Taking a Walk.
Yeah, I could go out and new solo acs and just play acoustic guitar, but there's so much more energy. It's so much more fun and for me and for the listener to have that big band there is right. It's the same reason why I won't compromise, and I don't like not having a steel guitar and not having a fiddle.
I want both of those in my music.
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast, where we stroll through the stories, the sounds, and the soul of music with the people who make it matter. Buzznight is your host, and today he's got a very special guest joining us, someone who carries both the weight of a legendary name and the drive to carve out his own place in country music. John Paycheck grew up backstage and on the road, soaking up the sights and the sounds of country music
alongside his father, the iconic Johnny Paycheck. But John isn't just walking in his father's footsteps. He's blazing his own trail, blending tradition with a fresh perspective and a powerful On this episode, we'll talk about what it was like growing up in a musical family. The lessons learned from life on tour and the challenges and triumphs of building a career in today's music industry. Will dive into his songwriting and the process, and his new album More Days Behind,
and the stories that have shaped his journey. So lace up your boots and join us for a walk with John Paycheck on the Taking a Walk Podcast with Buzz Night.
Well, John Paycheck, Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Thank you for having me.
So, since we do call this podcast taking a Walk, I wanted to ask you if you could take a walk with somebody living or dead, somebody involved with music but doesn't have to be up to you. Who would it be and where would you take a walk with him?
John Boy, I'll tell you that's an interesting one because I've got so many assets to my life. There'd be people in the military, like people from history that would be interesting. But since we're talking about music, I gotta say this is going to be probably a ridiculous well not a ridiculous answer, but a lame answer, I guess. But it probably would be my dad again. And the reason being is I wasn't in music when he was alive,
and I learned a lot from him. But there are so many questions I have now and things that I would like to talk to him about now. That that would be. That would be really cool, is to be able to just walk with him one more time and talk with him, ask him all these questions and things that I have now you know again, And that's also kind of a I guess that's kind of a rite of passage to as an adult.
You know, you lose your parents eventually, and you.
Have a lot of things you wish you would have asked and said and done, but you know, now we're here and you're you're an orphan once again. But yeah, no, it's uh that that I think that would probably be. That's the first person that came to mind.
John. There's nothing lame about it, and I sometimes try to guess in my own head what the individual might answer. Yeah, so it's your answer. It's your life and it's your pop So nothing lame about it, sir.
It'd be interesting if some of somebody living, that would be interesting. It would probably I'd love to talk because I admire how he does business and how he has
managed his life. Is George Strait that would be somebody I would like to talk to about just how they've done things and why they've done things a certain way as far as just uh managing well, heck, managing their life and everything too, because uh, yeah, I admire the way he's kept on the good side of things as far as I can see, you know what I mean. And he's been very very responsible. Just seems like a down to earth, really really good person.
So yeah, and has figured out too, in an ever changing ecosystem, how to you know, stay true to his core, but also how to you know, evolve as well.
Yeah, hundred percent, Yeah, he really has.
So talk about your military history and and then maybe bring it full circle into some of what that has taught you to this day around being you know an artist.
Yeah, well, I started out really in the fire service as a firefighter, and that was my first experience with an organization with that military feel. Right when in after a while I got that calling to go serve and kind of stemmed from my grandfather really but greatest generation it was nine to eleven kind of tipped it off for me to finally just push the button and go. And yeah, served started out with a heavy armor unit
with Abrams tanks. Was there for a short while and then commissioned, became commissioned officer and went into aviation, well intelligence first, then in aviation, then intelligence aviation, and then finally ended up with where I'm at now, which is back in intelligence. But flew Blackhawks, was with an assault unit, flew Kiawa Warrior, flew the C twelve, which is a
fixed wing aircraft King Air. It's a King Air, two props and everything going out, looking at doing circles and looking at bad guys and tell them where the tell them the good guys where the bad guys are. All that kind of stuff, collecting information at all. How did
you get back to music? Well, I had gotten to a point where the it's it's a regimented life to a degree within the army, and it's it's, uh, you're you're told what to do, but you're also doing things on your own as well, and there's some creativity there, but it's not the same type of creativity.
