Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash, born J.R. Cash, was an iconic American singer-songwriter known for his deep baritone voice and distinctive style, often characterized by his black clothing. Growing up in a farming family in Arkansas, Cash was influenced by gospel and radio music from an early age, leading him to write songs as a child. His musical career blossomed in the 1960s, marked by hits like "Folsom Prison Blues" and "Ring of Fire," the latter co-written by his future wife, June Carter. Despite struggles with addiction and personal upheaval, including a divorce from his first wife, Cash's career thrived, earning him a place as one of the foremost figures in country music history.
Cash's music often explored themes of love, redemption, and the struggles of the downtrodden, resonating across various genres such as folk, rockabilly, and gospel. He was recognized with numerous accolades, including induction into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Cash's life and legacy were further immortalized in the acclaimed film "Walk the Line," showcasing his tumultuous journey and profound impact on music. His later years saw a revival in popularity, influencing a new generation of artists and solidifying his status as a cultural icon before his death in 2003.
Johnny Cash
Singer
- Born: February 26, 1932
- Birthplace: Kingsland, Arkansas
- Died: September 12, 2003
- Place of death: Nashville, Tennessee
American country singer, guitarist, and songwriter
Singing of the trials and tribulations of the common man, Cash sold more than fifty million albums during his lifetime.
Member of Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two; Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three; the Highwaymen
Principal Works
musical theater:Return to the Promised Land, 1992 (music and lyrics with June Cash).
Principal Recordings
albums:Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar, 1957; The Fabulous Johnny Cash, 1958; Hymns, 1959; Songs of Our Soil, 1959; Ride This Train, 1960; Blood, Sweat, and Tears, 1963; Ring of Fire, 1963; Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian, 1964; I Walk the Line, 1964; Keep on the Sunny Side, 1964 (with June Carter); Johnny Cash Sings the Ballads of the True West, 1965; Orange Blossom Special, 1965; Mean as Hell, 1966; Carryin’ on with Johnny Cash and June Carter, 1967; Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, 1968; The Holy Land, 1969; Johnny Cash at San Quentin, 1969; Story Songs of the Trains and Rivers, 1969 (with the Tennessee Two); Hello, I’m Johnny Cash, 1970; Little Fauss and Big Halsy, 1970 (with Carl Perkins and Bob Dylan); Singing Storyteller, 1970 (with the Tennessee Two); The World of Johnny Cash, 1970; Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis Sing Hank Williams, 1971; The Man in Black, 1971; America, 1972; Folsom Prison Blues, 1972; Give My Love to Rose, 1972 (with June Carter Cash); A Thing Called Love, 1972; Any Old Wind That Blows, 1973; Johnny Cash and His Woman, 1973 (with June Carter Cash); Five Feet High and Rising, 1974; The Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me, 1974; Ragged Old Flag, 1974; Johnny Cash Sings Precious Memories, 1975; Destination Victoria Station, 1976; One Piece at a Time, 1976; Strawberry Cake, 1976; Last Gunfighter Ballad, 1977; The Rambler, 1977; Gone Girl, 1978; Silver, 1979; A Believer Sings the Truth, 1980; Rockabilly Blues, 1980; The Baron, 1981; The Adventures of Johnny Cash, 1982; Highwayman, 1985 (with the Highwaymen); Rainbow, 1985; Believe in Him, 1986; Class of ’55 (Memphis Rock and Roll Homecoming), 1986 (with Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins); Heroes, 1986 (with Waylon Jennings); Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town, 1987; Water from the Wells of Home, 1988; Highwayman 2, 1990 (with the Highwaymen); The Mystery of Life, 1991; American Recordings, 1994; The Road Goes on Forever, 1995 (with the Highwaymen); Unchained, 1996; American III: Solitary Man, 2000; American IV: The Man Comes Around, 2002.
writings of interest:Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words, 1975 (autobiography); Cash: The Autobiography, 1997 (with Patrick Carr).
