Johnny Paycheck landed his first No. 1 song after a string of near-hits in the fall of 1977, changing the English language forever.

When people talk about the Outlaw Country movement of the 1970s, they bring up names like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. More informed fans will point to the likes of Billy Joe Shaver and David ...

The late Johnny Paycheck was many things: an iconoclastic honky-tonker, a limber country-soul crooner, a self-made musical "outlaw" and a wickedly tragicomic songwriter. He was also a brawler and a ...