Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was a vastly influential American country music singer, guitarist, and songwriter.

Biography

Early life

Cash was born J.R. Cash in Kingsland, Arkansas in 1932, the quarter Cherokee son of poor Southern Baptist cotton farmers, Ray Cash and Carrie Cloveree Rivers. His family soon moved into a farm in Dyess, Arkansas, which was provided at little cost by the government as part of the New Deal. Cash's father had a severe drinking problem and was physically and emotionally abusive to his family. By age five Cash was working in the cotton fields, singing along with his family as they worked. Cash was very close to his brother Jack. In 1944, a tragic incident occurred that affected Johnny Cash for the rest of his life: Jack was pulled into a whirring table saw in the mill where he worked, and almost cut in two. He suffered for over a week before he died. Cash always talked of the horrible guilt he felt over this incident because he had gone out fishing that day. On his deathbed, the young man had visions of Heaven and angels before he died. Almost sixty years later, Johnny still talked of looking forward to meeting his brother in Heaven. His early memories were dominated by gospel music and radio. He began playing guitar and writing songs as a young boy, and in high school sang on a local radio station. He was dubbed "John" upon enlisting as a radio operator in the Air Force, which refused to accept initials as his name. Thereafter, he was known as Johnny and sometimes as John R. While an airman in West Germany, Cash wrote one of his most famous songs, "Folsom Prison Blues" after seeing the B-Movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.

Related Topics:
Kingsland, Arkansas - 1932 - Cherokee - Southern - Baptist - Dyess, Arkansas - New Deal - Cotton - Gospel music - Radio - Guitar - Air Force - West Germany - Folsom Prison Blues - B-Movie - Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison

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Early career

After his term of service ended, Cash married Vivian Liberto in 1954 and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he sold appliances while studying to be a radio announcer. At night, he played with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant (the Tennessee Two). Cash worked up the courage to visit the Sun Records studio, hoping to garner a recording contract. Sun producer Cowboy Jack Clement met with the young singer first, and suggested that Cash return to meet producer Sam Phillips. After auditioning for Phillips, singing mainly gospel tunes, Phillips told him to "go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell". Cash eventually won over Phillips and Clement with new songs delivered in his early frenetic style. His first recordings at Sun, "Hey Porter" and "Cry Cry Cry", were released in 1955 and were met with reasonable success on the country hit parade.

Related Topics:
Vivian Liberto - 1954 - Memphis, Tennessee - Luther Perkins - Marshall Grant - Sun Records - Cowboy Jack Clement - Sam Phillips - 1955 - Hit parade

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Cash's next record, "Folsom Prison Blues", made the country Top 5, and "I Walk the Line" was number one on the country charts, making it into the pop charts Top 20. In 1957, Johnny Cash became the first Sun artist to release a long-playing album. Though Sun's most consistently best-selling and prolific artist at that time, Cash began to feel constrained by his contract with the small label. Elvis Presley had already left the label, and Phillips was focusing most of his attention and promotion on Jerry Lee Lewis. The following year, Cash left Sun to sign a lucrative offer with Columbia Records, where his single "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" would become one of his biggest hits.

Related Topics:
1957 - Long-playing album - Elvis Presley - Jerry Lee Lewis - Columbia Records

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In 1955, his daughter, singer Rosanne Cash, was born. Though he would have three more daughters with his wife, their relationship began to sour, as Johnny was constantly touring. It was during one of these tours that he met June Carter, whom he married in 1968. By June's account, in the liner notes to the compilation album Love (2000), the song "I Still Miss Someone" was written about her.

Related Topics:
Rosanne Cash - June Carter - 1968 - 2000

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Drug addiction

As his career was taking off in the early 1960s, Johnny Cash became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates. Friends joked about his "nervousness" and erratic behavior, many ignoring the signs of his worsening drug addiction. For a brief time, Cash shared an apartment in Nashville with Waylon Jennings, who was also heavily addicted to amphetamines. Though in many ways spiraling out of control, his frenetic creativity was still delivering hits. His song "Ring of Fire" was a major crossover hit, reaching number one on the country charts and entering the Top 20 on the pop charts. The song was co-written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore and originally performed by Carter's sister, but the signature mariachi-style horn arrangement was conceived by Cash, who claimed to have heard it in a dream. The song, written about Cash, describes the personal hell Carter went through as she wrestled with her forbidden love for Cash (they were both married to other people at the time) and as she dealt with Cash's personal "ring of fire" (drug dependency and alcohol abuse).

