Johnny Paycheck (born Donald Eugene Lytle; May 31, 1938 – February 19, 2003) was an American country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member notable for recording the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and Shove It". He achieved his greatest success in the 1970s as a force in country music's "outlaw movement" popularized by artists Hank Williams Jr., Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, and Merle Haggard. In 1980, Paycheck appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits (season 5). But during that decade, his music career slowed due to drug, alcohol, and legal problems. He served a prison sentence in the early 1990s and his declining health effectively ended his career in early 2000. In autographs, Paycheck signed his name "PayCheck". Early life Johnny Paycheck was born Donald Eugene Lytle on May 31, 1938, in Greenfield, Ohio. By age 9, Lytle was already playing in talent contests. He was singing professionally by age 15. Career After a stint in the Navy in the 1950s, he relocated to Nashville, Tennessee. He was a tenor harmony singer with numerous hard country performers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Ray Price. He worked along with Willie Nelson in Price's band the Cherokee Cowboys. He was featured as a tenor singer on recordings by Faron Young, Roger Miller, and Skeets McDonald. In 1960, he reached Top 35 status in Cashbox magazine's country charts as Donny Young with the tune "Miracle Of Love". In the early 1960s, he convinced country music legend George Jones to hire him. Paycheck provided harmony vocals as well as bass and steel guitar for Jones. He later co-wrote Jones's hit song "Once You've Had the Best." From the early to mid 1960s, he also enjoyed some success as a songwriter for others, with his biggest songwriting hit being "Apartment No. 9", which served as Tammy Wynette's first chart hit in December 1966. In 1964, he changed his name legally to Johnny Paycheck, taking the name from Johnny Paychek, a top-ranked boxer from Chicago who once fought Joe Louis for the heavyweight title (and not directly as a humorous alternative to Johnny Cash, as is commonly believed). He first charted under his new name with "A-11" in 1965. His bestselling single from this period was "She's All I Got", which reached No. 2 on the US country singles charts in 1971 and made it