Jonathan Barnett Kaye known professionally as Jonnie Barnett, was an American musician. In the 1970s, he performed as an opening act for several acts such as Tom Waits

Tom Waits

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...

, Cheech and Chong

Cheech and Chong

Cheech & Chong are a comedy duo consisting of Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong, who found a wide audience in the 1970s and 1980s for their films and stand-up routines, which were based on the hippie and free love era, and especially drug culture movements, most notably their love for...

, and Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

. He also made appearances in the 1975 film Nashville, and in Cheech and Chong's Next Movie.

One of Barnett's compositions, "One Foot in the Blues", was recorded by Johnny Adams

Johnny Adams

Laten John Adams , known as Johnny Adams, was an American blues, jazz and gospel singer, known as "The Tan Canary" for the multi-octave range of his singing voice, his swooping vocal mannerisms and falsetto...

 and received a Blues Song of the Year award from 1997 W. C. Handy Blues Awards. Barnett also wrote a short story entitled "The Chain of Love" which appeared in the book Chicken Soup for the Country Soul. He and songwriter Rory Lee Feek

Rory Lee Feek

Rory Lee Feek is an American country music singer and songwriter. In his career, he has written singles for Clay Walker, Blake Shelton, Tracy Byrd and other artists. He and his wife, Joey Martin Feek, comprise the duo Joey + Rory, who placed third on the first season of the CMT talent show Can You...

 later adapted this story into the song "The Chain of Love

The Chain of Love

"The Chain of Love" is the title of a song written by Rory Lee Feek and Jonnie Barnett, and recorded by country singer Clay Walker. It was released in January 2000 as the third single from his 1999 album Live, Laugh, Love, "The Chain of Love" reached a peak of #3 on the Billboard Hot Country...

", which was a Top 5 country hit for Clay Walker

Clay Walker

Ernest Clayton "Clay" Walker Jr. is an American country music artist. He made his debut in 1993 with the single "What's It to You," which reached Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts, as did its follow-up, 1994's "Live Until I Die." Both singles were included on...

 in 2000. The song was based on a real-life event.

Barnett died August 18, 2002 of a stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

.