Johnny Cash Biography

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Johnny Cash
Country Music | 3 CD Set
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Two songs are at the center of Johnny Cash's career, although this prolific singer/songwriter has had many others. Today's younger fans may not know about them, unless they are consummate Cash fans, but his 1956 "I Walk the Line" and the later "A Boy Named Sue" are genuine Cash memorabilia. Of course, there are many Johnny Cash songs, whether he wrote them or they are from someone else's pen. He wrote "I Walk the Line," humorist Shel Silverstein wrote the "Boy Named Sue" poem which Carl Perkins put chords to, and the ditty becoming Cash's only Top 10 single on the pop chart, making No. 2. Another Cash big hit was his JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON album, reflecting his activism for prison reform. He also did a concert at San Quentin, which became a film documentary. Prison is part of the Johnny Cash mythology. He actually has only spent three days in jail, once for smuggling illegal pills from Mexico. He was also fined a large amount for starting a forest fire and in his youth was somewhat of a rowdy kid. John Cash was born in 1932 in Arkansas. In 1936, his family was one of 600 chosen by the government during the Depression to reclaim land along the Mississippi River, but the next year the river overflowed, causing the end of the project and the evacuation of the residents. His "Five Feet High and Rising" is a remembrance of that year and the river. Cash joined the Army and was sent to Germany, where a cyst he had removed by a drunken doctor resulted in the scar on his cheek. Back in the United States, Cash began seeking music opportunities. He auditioned for Sam Phillips of Sun Records, but was turned down because his music was gospel and Phillips saw no future in that. He changed his mind when Cash got more rockabilly oriented. Cash formed the Tennessee Two and then the Tennessee Three and in 1955 his first record came out, "Hey Porter," backed with "Cry, Cry, Cry," which made No. 14 in country. He followed with "Folsom Prison Blues." About this time, he made a deal with Carl Perkins, another rising young singer/songwriter, that he would finish "I Walk the Line" if Perkins would finish his new song, "Blue Suede Shoes," which became a hit for Perkins, Elvis Presley and later Johnny Rivers. Cash left Sun Records for Columbia in 1958 after another disagreement with Phillips. His 1959 release "Don't Take Your Guns To Town" was a big country hit and also made the Top 40 pop chart. Now doing some 300 shows a year, Cash was making good money and began taking drugs to survive his hectic schedule of touring while he was expected to write more hit songs. He got into the concept album business, writing about the working man (BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS), cowboys (BALLADS OF THE TRUE WEST) and the American Indian (BITTER TEARS). He was pals with singer Carl Smith, too, and eventually Smith divorced his wife, June Carter. Later Cash asked June to marry him while onstage one night and she accepted, later giving birth to their daughter, singer Roseanne Cash, and a son, John. Another pal was Bob Dylan in the '60s and while Cash had a hit with Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe," it's said that Dylan's career was aided by Cash's support at a crucial time. Through the years, Cash had also proved to be a good actor (with Kirk Douglas in "A Gunfight") and even had a television show in 1969-71 as well as a well-written documentary about his life. He championed other writers, too, including Kris Kristofferson, whose songs he recorded. He managed to put his deep religious feelings into his music over the years and subsequently put out several spiritual albums and a film and double album, "The Gospel Road," with Kristofferson, Larry Gatlin, and the Statler Brothers. Johnny Cash long ago became the Man In Black, a title he picked up when he appeared on the Grand Ole Opry refusing to don the rhinestone cowboy look. He has also enjoyed delving into music from other writers such as the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Rodney Crowell, Nick Lowe and John Prine, among others. Over the years, he has made more than 70 albums and dozens of hit singles. He has eschewed the country image of a redneck, claiming to not be in that camp. His "Ballad of Ira Hayes," about a troubled Native American, resulted in threats from the Ku Klux Klan, but he is also said to be quite patriotic. Cash has undergone serious health problems the past few years, including pneumonia and heart problems, but until recently was still touring, whether with the Carter Family or with bosom buddies Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kristofferson, together called the Highwaymen.

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