It's not the artistic creativity. And I missed that.
I had gone to an opening at the Country Music Hall of Fame and it was an outlaw exhibit they were doing, and had met up with a bunch of people that I hadn't seen in a long time.
Shooter.
Shooter Jennings was one of them, Tyler Coe and met up with them afterwards, was talking with them, and I missed that camaraderie, that type of camaraderie. I missed the music business a little, not the business, but more of the art. And uh, yeah, it kind of steered me back to doing this and here I am back to doing music and back to touring and creating, creating albums
and everything else. Which, yeah, it's been fun, it's been interesting, and uh, we're trying to make a run of it as far as as far as we can.
I guess when you talk to somebody like a Shooter Jennings, who obviously, like you, comes from a household that was a music household, any similarities to his journey to yours as you have gotten to know him.
Yeah, Yeah, me and Shooter we have there's a lot of similarities. Honestly.
I mean I remember being around him when I was much much younger.
We were both young.
But yeah, I mean, your parents are gone all the time, you kind of learned to grow up a little, a little earlier than than most. I'm from that generation too, where we were you know, latchkey kids. So a lot of us grew up a little quicker than most. So there's there's that, but uh yeah, no, we uh there's some chaos in the household too that we all have.
That's similar.
Me and Tyler have a lot of similarities as well, growing up, just with some of the craziness. Uh Waylan didn't didn't stray too far from from acting like a country singer.
And Dad did.
Dad kind of went off, kind of thought he was a pirate there for a little while, you know, doing just ridiculous things. But it was just part of that time and who they were in the business and everything else. But uh yeah, I mean there were times when bills didn't get paid, a home and you didn't have electricity, or you didn't you know, or you know, dad didn't come home because he was you know, outroaring. But things
things happened. It just is what it is. And yeah, yeah, you grow up with it, and yeah I learned to accept it. But uh, me and me and Tyler probably a little more similar, Me and Shooter as far as the music stuff and being around you know, famous people and all that. Yeah, we got that in common. Yeah, and it's comforting too to be around somebody who gets it.
You know, there's a there's a club I guess you could call it of us that that's just we all identify really well and understand how how each other.
I will say this, there is a little bit.
There are some there's there's there's that culture, and then there's two other types of cultures within this within the music business. And then when you have the ultra ultra ultra famous types and they were making millions of dollars, that family is going to be a little bit different than the ones that were going through hard times and lost everything, and you know, so there's there's a little bit of difference there, but not much, not much.
So growing up as the son of Johnny Paycheck that can you describe the earliest memories of music in your in your household?
With the earliest one I remembers, I was the heck, I wasn't like, I wasn't even in kindergarten yet. Actually even before that though, I actually thought about this for that, I remember when I was just a little one, being on the road and being on a tour bus and things like that. I am that that definitely kind of started shaping my.
View of the world a little bit.
But as far as music, it's it's funny because you don't realize that your parents are famous until way later in life. And uh, you don't realize just how influential or how creative they were because they were just dad.
You know. It was that was dad. That was Dad's job. That's what he did.
It was you know, he kind of thought at one point, you think everybody does this, but it's yeah, it becomes very evident later that that's that's.
Oh, no, he was. He was actually unique, you know.
But I remember when I was a little one, just going and playing his guitar and playing with it and you know, learning about it and things like that from very very young age, even before I wasn't even in like kindergarten. So but yeah, music was always always around the house and Dad was always either writing or you know, resting.
So it was pretty much the way it was.
Because your dad was on the road, it's hunt, wasn't he.
Oh yeah, that was uh, that was pretty much what he lived. He lived for touring and being out in front of a crowd and entertaining. So and that was also how he made an income, right, Mom didn't work. She was a stay at home mom so or an entertainer's wife. But uh yeah he was. He was always on the road, always touring.
