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Sept. / Oct. 2006

‘Daddy, tell me what it is you do?’

What daddy does turned into a song saluting his fellow UAW
members on the line in Kokomo, and all American workers

Photo: Lisa Rentschler

Paul Stout

“Nobody knew I sang and played guitar,” said Paul Stout, an assembler at Indiana Transmission and UAW Local 685 member

If country star Garth Brooks ever did a song about working at the DaimlerChrysler Indiana Transmission Plant in Kokomo, it might sound a lot like the one Paul Stout wrote.

Stout, 35, is an assem-bler with eight years seniority at Indiana’s ITP #2 and a member of UAW Local 685. In October his supervisor asked him to sing Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” to inspire the 60 or so workers at a company town hall meeting the next day, when quality, safety and production issues were to be discussed.

“I asked him if I could write a song instead,” Stout said. “He didn’t really think I could until the next day I saw him and said, ‘It’s ready.’ It took me only about an hour to write.”

Stout’s good old American, can-do philosophy is reflected in his song’s lyrics. “World Class Fine” is a tribute to his co-workers, many of whom are featured in a music video made in-house after Stout’s performance at the town hall meeting drew a standing ovation.

“It was Halloween, and there I was wearing a cowboy shirt and a wide-brim cowboy hat. People thought I was dressed up in a costume.

“Nobody knew I sang and played guitar,” he said.

Since then a whole lot more DaimlerChrysler workers have found out Stout can write and sing songs, which he has been doing for 17 years. He sang “World Class Fine” five more times for other town hall meetings at all three Kokomo transmission plants.

In March he was invited to the UAW-Daimler-Chrysler annual meeting and joint training conferences where he sang before 3,000 more people.

“The idea really did come from my 8-year-old son, Steele, asking me what I do in that big building I go into every day,” Stout said.

Now everybody knows what Stout and his co-workers do, and they do it with great pride.

Sam Stark

You can hear “World Class Fine,” at www.paulstoutmusic.com. A CD of Stout’s song is available for $5. All proceeds go to United Way.

‘World Class Fine’


Got a baby in the back seat who’s cutting teeth
And an 8-year-old reading Game Boy cheats
He said, Daddy, tell me, what it is you do
Every day while I’m away at school.

And I said
I’m an American worker with American pride
Making car parts so folks can drive
And I always try to do it right the first time
So the cars we build are world class fine.

He said Daddy what’s world class? I’m not sure I understand
I said it’s when you do it better than anyone else can
And people all around the world talk about you
And everybody out there tries to do what you do.

I’m an American worker with American pride
Making car parts so folks can drive
And I always try to do it right the first time
So the cars we build are world class fine.

So son do you understand, no one does it like we can
We make the 300C, yeah, we make the Jeep
We even make Uncle Bob’s Hemi.

Well, I’m an American worker with American pride
Making car parts so folks can drive
And I always try to do it right for the first time
So the cars we build are world class fine.

We’re American workers with American pride
Making car parts so folks can drive
And we always try to do it right the first time
So the cars we build are world class fine.

Copyright 2005 Paul Stout