The Working Man That Put His Point Across

Nashville songwriter Jerry Chestnut had once worked for the Florida East Coast Railroad under a foreman named Frank Oney who bordered on being a slave driver. When Chestnut was approached by Larry Butler, who was looking for a hit song to produce for Johnny Cash, he wrote Oney about his former boss and how he would have liked to avenge himself.

During the late sixties and early seventies Chestnut became well known as a versatile, productive, and independent hit songwriter. He licensed the release of more than 50 recordings per year several times. Once he had 5 songs in the Billboard national chart and 3 in the Top Ten in the same week.

Among his numerous awards, he has received the Songwriter of the Year 1972 and International Writer of the Year 1973. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Foundation Hall Of Fame (1996) alongside Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams, Sr. and into the International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame (1999) joining Billy Joel, Carole King, Bono and Bruce Springsteen, to name but a few.

Other of Chestnut's songs have been recorded by great performers such as Faron Young, Brooke Benton, Elvis Presley, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton.