Story of Johnny Paycheck's Death                by Billy Don Burns
I had hired John Lomax as a consultant for about six months in 2002. I had put out the album "Train Called Lonesome". I was operating on a shoe string budget and needed any help that I could get. I knew Lomax was a respected name in Nashville because of his uncle, who had made some of the earliest recordings of folk and blues music. I had seen Lomax around and someone had told me that he liked my music. John and I agreed on a monthly retainer. I lived up to my obligation with him, however I was disappointed in retaining him. I felt he contributed very little and always seemed to have a negative attitude. I never told him of my disappointment. His company is called Kinetic Management. I looked kinetic up in the dictionary and it means "energetic" or "dynamic", but to me it felt like his company should be called Un-Kinetic Management. In January of 2003 John Lomax called and asked if I had anything to do with The Johnny Paycheck Prison Project. I told him that I had produced it and he asked me what the status of the project was. I told him that Hank Cochran had secured thefinancing for me to do the project and that when Hank and I went our separate ways, Hank secured all the video and audio tapes and claimed that they were his. Lomax told me that Brad Turcotte of Compadre Records in Houston, TX wanted the project. Lomax said that he would give Hank a call. A couple days later Lomax called me back and said that he couldn't get a response out of Hank. He wanted to know if there was any way possible that I could get the Project, since I had produced it. Lomax was pursuing this with such persistence that I thought "I wish the bastard would have worked on my career with such diligence". I told him that there was no way that I was going to talk to Hank about the Project, that I really didn't want to speak to him anymore. I told Lomax that I had a gospel album that I had produced on Paycheck before he went to prison called "Outlaw at the Cross". I informed him that I did the gospel album before I ever knew Hank Cochran and that if Compadre Records wanted it, it was available. He said he would call Compadre and tell them about the album. Lomax called back and said that they were interested but that Compadre wanted a new agreement with Johnny and asked if I could get him to sign one. I told Lomax that there was no way I would ask Johnny to sign anything without at least offering him a couple thousand dollars. He agreed to tell Compadre what I said. The next time I talked to Lomax he asked me "Who are Glen Ferguson and Martie Martell?" I told him that Ferguson was Johnny's manager before Charlie Ammerman and that I had heard that Martell was his manager at present. He said "Well, we need to go through these guys for anything concerning Paycheck". I said "That is incorrect John, we will get nowhere going through those guys. I have tried to deal with Ferguson before and found him to be arrogant. I never liked the way he talked about Johnny. They do not give a damn about my project". Being the asinine bastard that he was, he contacted Ferguson and Martell against my advice anyway. They told him that Johnny was so far gone that he couldn't even recognize anyone and there was no way that I could see him. I called around and found out that Johnny was at Trevecca Nursing Home on Murfreesboro Road in Nashville. I called my best friend, Mack Vickery, and asked him if he would go see Johnny with me. Mack had written one of Johnny's biggest hits "I Am The Only Hell Mama Ever Raised". Mack said that he would like to go with me. On the way to the facility where Johnny was, I told Mack "Hey, let's get Johnny a ghetto blaster and take him some music". Mack told me that he was with Johnny one time and that Johnny had told him that "Mobile Bay" by Merle Haggard was his favorite song. So we stopped by Circuit City and bought a nice little blaster and went by Tower Records & picked up the Haggard album with the song that. Mack had mentioned. Then we went to Johnny's bedside. He immediately recognized both of us, but could not talk. Mack and I both knew that Johnny was never going to leave this bed alive. When we played the Haggard song, Johnny grinned. I am quite sure that it was Johnny's last smile. As we were leaving, I asked the nurse if Sharon, Johnny's wife, or his son Bo had been there to see him. She said that nobody had come. I know that hurt Johnny. I know for a fact that he loved Bo. Johnny was dying and he was alone and it was all so sad. A million things were running through my mind. I remember John Long calling me a few days before Christmas in 1987 to tell me that Johnny had gotten off the bus in Phoenix to fly home. John wanted to know if I had heard from him and I had not. We both were concerned because Johnny didn't do well by himself in those days. His drinking and drugging were out of hand. We both understood because we had been there. I had been there before and I have been there since. I told John that if I heard from him, I would call, and he said he would do the same. We wished each other a Merry Christmas and hung up the phone. I knew Johnny's sentencing was coming up in February and I just wanted everything to be ok. On Christmas Eve morning the phone rang and my wife, Penny, answered it. "It's Johnny. He wants to talk to you". As I took the phone, I didn't know what to expect. "Billy, I'm in Vegas. Can you send me some money"? “Johnny, I don’t have it anymore.” I thought of Charlie Ammerman who had gone broke with Johnny and George Jones because of the effect of alcohol and drugs. I hadn't lost as much as Charlie but I was getting in bad financial shape. I told him, "Johnny, I don't have it anymore. If you're in Vegas, go down to the Barbary Coast and book you a gig and get an advance". Johnny said "I have already done that". I said, "Johnny, I can send you fifty bucks. That's all I can afford". He told me to send it. Before he hung up, he asked, "Billy, can you send Bo a Christmas present for me"? I told him that I would and then I sent the money to Vegas. I gave Penny a hundred bucks and asked her to go to the mall and buy Bo a present. Bo was ten or eleven years old. I don't remember what she bought him, but I remember taking the wrapped present to the airport post office in Nashville, and overnighting it to Atlanta. I sent it as if it was from his daddy. After Mack and I saw Johnny at the nursing home that night, I thought about a lot of things. I never said much on the way back to the Spence Manor ,where I operated out of my friend Leonard Lowthian's office when ever I was in Nashville. The next day Lomax called and was talking to me as if he was a plantation owner chastising a peasant. He was now friends with Ferguson & Martell. They were pissed that Mack & I had gone to see Johnny. I told Lomax they could all kiss my ass. I called Marty Martell & told him to kiss my ass also. I wrote the following letter & sent it to Brad Turcotte of Compadre Records.