So yeah, so the pressure of living up to being the might as well just get with it, right, being the the the son of a thing and misperformer. How have you dealt with that through your life?
Well?
It it didn't affect really much in the fire service or in the in the military, besides some ribbing and you know, just people being you know kind of like.
Whoa, really, that's that's who your dad is. Like, yeah, yeah, that's that's it. And off we go, you know, just doing whatever we do.
Now, coming back to music, I've had some critics that have been a little harsh, Oh he's not like his father, and it's like, well, no, no kidding, I'm not my father. I was like, And for that critic who was writing those comments, by the way, you're not Shakespeare either, so I mean, what are you going to do?
You know, so, you know, comparing me to someone that.
Is was so so influential and such a great writer and everything else, it's kind of it's a fool's errand
it doesn't make sense. It's you know, I stand on my own merits and what I do, so judge me for you know, the people that I am my peers now, which would make sense because you know, who's judging anybody against like George Jones or or you know, Johnny Paycheck or Whalen or anybody that's kind of foolish and and and for as great as they were, they were also just human as well, and they were just doing what
they could, you know. So there's plenty of great singers and entertainers out there as far as me, I don't. It got to me a little bit in the beginning, and the main concern I had was not wanting to let my family down. My family just named my legacy and all that stuff. I didn't want to disappoint you, buddy, especially my mom, who was around when I started out. But you know, as I got more into it, you know, and she, my mom, was very critical. So yeah, she
would have let me known right away. Is like, oh the same for you if if it was you know, if that was the case. She never never buy any chance, would would lie to me about anything like that. And she was she was pleasantly surprised and said no, you know,
because I didn't sing around them. I didn't, you know, I played instruments and things like that, and they all thought I was My mom and dad thought I was a good musician, but you know, I never I just never sang around them, singing some choirs and things like that, but never like anything a solo. So they never really got a chance to hear me do that until, you know, until I did this, and Mom was surprised.
She she was happy with it.
And you know, her biggest advice to me was she's like, well, your name will get you in the door. She's like, you got to be able to stay in the room. So she's like, you can't back down. You have to keep working at this and keep keep crafting its. He's like, but she's like, I think you'll do fine. So yeah, as far as everyone else, it doesn't really matter, you know.
It's like, it's okay. People have their opinions. People want me to I don't like being viewed as a tribute act, and I absolutely refuse to be a tribute act.
I've only this.
Year started putting a few songs to Dad's in the in the show because I started feeling bad because people want to hear some of his stuff. So I'm like, okay, fine, I'll do some of his songs too. And that only came actually after talking with Ned Ludoo and his manager about how us as children really have the most right to be able to sing our parents' songs.
And I was like, well, that's a kind of a good point. Didn't really think of it that way.
And you know, it's kind of up to us to keep that going, you know, because I mean, if you think about it, if the if, the the Cash family, you know, of all them, if if they never would have done any kept that music going, then it would have it would have faded, right, So I don't know. Yeah, it's it's an interesting thing being compared, but yeah, who cares.
People are gonna do what they're gonna do.
Right on, we'll be right back with more of the Taking a Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
So you had a unique perspective being a runner to a guitar tech and kind of getting a sense of the behind the scenes aspect of touring and the music business that must to this day still shape you as you have an appreciation that's unique for those that are working on your behalf around you.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's funny. You know.
You'll get other artists who they'll look at you and be like, well, you need to pay your dues, and he's like, man, I've been paying my dues before you were even in the business. It's like I was. I was a guitar at tech, I was a roadie, and Dad didn't show favoritism. I got treated just like anybody else in the band. So yeah, it has shaped the way. That has shaped the way I treat my band. But it also what has shaped it is, you know, being
a military leader as well. It's first and foremost and priority that we take care of our soldiers when we take care of our people. So there have been a few gigs where I've walked away with nothing because I made sure the band's paid. I make sure that they have a hotel rooms, I make sure that they're taking care of that they get per diem on the days off and things like that, because you know, I mean, they're the ones that help you get where you're going, you know.