The Life
Johnny Cash, born J. R. Cash, was the son of Ray and Carrie Cash, both of Scottish descent. His parents were involved in the New Deal farm program and settled on land in Dyess Colony in northeast Arkansas. When he was young, he joined his family in picking cotton on the farm and sang with them while they worked. A flood that devastated the family farm inspired a song he wrote many years later called “Five Feet High and Rising.” When Cash was twelve years old, his older brother, Jack, died in an accident involving a table saw, an incident that Cash suggested may have provided the dark edge to his music.
Gospel and radio music permeated his childhood, and he started to write songs as a boy. He sang on a radio station in high school and later enlisted in the U.S. Air Force as a radio operator. He was assigned to a U.S. Air Force Security Service unit in Landsberg, Germany, where he bought his first guitar and started a band. After his service in the Air Force ended in 1954, he married Vivian Liberto, whom he had met during technical training at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Their first child, Rosanne Cash, was born in 1955. That year the family moved to Nashville, where Cash sold appliances while he studied to be a radio announcer.
His musical career took off in the 1960’s, but Cash started to drink heavily and became addicted to amphetamines, using “uppers” to stay awake during tours. Despite the fact that he and Vivian had four daughters, their marriage did not survive Cash’s constant touring and drug abuse. Vivian and Cash divorced in 1966.
By the mid-1960’s, Cash’s singing partner, June Carter, had helped him overcome his addiction. Carter was a member of one of the most influential singing groups in country music, the Carter Family. Although Carter and Cash were married to other people when they met, they fell in love and were married in 1968.
By the end of the 1960’s, many people considered Cash the hottest recording artist, outselling The Beatles. From 1969 to 1971 The Johnny Cash Show ran on ABC, featuring such diverse guests as Louis Armstrong, Neil Young, Merle Haggard, and Bob Dylan. The Statler Brothers opened every show for him.
In the mid-1970’s, Cash’s singing career started to decline, but at the same time his Christian faith grew. With his friend, the Reverend Billy Graham, he cowrote and narrated a film about the life of Jesus titled The Gospel Road. He also continued to appear in televised Christmas specials and with June Carter on the television series Little House on the Prairie.
During the 1980’s, Cash appeared as an actor in several television films. He also suffered a severe abdominal injury and underwent heart bypass surgery in 1988. After Columbia Records dropped Cash’s recording contract, he had an unsuccessful partnership with Mercury Records and in the early 1990’s signed with the American Recordings label. In 1997 Cash was diagnosed with autonomic neuropathy associated with diabetes. A year later he was hospitalized with severe pneumonia, which damaged his lungs.
Carter died during heart-valve surgery on May 15, 2003. While hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, Cash followed her in death on September 12, 2003.
The Music
Known for his distinctive baritone, the sound of his backup band, and his black clothes, Cash had perhaps the most recognized voice in country music. With his sold-out tours and more than fifteen hundred recordings, he left an impressive body of work. Although it is not easy for country artists to cross over to a different genre, during his long career Cash successfully recorded folk, rockabilly, blues, rock and roll, gospel, and popular music. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Country Music Hall of Fame, at forty-eight the youngest living inductee. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1996. His songs were about love, humor, those down and out, and prisoners; later in his life, his themes were moral tribulation and redemption.
Early Works. Cash signed with the Sun Records label in the mid-1950’s, and in 1956 he became a full-time musician after his two-sided hit, “So Doggone Lonesome” and “Folsom Prison Blues,” jumped to number five on the Billboard country chart. A draft of “Folsom Prison Blues” had been written earlier, when Cash was in the service in West Germany and saw the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison. He had great sympathy for prisoners and began performing prison concerts starting in the late 1950’s. These concerts produced two successful albums issued in the late 1960’s: Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, introduced by his moving rendition of “Folsom Prison Blues,” and Johnny Cash at San Quentin. “Folsom Prison Blues” became one of his signature songs and was followed by “I Walk the Line,” Cash’s first number-one country hit and entry on the popular Top 20 chart. “I Walk the Line” is a love song attesting to his fidelity by keeping “a close watch on this heart of mine.” By 1958, with more than six million records sold, Cash felt constrained by Sun’s small label and signed with Columbia Records.