Related Topics:
1960s - Amphetamine - Barbiturate - Waylon Jennings - Crossover - Merle Kilgore - Mariachi

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Although he carefully cultivated a romantic outlaw image, many fans are surprised to learn that he never served a prison sentence, though his wild activities and misdemeanors landed him in jail seven times, all for one night. His most serious run-in with the law occurred while on tour in 1965, when he was arrested by the narcotics squad in El Paso, Texas. Though the officers suspected that he was smuggling heroin from Mexico, he was actually smuggling illegal amphetamines inside his guitar case. He only received a suspended sentence. He was also arrested the next year in Starkville, Mississippi for trespassing late at night onto private property to pick flowers. More notably, he voluntarily entered several prisons to perform a series of concerts for convicts, for whom he felt a great compassion.

Related Topics:
Outlaw - Prison - Misdemeanor - 1965 - Narcotic - El Paso, Texas - Smuggling - Heroin - Mexico - Suspended sentence - Starkville, Mississippi - Trespassing - Convict

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The mid 1960s saw Cash release a number of concept records, including Ballads Of The True West (1965) — an experimental double record mixing authentic frontier songs with Cash's spoken narration, let down by the modern arrangements — and Bitter Tears (1964), with songs highlighting the plight of the Native Americans. However, his drug addiction deepened, and his destructive behaviour led to a divorce and numerous problems performing.

Related Topics:
1960s - 1965 - 1964 - Native Americans

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For his album Bitter Tears, Cash recorded "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", a Peter LaFarge song that told the true story of a Pima Indian who was one of the Marine heroes of the epic WWII battle at Iwo Jima. Despite his heroism, Hayes returned home to crushing despair and racial prejudice: "Ira Hayes returned a hero, celebrated throughout the land / He was wined and speeched and honoured, everybody shook his hand / But He was just a Pima Indian, no water, no home, no chance / At home nobody cared what Ira had done, and when do the Indians dance?" Though "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" was a No. 3 country single, many stations refused to play it, deeming it too risky. Cash took out a full-page ad in Billboard denouncing country radio for its reluctance. "'Ballad of Ira Hayes' is strong medicine", he wrote. "So is Rochester — Harlem — Birmingham and Vietnam."

Related Topics:
Ira Hayes - Peter LaFarge - Pima Indian - Marine - WWII - Iwo Jima - Racial prejudice - Rochester - Harlem - Birmingham - Vietnam

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Christianity

Personal problems and calamity followed him to his new home on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee (outside of Nashville). His longtime guitarist, Luther Perkins, died in a house fire in August 1968. Less than two months later, the home of his next door neighbor and close friend, Roy Orbison, burned down, claiming the lives of two of Orbison's three young sons. Cash was profoundly affected by these incidents, and he attempted to take the first steps on the long, hard road to recovery. He locked himself in his home and underwent detox, relying heavily on his friends and June Carter and her parents Ezra and Maybelle (members of the Carter Family). He would soon marry June Carter. The love ballad "Flesh and Blood" is one of the first of many songs Cash would write about his lifelong love for his wife.

Related Topics:
Hendersonville, Tennessee - Nashville - 1968 - Roy Orbison - Detox - Carter Family

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Over the next two years, he recorded and released two massively successful live albums, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968) and Johnny Cash at San Quentin (1969). The Folsom Prison record was charged by a blistering rendition of his classic "Folsom Prison Blues", while the San Quentin record included the crossover hit single "A Boy Named Sue", a Shel Silverstein-penned song that reached number one on the country charts and number two on the US Top Ten pop charts. Shortly after his historic concert at Madison Square Garden in the last days of the 1960s, his son John Carter Cash was born.

Related Topics:
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison - 1968 - Johnny Cash at San Quentin - 1969 - Folsom Prison - San Quentin - A Boy Named Sue - Shel Silverstein - Madison Square Garden - John Carter Cash

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After he quit drugs in the 1960s and early 1970s, he rediscovered his Christian faith, taking an "altar call" in Evangel Temple, a small church in the Nashville area.

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"The Man in Black"

From 1969 to 1971, he starred in his own television show on the ABC network. Notable rock artists appeared on his show, including Neil Young, The Monkees and Bob Dylan. Cash had been an early supporter of Dylan even before they had met, but they became friends while they were neighbors in late 1960s Woodstock, New York. Cash was enthusiastic about reintroducing the reclusive Dylan to his audience. In addition to the appearance on his TV show, Cash sang a duet with Dylan on his country album Nashville Skyline, and also wrote the album's Grammy-winning liner notes. Another artist who received a major career boost from The Johnny Cash Show was songwriter Kris Kristofferson. During a live performance of Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down", Cash made headlines when he refused to change the lyrics to suit network executives, singing the song with its controversial references to marijuana intact: "On the Sunday morning sidewalks / Wishin', Lord, that I was stoned".

