diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/remove-default-overcloud-ssh-key-7341a84480727234.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/remove-default-overcloud-ssh-key-7341a84480727234.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3402f1423
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/remove-default-overcloud-ssh-key-7341a84480727234.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - The default value for --overcloud-ssh-key was wrong (it was actually a
+    username). Instead of using a default value at all, just remove the default
+    since we can't sanely pick one.
diff --git a/tripleoclient/v1/overcloud_deploy.py b/tripleoclient/v1/overcloud_deploy.py
index 41e522e77..1f95f5724 100644
--- a/tripleoclient/v1/overcloud_deploy.py
+++ b/tripleoclient/v1/overcloud_deploy.py
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ import argparse
 import logging
 import os
 import os.path
-import pwd
 import re
 import shutil
 import six
@@ -741,7 +740,6 @@ class DeployOvercloud(command.Command):
         )
         parser.add_argument(
             '--overcloud-ssh-key',
-            default=pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid()).pw_name,
             help=_('Key path for ssh access to overcloud nodes.')
         )
         parser.add_argument(
diff --git a/tripleoclient/workflows/deployment.py b/tripleoclient/workflows/deployment.py
index 06d99cebd..a1934fd42 100644
--- a/tripleoclient/workflows/deployment.py
+++ b/tripleoclient/workflows/deployment.py
@@ -118,8 +118,10 @@ def config_download(log, clients, stack, templates, deployed_server,
 
     env = os.environ.copy()
     env.update(dict(OVERCLOUD_HOSTS=' '.join(ips),
-                    OVERCLOUD_SSH_USER=ssh_user,
-                    OVERCLOUD_SSH_KEY=ssh_key))
+                    OVERCLOUD_SSH_USER=ssh_user))
+
+    if ssh_key:
+        env['OVERCLOUD_SSH_KEY'] = ssh_key
 
     proc = subprocess.Popen([script_path], env=env, shell=True,
                             stdout=subprocess.PIPE,