Without the band. I mean, yeah, I could go out and do solo acs.
And just play acoustic guitar, but there's so much more energy and it's so much more fun and for me and for the listener to have that big band. There's right, it's the same reason why I won't compromise. And I don't like not having a steel guitar and and not having a fiddle. I want both of those in my music, right. So it just it adds so much more. It's it's it's important to me so and taking care of everybody. I couldn't do this. I couldn't live with myself if
I were to not do that. It's just yeah, and Dad did that too. Dad always took care of the band. You always make sure everbody was always taken care of. I learned from that as well. I the man would have gave the shirt off his back for others, and he did at times. So that shaped it. The military shaped it. Yeah, that's that's just how I how I run things.
Who are some of those other visionaries or artists, obviously, aside from from your father you mentioned, you know, like Tyler, But who are some of the other folks that you really look at today and and and admire.
Yeah, well, definitely, Like I said, George Strait, I really liked the way he has managed his career in what he's done. I look kind of back to you know, Roy Rogers. That might sound odd, but he was he He had a lot of unique and cool ideas and the way he did things, and I know a lot of it was the movie Career too, got that, But yeah, I liked I liked his honesty and how he how he just you know, kept to the cowboy code and all that it was. It hit him and Dale really really.
Cool cool people.
Well you you earlier referenced the Cash family, so I would I would assume within the Cash family there's somebody.
Definitely the Cash family.
The way they've kept everything alive and going and have kept their their their the father's legacy a lot alive and flourishing is something that I admire.
I think that's that's a good thing.
I know it's a business thing, and some people will say, well, yeah, it's about keeping the money going, but it's I'm telling for a lot of us, it isn't about keeping money going. It is about keeping their memory alive, and it's about wanting to make sure the future generations can hear that music and appreciate it.
Right.
It's the same reason why I keep hoping I keep hoping Dad will make it into the Hall of Fame because he's a Hall.
Of fame and get there.
He should get there on his merits, not for the couple the crazy things that he did, right, he did some goofy things, We got all that. But he did so much that people just I don't think realize within the history of country music and affected other artists from Ray Price, George Jones and up and through, you know, even modern day artists like Tracy Bird.
So I mean modern. I guess he's not modern anymore, is he?
But anyway, yeah, well modern for me, nineties guy, but uh yeah, it's uh, those are some of the ones, you know that affect the way I do things and how I view things.
Heck, Danny Shirley from Confederate Railroad.
He he's another one that's kind of started to you know, gear my focus my career and move my career a little bit just because of me and him talking and him you know, offering advice and things like that. He was the first one that really, uh for a working
act that's still out there. He was one of the first ones that ever called me up and was just asking like, hey, how you doing and how things going, and so you're taking on music and you know, how's that going, and just just offering friendly advice and he's you know, not asking for nothing, just just being friendly. So that's another good thing about the country music industry as well, the country music business business industry. I don't
know how to say the community. Sure, yeah, exactly. It's it's small really in the in the grand scheme of things, it's small.
And you know, a.
Lot of the players in this business are very friendly and good people, and uh are willing to help. You know, it's not as cutthroat as he might think. When you get into the business pieces of it, with the actual business people, it can be. But even then there's there's there's a lot of really good people in this business.
I'm shocked at what you said earlier. I did not realize that your dad is not in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Yeah, his memorabilia's in the museum, the show of guitar and some things, and I know they've got some things in archive as well.
But he has not been inducted.
And yeah, it's a shame, but I'm told that every year he comes up on the ballad and he gets close. So hopefully one year he'll he'll, uh, he'll make it in.
How do you think he would view that information or that he is viewing this that information as we speak.
I don't know if he would care.