Related Topics:
1969 - 1971 - ABC - Neil Young - The Monkees - Bob Dylan - Woodstock, New York - Nashville Skyline - Grammy - Liner notes - Kris Kristofferson - Marijuana

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Immensely popular, and an imposing tall figure, by the early 1970s he had crystallized his public image. He regularly performed dressed all in black, wearing a long black knee-length coat, causing him to be dubbed "The Man in Black". This outfit stood in stark contrast to the costumes worn by most of the major country acts in his day – rhinestone Nudie suits and cowboy boots. In 1971, Johnny wrote the song "Man in Black" to help explain his dress code: "I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, / Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, / I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, / But is there because he's a victim of the times."

Related Topics:
1970s - Rhinestone - Nudie suit - Cowboy boot - 1971

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In the mid-'70s, Cash's popularity and hit songs began to decline, but his autobiography, titled Man in Black, was published in 1975 and sold 1.3 million copies. (A second, Cash: The Autobiography, appeared in 1998). His friendship with Billy Graham led to the production of a movie about the life of Jesus, The Gospel Road, which Cash co-wrote and narrated. The decade saw his religious conviction deepening, and in addition to his regular touring schedule, he made many public appearances in an evangelical capacity. He also continued to appear on television, hosting an annual Christmas special on CBS throughout the 1970s. Later television appearances included a role in an episode of Columbo, as well as a recurring role on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. He did a voice cameo on The Simpsons in the show's eighth season, playing the voice of a coyote that guides Homer on a spiritual quest. He also appeared on an episode of Little House on the Prairie along with his wife, June Carter, and gave a stirring performance as John Brown in the 1980's Civil War television mini-series "North and South".

Related Topics:
1975 - 1998 - Billy Graham - Jesus - Evangelical - Christmas - CBS - Columbo - Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman - The Simpsons - Coyote - Homer - Little House on the Prairie

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Highwaymen

In 1980, Cash became the Country Music Hall of Fame's youngest living inductee at age 48, but during the 1980s his records failed to make a major impact on the country charts, though he continued to tour successfully. In the mid-1980s he recorded and toured with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson as The Highwaymen, making two hit albums.

Related Topics:
1980 - Country Music Hall of Fame - 1980s - Willie Nelson - Kris Kristofferson - The Highwaymen

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It was also in this time period that Johnny Cash appeared as an actor in a number of television films. In 1981, he starred in The Pride Of Jesse Hallam. Cash won fine reviews for his work in this film that called attention to adult illiteracy. In 1983, Cash also appeared as a heroic sheriff in Murder In Coweta County, which co-starred Andy Griffith as his nemesis. This film was based on a real life Georgia murder case and Cash had tried for years to make the film, which would win him acclaim.

Related Topics:
The Pride Of Jesse Hallam - Murder In Coweta County - Andy Griffith

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Cash relapsed into addiction after a serious stomach injury in 1983 (sustained in a fight with an ostrich at his exotic animal park) led him to abuse painkillers. http://www.exclaim.ca/index.asp?layid=22&csid=1&csid1=439 During his recovery at the Betty Ford Clinic in 1986, he met and befriended Ozzy Osbourne, one of his son's favorite singers. At another hospital visit in 1988, this time to watch over Waylon Jennings (who was recovering from a heart attack), Jennings suggested that Cash have himself checked in to the hospital for his own heart condition. Doctors recommended preventive heart surgery for Cash, and he underwent double bypass surgery in the same hospital. Both recovered, though Cash refused to use any prescription painkillers, fearing a relapse into dependency. Cash later claimed that during his operation, he had what is called a "near death experience". He said he had visions of Heaven that were so beautiful that he was angry when he woke up alive.

Related Topics:
Painkillers - Betty Ford Clinic - Ozzy Osbourne - Heart attack - Double bypass surgery

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As his relationship with record companies and the Nashville establishment soured, he occasionally lapsed into self-parody, notably on "Chicken In Black". After being dropped from his recording contract with Columbia Records, he had a short and unsuccessful stint with Mercury Records.

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In 1986 Cash published his only novel, Man in White, a book about Saul and his conversion in becoming the Apostle Paul. That same year, he returned to Sun Studios in Memphis to team up with Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins to create the album, Class of '55. This was not the first time he had teamed up with Lewis and Perkins at Sun Studios. On December 4, 1956 Elvis Presley dropped in on Phillips to pay a social visit while Perkins was in the studio cutting new tracks with Lewis backing him on piano. The three started an impromtu 'jam session' and Phillips left the tapes running. He later telephoned Cash and brought him in to join the others. These recordings, almost half of which were gospel songs, survived and have been released on CD under the title Million Dollar Quartet. Tracks also include Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", Pat Boone's "Don't Forgive Me" and Elvis doing an impersonation of Jackie Wilson (who was then with Billy Ward and the Dominoes) singing "Don't Be Cruel".