“Ring of Fire.”This song was written by Carter and Merle Kilgore, who eventually became a manager for other recording artists. Although Carter was married to another man when she wrote the lyrics, the words came to her while she was driving down a highway early one morning, thinking about the dangers of falling in love with Cash. She was frightened by his drug abuse, and it came to her that loving him was like a ring of fire. When the song was completed, Carter’s sister Anita recorded it to little notice for her 1962 album of the same name. However, a year later, using mariachi-style horns, Cash recorded “Ring of Fire,” and it became the biggest hit of his career, remaining number one on the charts for seven weeks. Since then, numerous versions of the song have been produced. In 1990, twenty-seven years after Cash released it, Social Distortion recorded it to great commercial success.
“A Boy Named Sue.”Written by Shel Silverstein, a songwriter and author best known for his whimsical children’s books, the song was inspired by humorist Jean Shepherd, a friend of Silverstein who was teased as a child for his first name. Cash first heard “A Boy Named Sue” at an informal gathering of musicians in Nashville where Silverstein sang his song. Carter thought it would be a great song for Cash, and later, when they left to record Live at San Quentin, they took it along. Cash sang the song unrehearsed for the first time in front of the prison audience. The recording became a hit, rising to number one on the country charts and to number two on the pop charts. It also became Cash’s first hit in England and Ireland. “A Boy Named Sue” tells the unlikely story of a boy who grows up resentful of his father, both for leaving him and for giving him a girl’s name. Later the boy, now grown, meets his father in a bar and finally understands that the father gave him the name “Sue” to make him tough.
Musical Legacy
Cash was legendary for the longevity of his career. His signature tune, “Folsom Prison Blues,” was recorded and became a hit in 1956, and his video Hurt won an MTV Video Music Award forty-seven years later. Although his career experienced slumps, especially in the mid-1960’s when he became addicted to drugs, by the end of that decade he was the voice of country music. Again, in the 1980’s, his recording career and connections with the Nashville establishment sank to an all-time low. In the 1990’s his career was rejuvenated, and he became popular all over again with a new generation of young people who were admirers of rock and hip-hop. He continued to earn industry awards and enjoyed remarkable commercial success.
Cash influenced numerous artists and was the first to record the songs of Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan, who later became popular artists in their own right. He had a long friendship with Dylan, who cited Cash as a major influence on his own work. Cash welcomed Ray Charles to Nashville when Charles came to record his first country song there and became his lifelong friend. Cash was a pioneer in the rockabilly sound and early rock and roll, and for his contributions he was recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. An Academy Award-winning film biography of Cash, Walk the Line, was released in 2005 to both commercial and critical success.
Further Reading
Cash, Johnny, with Patrick Carr. Cash: The Autobiography. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. Cash attributes his life, health, and success to Carter.
Streissguth, Michael. Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison: The Making of a Masterpiece. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2004. Examines in depth the legendary concert at Folsom Prison and the live album, placing the concert in the greater context of Cash’s career and the music of the times.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Johnny Cash: The Biography. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2006. Relying on interviews with family members such as Cash’s daughter, Rosanne, this book paints a fairly objective picture of Cash and illustrates the influence of his family members while he was growing up.
Turner, Steve. The Man Called Cash: The Life, Love, and Faith of an American Legend. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2004. This authorized biography, which deals fairly and honestly with Cash’s personal issues, was published in time for the first anniversary of the singer’s death and relies heavily on interviews with such Cash fans as Larry Gatlin and Kris Kristofferson.
Urbanski, Dave. The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash. New York: Relevant Books, 2003. A spiritual chronicle of Cash’s life explores in detail the highs and lows and the failures and successes. His faith became more important to him as he grew older.