HILLSBORO, Ohio -- Johnny Paycheck, a singer whose past includes several skirmishes with law and popular songs such as 'Take This Job and Shove It,' was charged Friday with shooting a man in the head in a barroom fight.
Paycheck faces a preliminary hearing Monday in Hillsboro Municipal Court on charges of felonious assault. He was released from the Highland County Jail on $25,000 bond Friday afternoon.
Rich Hugh, a Hillsboro police officer, said Paycheck shot Larry Wise of Greenfield, Ohio, in the head with a small-caliber handgun Thursday night. Wise was taken to Highland District Hospital, where he was treated for a minor wound and released.
A warrant was issued for Paycheck, whose given name is Donald Lytle. He was arrested early Friday morning near Wilmington and was returned to Hillsboro.
Hugh said police were still trying to determine how the fight started.
Paycheck, a country and western singer who was born in Greenfield, is believed to be living in the Hillsboro area, Hugh said.
In 1982, Paycheck, whose 1978 hit song 'Take This Job and Shove It' became an anthem for workers across the county, pleaded no contest in Casper, Wyo., to a misdemeanor sexual assault charge, stemming from allegations he had sex with a 12-year-old girl after a concert.
He was fined $1,000 and placed on probation for a year.
That same year, Paycheck was arrested in Raleigh, N.C., for not paying a $26,000 judgment for failing to appear at a 1979 concert in Greensboro, N.C. He was released after a bail bondsman agreed to guarantee payment of the civil judgment.
In September 1982, Paycheck filed for bankruptcy.
A little more than a year later, a Frontier Airlines attendant won $175,000 judgment inU.S. District Court in a suit accusing Paycheck of slandering her. A member of Paycheck's band, James Murphy, also was accused of assaulting the attendant during a March 1982 flight from Denver to Casper.