He he he just you know, those things are nice, but what really, really, honestly meant something to him was being able to go out there and sing and perform. And that didn't affect that. So I'll tell you what he loved. He loved being a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He was so thrilled that night when he got inducted, and he was so happy to be able to say he was a member of the Grand Ole Opry, which you know, twenty years before that he didn't care for the Opry and it was an institution and all
this other stuff. But I mean the seventies were different, right, So yeah, his view as he got more mature and wised up and then also got clean changed, So yeah, he realized, I mean, what a great institution the Grand Opry is. I know they've got there's some turmoil around it with other artists and things like that, but I mean, overall, yeah, the Grand Ole Opry is an amazing institution.
So congrats on the new album Days Behind. First of all, you you co wrote much of it with or all of it with with Scott Gabby. What was that writing process like for that project?
So on the first album, on this album, on the next one one after that, I write most everything, or a co writes every co write everything, and me and Scott. Me and Scott have known each other for a long time since we were kids, and uh, we actually had a heavy metal band together when we were kids, so so we've known each other quite a while, and writing with him is just really really easy.
We all sat.
Down and, uh, you know, depending on what we're going to write, we may have some whiskey with us, or we may just sit there with a soda, depends on depends on what we're writing, and yeah, we'll uh, we'll just start pitching stuff back and forth and go go from there. That's that's really kind of how simple it is.
But the idea for the album is a little more a little more complex because what I'll do is, you know, I'll say, well, for this album, I want twelve songs, and I'll start drafting out a skeleton, almost like if I'm writing a book, where it's like I want this chapter to be about this, and this to be about this. That's That's kind of how I do with writing an album, where I'll say, well, I want to want to love ballad, I want a Rodeo song, I want this, I want that,
and we'll go through it that way. And one thing is I always I like Western history, American West history. So I usually try to have at least one song that touches on a figure from that time, somebody that I find interesting and maybe nobody's heard about.
And I do that.
But yeah, in this one, we had a murder ballad, which was something unique for me. A little worry about putting that out, but yeah, that's it turned out, okay. Yeah, So yeah, that's that's kind of how the writing writing works. We lock ourselves away for a couple of months and come out with a come out with an album full of songs. I mean, and we're writing all the time,
especially when we're on the road. He's also my rhythm guitarist in the band, and uh, we we may be sitting on the bush and cope with the idea and we'll sit back there and try to strum through it and figure out the basic form of it and and get something, get something down.
But yeah, it happens all throughout the year.
But yeah, there's definitely a process, a little bit, a little bit of a process there when we start getting close.
To album time.
You mentioned George Straight earlier and you cover when did You Stop Loving me? H? For the album? Talk about what that song means to you?
Well, it was, it was definitely, Uh, it was cool doing that and uh, George Jones covered it as well. He did it after after Straight did it didn't do as well for George, but George Jones.
But yeah, that one was off of it was. It was in the movie too.
That George did and that's where I first heard it. And man, I've always just like I said, I've always loved George's music, and it was it was neat to be able to and intimidating, neat and intimidating to do something that he did and try to try to make it at least close to his good.
Definitely not as good, but close to his good.
And hopefully hopefully somebody has in his camp has went Paycheck's kid covered your song and he and he got to chuck a lot of it. Maybe I don't know, so, oh I'm sure he'll hear about it. Yeah, no doubt. I mean he he covered Dad's old violin and he would play it in the shows and everything. And I remember when his people contacted me about that, They're like, hey, we need the rights to be able to do this. I was like, oh, most definitely sure, and he did.
He did a good job with that. He was probably one of the few. That song is really important to my family because it was dad's funeral song, and there's very few people that have sang it that I like the way they sing it.
I didn't mind the way he sang it.
So have you heard George Strait's version of the Tom Petty song You Wreck Me?
Yeah?
I saw We saw him at uh In we were at Me and my wife were at National Finals Rodeo this year in Vegas and we saw the We saw the show in Vegas and that's where I heard him sing it.
I was just like, man, that's really cool. It was really neat.
What a version that is?
