Review: Mike Judge Presents Tales From The Tour Bus “Johnny Paycheck”

There’s nothing worse than a hillbilly with a hit single.

Mike Judge is no stranger to the comedy or animation scene, is known best for directing and writing cult hit comedies like Office Space, Idiocracy, and creating King of the Hill, Beavis and Butt-Head, and the currently running Silicon Valley, all of which are critically acclaimed. But a lesser known, though readily apparent, fact about Judge is his love of country music. Having been a musician himself through the late 80’s, Judge knows the toils of touring first hand but is no less enraptured in the jagged, mangy, but rich and enthralling history of the genre. And so he brings us “Tales From the Tour Bus”, his love letter to six of the countless greats of that field.

OVERVIEW (Spoilers Below)

We get a disclaimer that the events chronicled here may or may not be entirely accurate due to a number of substances used and the passing of time, and a Flash animated Mike Judge gives us a dead-eyed stare as he introduces the show and the journey of Johnny Paycheck.

We begin Paycheck’s story by talking to the Adams Brothers, Don, Gary, and Arnie, his backup band. They met as kids, auditioned for a talent show and lost. We also learn that Johnny, then Donny, often stole cars in his youth before moving on to Nashville as a backup singer, making his mark soon enough, but only solidifying it when his manager suggested his now famous moniker. There was Johnny Cash, Johnny Dollar, and now Johnny Paycheck.

But the drinking and car stealing streak stayed alive in him, leaving him to a dead end with no home or money if not for Swamp Dogg, who gave him his first hit single “She’s All I Got”. Naturally, with things going so smoothly, this would lead Johnny to begin a cycle of self-destruction, including a shirtless Canadian arrest. His friends theorize his small stature might have contributed to his destructive tendencies.

After an account by his former manager Ernie Stepp about shooting the bus driver for Big Mac, Johnny debuts his signature song: “Take This Job And Shove It” an eventual anthem for the working-class that got a contract signed after a bloody year-long coal mining strike. Johnny would ride this high to another, greater high as he began spending millions on cocaine. And not even the good kind!

Though he still made tons of colorful friends along the way, including Hell’s Angels biker gang. This leads to one of the more notable stories of Johnny’s life: After running from a gang threat against the gang, Johnny grabbed two suitcases full of cocaine and drove from Oakland to Greenfield. According to Attorney Rocky Coss, he was on his way to see his mother but stopped by the North High Lounge. He ran into a couple childhood friends, had a fair and clean exchange of hats, and then, strung out on all of that angel dust, pulls a gun and shoots his friend Larry for what he thought was an alleged threat. Intending to apologize and driving to Larry’s house, Johnny is arrested but makes bail soon after.

Johnny makes no effort to be presentable at his trial, drawing visual comparisons to Charles Mansion. Still VERY much high, he takes a large gun and twirls it as a trick, but seals his fate in the process. He is sentenced to seven to nine and a half years in prison.

But his time in the clink gives him a life-changing experience, culminating in what his friends consider his best song: “The Old Violin”. As the animation peels away over the people encapsulating the ups and downs of his life, Johnny ends his song:

And just like that, it hit me,
That old violin and I were just alike,
We’d give our all to music,
And soon, we’d give our life.

OUR TAKE

Given that these episodes are meant to be recountings of real-world events, there’s not a whole lot I can really say in terms of “plot”. What I will say is that when I heard “Mike Judge country music-based animation”, I was expecting an art and animation style similar to King of the Hill, not barely rotoscoped clearly human faces. Though having these animated segments definitely made these stories a lot more accessible to someone like me with no prior knowledge, or prior interest, in country music singers, so I expect it will be that way for fans of the genre and non-fans alike. Ultimately these very human stories about very extraordinary and talented humans.

As for the story of Johnny Paycheck, all I can really say is…wow, I can’t believe all that happened. And I expect to feel similarly about Jerry Lee Lewis when they cover him next week.

…He married his WHAT?!