American Songwriter recounts the legendary country singer’s life and career
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — On this day in 2003, outlaw country pioneer Johnny PayCheck passed away at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville at the age of 64. His only son, country recording artist John PayCheck, reflected on the anniversary of his father’s passing in a heartfelt Facebook post (@TheJohnPayCheck):
“I have been thinking about you today. Today marks a new point in my life. As with anyone who has lost a father or parent, after years go by, it’s nolonger every day, but it’s very often that you enter my thoughts.
I spent a large portion of my life with my mom and dad. Dad, it is now 23 years since he passed. If I totaled up his time away from home, we might be just past the halfway point in my life now that I have officially been without my father more than I was ever with him.
It is sad, but the good part is it shows my parents, through mistake, misfortune, or luck, helped build a person who has survived and prospered in life. I’m grateful for that fact. My father was never perfect by any means. My mother wasn’t either. Not in the sense that they made mistakes like all parents do, but more in the sense that they really were not parents much at all. I survived childhood; it wasn’t full of fond memories.
That said, my mother and father both loved me in their own way and at times tried to be good parents. I admire this most in my father. He had no shining examples of how to be a parent. He had many of his own demons he got past with drugs and alcohol. He eventually realized what he missed out on all those years and how quickly time flashes by us. We both made peace with those missed moments and opportunities.
People mainly focus on my father’s music, his folklore, rumors, and antics. I like to share more about the man that I knew. He was a good man, and it took him a while to grow into it, but he did. His health held him back at the end, but his heart was big and loving. If I ever do write a book about him, it will focus on who he was as a person and how he got where he was and what really happened in his life. I spent more time with him on the road talking than anyone. It could be an interesting story but any profit from a book would go toward cancer and respiratory health research. He would deserve that. Not sure I would write anything anyway, my family deserves peace.
Anyway, miss you, Dad. Your fans miss you too. Hope one day we are reunited.”