My God?
Talk about some of the other songs you want to highlight from the album.
Well, I'm real proud right now, especially of Foolish Ways that one I wrote from the perspective of somebody who is either uh in depression, suffering from depression badly, or as possibly an addict. It's from that perspective where you just don't really believe what people are telling you, that things don't feel like they're going to get better, and you understand what people think, but there's not much you can do about it. It's it's that feeling. And I've been there, so I get I get I get it,
trust me. But we released the new video on that one this uh this beginning of the month, and uh we also were donating the money, uh any any of the royalties I make off of it this month and everything we're going to the American Association for Health and Wellness.
Yeah, so yeah, we're we're doing that. But real proud of that song. I like that song.
I thought I thought it came out, okay. I also like More Days Behind. More Days Behind is fun, and it's the title track, but it's it's fun because it is a kind of an awakening of you know, hey, hey, I've lived this long. There are more days behind me than there are in front of me now, and it's like I never really thought of that until just now, and it's kind of just talks about you know, you need to kind of appreciate what you got and try to make the best of what what's left and what
are you gonna do with it? You know.
So that's that's that's what that song is about.
It.
It's got a happy vibe and tone to it, so it's not depressing. It's it's more of a it's like, okay, well why be depressed about it? This is just where you're at. So you know, we're all doing the same thing. So so yeah, that those two.
Tracks, I like, real well, the murder Ballot's pretty good.
But again, it's not an actual it's it's a made up story. So everybody, this is not something I think about doing. It's it's it's it's a good song though it's a good story.
We wrote it kind of like a we we listened to some.
Oh the podcast or not podcast, the uh the true crime shows and stuff.
We were listening to some.
Of that, and uh, that's where we got some of the ideas and we're like, man, this is it'd be kind of interesting to write a song this way, like a like a true crime story, and that that's that's what we were attempting. Came out good, came out good. It's uh, it's a little little shocking towards the end, but yeah, that's.
An interesting one too. White Lights was good. I let me bring up that one too, White Lights. I like that one.
That's my only trucking song right now, and I like, I like, I like trucking songs.
But I took that one as.
A a trucker kind of running away from a bad relationship type type thing, and yeah, it turned out it turned out good too.
So all of this is thanks to Bill McDermott.
He's my producer there in Nashville, and it's all thanks to him and the session musicians and everything else, because yeah, without them, none of this would come out the way we we have it.
It's it comes out great.
So and coming to a city near you also, you'll be hitting the road.
Yeah, no, we we're all over the place right now.
Well, we've slowed down here for this month, try to catch our breath after we were just out in New Mexico. But yeah, we're we're gonna be a lot of Texas dates. All my dates and everything are up on my bands in town and on my website and at johnpaycheck dot com.
It's easy, easy to find.
But yeah, yeah, it's uh, it's been a nice response this year. We're getting getting more dates and building as we go here hopefully you know, it just keeps building. And yeah, well I want to get to this medium level of success where I can, you know, take care of the band and everybody and we're we're all making you know, an okay wage and able to get our music out there to everybody and have good time.
So goals for the next chapter of your career, both in the studio and on the road.
Yeah, we're gonna start right well, we started writing already, but we're gonna start writing for the next album because there'll be another one next year. I'm trying to do one every other year. I was trying to do one every year, but with that time schedule gets really cramped, so we're doing one every other year. I want to at least do three more albums. It's for a total of five, and then we'll kind of reevaluate what we're
doing at that point. But yeah, another album next year. Touring, we're just trying to keep building on that.
Every year.
I tour from May till about mid November every year, and the rest of that time there. I want my band and everybody to go home and be with families and spend time for the holidays and not have to think about when am I coming off the road, when I'm going to go back on the road.
Well, John, congrats on more days behind. Thank you so much for this service that will you and your wife really give to our country nothing. And thank you for the music that you give us as well. Really appreciate you taking the time to be on Taking a Walk.
No, thank you for having me.
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