Song of the Day 4/15: Johnny Paycheck, “Me and the I.R.S.”

It’s too bad Johnny Paycheck didn’t live long enough to see what Trump and Musk have done to the Internal Revenue Service: A projected $500 billion will go uncollected because they gutted the agency. Audits? You have a better chance of hitting the lottery.

Ol’ Johnny had his problems with the taxman, declaring bankruptcy when he was hit with a $300,000 bill for unpaid back taxes, so Nashville tunesmith Phil Thomas didn’t have to look far for inspiration. Originally released on Paycheck’s highest-charting album, 1978’s “Take This Job and Shove It,” it also appeared as a B-side that made the country charts.

Unpaid bills were the least of Paycheck’s legal problems. He spent a couple of years in prison after shooting a man in what he claimed was self-defense, and he was hit with a statutory rape charge that was later dropped. He was said to have cleaned up after prison, but hard living caught up with him in 2003 at the age of 64.