...Your razor wire and yard dogs...Keep me from being free...Chillicothe You got a hold on Me
The roar of the inmates drowned out Johnny and the band as he sang it. Later Johnny told me that Chillicothe was a smash. When our entourage of musicians, cameramen, recording engineers, sound technicians, etc. arrived back in Nashville, I had fifteen rolls of two inch recording tape. We recorded at 30 IPS, another reason I burned up so much tape. We also had the video tape with the monumental project documented. We captured the entire event - two live shows with the prison audience. We recorded Johnny's hits "Take This Job and Shove It", "I'm The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised", "Don't Take Her She's All I Got", plus Elmo's two and my two. We recorded a song that Hank and Jim Vest wrote "Will I Be Free When I'm Free". Johnny wanted to record "Jail House Rock", the old Elvis hit, so we also did that one. Merle recorded seven or eight songs on each show. "Mama Tried" is another one that I remember Haggard slaying us all with. I had wanted to get a duet with Johnny and Merle if possible. I brought this Whitey Shafer tune "I'll Break Out Again Tonight", and it turned out to be the duet that I had hoped for with these two legendary superstars. The next day I ran into Tanya Tucker, one of my oldest friends in the business whom I had known since "Delta Dawn" was a hit in 1972. She wanted to know about the prison album and we came up with the idea for her to overdub her voice on "Jailhouse Rock". At the time, Hank had a 24 track recording studio in the upstairs of his house. Tanya came out that night and as usual, sang her heart out. She was nursing her first baby, Presley, the entire time. The song begins " The Warden threw a party in the county jail." I had Tanya sing "Warden Tate threw a party in the county jail". It came out great. It sounded like Tanya was right there with Johnny at the prison. I believe that every time we 'went red' as we say in the business, it was when we were recording. It was always magic. The night that I overdubbed Tanya was the only time I ever got to work on the project again. While I had the tapes that night, I did a rough mix on five of the tunes. "Chillicothe", "Jailhouse Rock", "Will I Be Free When I'm Free", "I'm The Only Hell Mama Ever Raised" and the Haggard tune, "I'm Learning From Inside the Walls". Hank shelved the project and I've never worked on it again. It broke my heart. I know that this was one of the greatest events ever captured in recording history. I don't know why it was me who was chosen to capture it, but it was. It seemed like everyone in the industry was offended that I did the project. It was like "Who is this guy? Hell, he don't deserve a project of this magnitude!" CBS got all bent out of shape because Merle recorded on the project. Merle was an artist for them at the time. Joel Katz of Atlanta, GA, representing CBS as legal counsel, sent me an order to cease & desist.  Merle said "To hell with them! I can record for whoever I want!!" Merle ended up leaving the label.