1\21\2003 Dear Brad, John just informed me that everyone from Nick Hunter to Marty Martell to Glen Ferguson is upset with me. These guys don't want my album out competing with their Paycheck projects. Brad, I took a thousand dollars cash with me when I went to see Paycheck. I knew the cash would sew up the deal with him, however Johnny is about dead and can not even talk. Mack Vickery, who wrote I'm The Only Hell My Mamma Ever Raised, #1 for Johnny, went with me. I took Johnny a new ghetto blaster and some Merle Haggard C.D.s, he smiled at that. I just got off the phone with an old friend of mine who lives in North Carolina, Charlie Ammerman. Charlie used to manage George Jones and Johnny Paycheck and some others. I told Charlie about my Paycheck contract burning up and what was transpiring concerning all of this. Charlie told me that he knew the vultures who didn't want this album to surface. He also informed me that he had enough paperwork to cover the album. I told him I if he did and we did a deal that he had one half of my part of the project. Charlie also told me that he recently spoke with Merle haggard and Merle told him if he ever released the last Wynn Stewart album that he would like to sing on it. That album has never been released. Charlie also managed Bobby Helms. He has masters such as Jingle Bell Rock. He also has a live album on Johnny Paycheck. I will give you a number how to contact Charlie. He is a good guy, I hope you guys do some business. Also, congratulations on signing Billy Joe and Billy Ray. That tells me alot about you and your organization. They are both great artists and people. Sincerely, Billy Don Burns
A couple days later I got the following letter from Lomax.
1\22\2003 Hello Glenn and Reba Ferguson: Greetings, hope you are well! I've enclosed a copy of the Outlaw At The Cross CD, the back cover of the original LP, release document prepared by Compadre Records and their check which Billy Don suggested they send as consideration. I made 5 copies of the album on CD through NTD. The other four copies went to Compadre(2), my old friend and archivist Bob Oermann & Billy Don. Brad Turcotte of Compadre was hoping for a second quarter release so they drafted the legal document. Billy Don also said he had advanced John $10,000 for his participation on the album. I originally met Billy Don in the course of my activities as an exporter of hard-to-find "indie" label CD's, one a project with Hank (Desperate Men) to buyers in Japan, Norway and Australia. However, I must say that I was appalled when I learned he and Mack (Vickery) had gone to John's hospital bed and that Billy Don has subsequently verbally abused Marty Martel. I do not plan any additional dealings with Billy Don. Now I'm in the middle of a very complicated matter which originally began as a simple quest to locate an album and help arrange for it's release, in exchange for a modest commission. I certainly appreciate your agreeing to present this to John properly and I will certainly abide by his decision, whichever way it falls. I apologize for Billy Don and Mack's visit to John and for Billy Don's unwarranted comments to Marty. Sincerely, John Lomax III
Only a week before, he had asked me who Glen Ferguson was, and after I read the letter, it sounded like they had been friends for life. When Johnny died, Mack, Earl Clark and I went to the funeral home to pay respects to our old friend one last time. Mack and I walked up to the open casket. Johnny looked like an old western gunfighter with his black cowboy hat resting on his arm. I guess you could say he looked good for a dead man. We were there for about an hour I guess. The three of us were visiting different friends that were there. This guy walked up to me and said, "Do you know who I am"? It was Larry Adams. I met Larry and his wife, Jane Ann, through Johnny. They live in Sabina, Ohio and were his closest friends. When I would lose contact with Johnny, I could almost always call Larry and Jane Ann and they would know where he was. He called them practically every day. Jane Ann wasn't there, but it was good to see Larry. They are some really nice folks and I know they really cared about Johnny. I also ran into Shelby Singleton, the C.E.O. of Sun Records. Shelby had been a friend of mine for several years and we had a nice visit. I had hired his son Steve to help with the Prison Project. As we were leaving Woodlawn Memorial Park, Mack said that Nick Hunter had come up to him and said "I heard that you and Billy Don Burns went to see Paycheck and upset him & a lot of other people also". Mack said that he told Nick,"I don't know where you got your information from, but I feel that Johnny was glad to see us". I asked Mack who the hell Nick Hunter was. Mack said that he thought Nick was a promotion man for Warner Brothers or something. I read about the funeral in the Tennessean. I didn't go. I did not want to see all those phony bastards who were there acting like they were Johnny's friends. The paper mentioned most of the names that I have been talking about, like Lomax, who never met Johnny. As I read the article in the Tennessean, I couldn't help but wonder how many in that self righteous bunch had ever met Larry Adams, or who even gave a damn if they had. Life goes on. The well oiled machine of the billion dollar music business keeps cranking regardless of who lives or who dies. I am glad that it came down like it did with Lomax inquiring about my Prison Project. It gave me a chance to tell my side of the story.