Related Topics:
Man in White - Saul - Roy Orbison - Jerry Lee Lewis - Carl Perkins - Class of '55 - December 4 - 1956 - Elvis Presley - Impromtu - Jam session - CD - Million Dollar Quartet - Chuck Berry - Pat Boone - Jackie Wilson - Billy Ward and the Dominoes

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American Recordings

His career was rejuvenated in the 1990s. In 1993, he sang the vocal on U2's "The Wanderer" for their album "Zooropa". Then, although he was unwanted by major labels, he was approached by producer Rick Rubin and offered a contract with Rubin's American Recordings label, better known for rap and hard rock than for country music. Under Rubin's supervision, he recorded the album American Recordings (1994) in his living room, accompanied only by his guitar. The video for the first single, the traditional song "Delia's Gone", was put into rotation on MTV, including a spot on Beavis and Butt-head. The album was hailed by critics and many declared it to be his finest album since the late 1960's, while his versions of songs by more modern artists such as heavy metal band Danzig and Tom Waits helped to bring him a new audience. American Recordings received the Grammy for Contemporary Folk Album of the Year at the 1994 Grammy Awards. Cash wrote that his reception at the 1994 Glastonbury Festival was one of the highlights of his career. This was the beginning of a decade of music industry accolades and surprising commercial success. In addition to this, Cash and his wife appeared on a number of episodes of the popular television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman starring Jane Seymour. The actress thought so highly of Cash that she later named one of her twin sons after him.

Related Topics:
1990s - U2 - Zooropa - Rick Rubin - American Recordings - Rap - Hard rock - 1994 - MTV - Beavis and Butt-head - Heavy metal - Danzig - Tom Waits - Glastonbury Festival - Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman - Jane Seymour

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For his second album with Rubin, 1996's Unchained, Cash enlisted the accompaniment of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. In addition to many of Cash's own compositions, Unchained contained songs by Soundgarden ("Rusty Cage") and Beck ("Rowboat"), as well as a guest appearance from Flea, bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The album also included a cover of a classic 1962 Hank Snow song called "I've Been Everywhere". Despite being virtually ignored by country music radio and the Nashville establishment, Unchained received a Grammy for "Best Country Album". Cash and Rubin bought a full-page ad in Billboard magazine sarcastically thanking the country music industry for its continued support, accompanied by a picture of Cash displaying his middle finger.

Related Topics:
1996 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Soundgarden - Rusty Cage - Beck - Flea - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Hank Snow - Billboard - Displaying his middle finger

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Sickness and death

In 1997 Cash was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Shy-Drager syndrome — a diagnosis that was later altered to autonomic neuropathy, associated with diabetes — and his illness forced him to curtail his touring; he was hospitalised in 1998 with severe pneumonia, which damaged his lungs. The album American III: Solitary Man (2000) contained his response to the illness, typified by a version of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", as well as a powerful reading of U2's "One". American III: Solitary Man, just like Cash's two previous albums produced by Rick Rubin, was a Grammy winner, taking home the award for the Best Country Male Vocal Performance for Cash's version of the Neil Diamond classic "Solitary Man".

Related Topics:
1997 - Shy-Drager syndrome - Autonomic neuropathy - Diabetes - 1998 - 2000 - Tom Petty - U2

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Cash released American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002), consisting partly of original material and partly of covers, some quite surprising. The video for "Hurt", a song written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, was nominated in seven categories at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards and won the award for Best Cinematography. In February 2003, mere days before his 71st birthday, Cash won another Grammy, Best Country Male Vocal Performance for "Give My Love To Rose", a song Cash originally recorded in the late 1950's. The music video for "Hurt", hailed by many critics and fans alike as the most personal and moving music video in history, also won a Grammy for Best Short Form Video at the 2004 Grammy Awards.

Related Topics:
2002 - Trent Reznor - Nine Inch Nails - 2003 - MTV Video Music Awards

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His wife, June Carter Cash, died due to complications following heart valve surgery on May 15, 2003 at the age of 73.

Related Topics:
May 15 - 2003

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Less than four months after his wife's death, Johnny Cash died at the age of 71 due to complications from diabetes, which resulted in respiratory failure, while hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. He was interred next to his wife in Hendersonville Memory Gardens near his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

Related Topics:
Diabetes - Nashville, Tennessee - Hendersonville Memory Gardens - Hendersonville, Tennessee

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