roughneck

The lead actor Patrick Swayze, playing a philosophizing roughneck, smirked with unshakable confidence while breaking arms and jaws, as cars and buildings blew up real good around him.

Keith worked as a roughneck in the oil fields of Oklahoma as a young man, then played semi-pro football before launching his career as a singer.

He had previously worked as a rodeo hand, a roughneck in the Oklahoma oil fields and as a semiprofessional football player to support his young family.

And along those highways came the farmers and Okies and oil rig roughnecks who would forever shape the culture and landscape of the San Joaquin Valley.

If it is, environmentalists may find themselves in the odd position of cheering the roughnecks on with cries of “drill, baby, drill!”