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Johnny Cash: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Johnny Cash
Born J. R. Cash on the 26th of February 1932 in Kingsland, Arkansas, Johnny Cash would grow to become one of the most recognizable figures in American music history, known globally for his deep bass-baritone voice and his signature all-black stage wardrobe. His early life was marked by the harsh realities of the Great Depression, as his family settled in Dyess, Arkansas, a New Deal colony designed to help poor families own land. From the age of five, Cash worked in cotton fields alongside his parents, singing gospel music as they labored, a formative experience that instilled a lifelong sympathy for the working class and the poor. The tragedy of his childhood was compounded in 1944 when his older brother Jack was cut almost in two by an unguarded table saw at work, dying a week later from his wounds. This event left Cash with a profound sense of guilt and a foreboding that would echo through his life, as he often spoke of looking forward to meeting his brother in Heaven. His early musical education came from his mother and a childhood friend, and by the age of twelve, he was already playing and writing songs, eventually performing on a local Arkansas radio station with a high-tenor voice before it deepened into the iconic bass-baritone that would define his career.
Service And Sun Records
On the 7th of July 1950, shortly after the start of the Korean War, Cash enlisted in the Air Force, serving four years that included a tour of duty in West Germany where he worked as a Morse code operator intercepting Soviet Army transmissions. While stationed at Landsberg, he created his first band, The Landsberg Barbarians, and acquired a distinctive scar on the right side of his jaw from surgery to remove a cyst. Upon his honorable discharge on the 3rd of July 1954 as a staff sergeant, he returned to Texas and married Vivian Liberto, a woman of Sicilian, Irish, and German ancestry, with whom he had exchanged thousands of letters during his overseas service. In 1954, Cash and Vivian moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he sold appliances by day and played with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant, known as the Tennessee Two. He auditioned for Sam Phillips at Sun Records, initially singing gospel songs only to be told by the producer that he no longer recorded gospel music. Phillips reportedly told Cash to go home and sin, then come back with a song he could sell, though Cash later denied this specific comment. He eventually won over the producer with new songs in his early rockabilly style, making his first recordings at Sun in 1955, Hey Porter and Cry! Cry! Cry!, which were released in late June and met with success on the country hit parade. The following year, on the 4th of December 1956, Cash was part of the legendary Million Dollar Quartet jam session with Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, a recording that has since become a cornerstone of rock and roll history.
Johnny Cash was born J. R. Cash on the 26th of February 1932 in Kingsland, Arkansas. He grew up in Dyess, Arkansas, where his family settled during the Great Depression.
What happened to Johnny Cash's brother Jack in 1944?
Johnny Cash's older brother Jack died a week after being cut almost in two by an unguarded table saw at work in 1944. This tragedy left Cash with a profound sense of guilt and a foreboding that would echo through his life.
When did Johnny Cash enlist in the Air Force and where did he serve?
Johnny Cash enlisted in the Air Force on the 7th of July 1950 and served four years including a tour of duty in West Germany. He worked as a Morse code operator intercepting Soviet Army transmissions while stationed at Landsberg.
What caused the forest fire in the Los Padres National Forest in 1965?
Johnny Cash's camper caught fire during a fishing trip with his nephew Damon Fielder in June 1965, setting off a forest fire that burned several hundred acres. Cash claimed the fire was caused by sparks from a defective exhaust system on his camper.
When did Johnny Cash propose to June Carter and where did they marry?
Johnny Cash proposed to June Carter onstage at a concert in London, Ontario, on the 22nd of February 1968. He married her a week later in Franklin, Kentucky.
When and how did Johnny Cash die?
Johnny Cash died on the 12th of September 2003 at approximately 2am Central Time while hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. He died of complications from diabetes at age 71.
As his career took off in the late 1950s, Cash began drinking heavily and became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates, sharing an apartment in Nashville with Waylon Jennings, who was also deeply addicted to amphetamines. He used stimulants to stay awake during tours, and while friends joked about his nervousness and erratic behavior, many ignored the warning signs of his worsening drug addiction. Despite this spiraling out of control, Cash could still deliver hits, including the crossover hit Ring of Fire, which reached number one on the country charts and entered the top 20 on the pop charts. The song was originally performed by June Carter's sister, but the signature mariachi-style horn arrangement was provided by Cash, who said it had come to him in a dream, though his first wife Vivian claimed a different version of the origins. In June 1965, Cash's camper caught fire during a fishing trip with his nephew Damon Fielder in the Los Padres National Forest, setting off a forest fire that burned several hundred acres and nearly caused his death. The fire destroyed foliage off three mountains and drove off 49 of the refuge's 53 endangered California condors. Cash claimed the fire was caused by sparks from a defective exhaust system on his camper, but Fielder thought Cash started the fire to stay warm and, under the influence of drugs, failed to notice it getting out of control. The federal government sued him and was awarded $125,172, though Cash eventually settled the case and paid $82,001. He was unrepentant, stating, I don't care about your damn yellow buzzards, and despite landing in jail seven times for misdemeanors, he was held only one night each time.
Redemption And Rock
In 1967, Cash's duet with June Carter, Jackson, won a Grammy Award, and later that year, he was last arrested in Walker County, Georgia, after police found he was carrying a bag of prescription pills when in a car accident. He attempted to bribe a local deputy, who turned the money down, and was jailed for the night in LaFayette, Georgia, where Sheriff Ralph Jones released him after giving him a long talk, warning him about the danger of his behavior and wasted potential. Cash credited that experience with helping him turn around and save his life, and he later returned to LaFayette to play a benefit concert that attracted 12,000 people, raising $75,000 for the high school. June, Maybelle, and Ezra Carter moved into Cash's mansion for a month to help him get off drugs, and on the 22nd of February 1968, Cash proposed to June onstage at a concert in London, Ontario, before marrying her a week later in Franklin, Kentucky. She had agreed to marry Cash after he had cleaned up, and his journey included a rediscovery of his Christian faith, taking an altar call in Evangel Temple, a small church in the Nashville area. Although Cash did not completely stop using amphetamines in 1968 and did not fully end drug use for another two years, he was drug-free for a period of seven years, inspired in part by the birth of his son, John Carter Cash. He began using amphetamines again in 1977, and by 1983, he was deeply addicted again, entering rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic and later Nashville's Cumberland Heights Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center.
The Prisoner And The Activist
In the late 1950s, Cash began performing concerts at prisons, playing his first notable prison concert on the 1st of January 1958 at San Quentin State Prison in California. These performances were recorded live and released on highly successful albums, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison in 1968 and Johnny Cash at San Quentin in 1969, both of which reached number one on Billboard country album music, with the latter crossing over to reach the top of the Billboard pop album chart. In 1969, Cash became an international hit when he eclipsed even the Beatles by selling 6.5 million albums, and the prison concerts were much more successful than his later live albums. He also performed at the Österåker Prison in Sweden in 1972, and in 1976, a concert at Tennessee State Prison was videotaped for TV broadcast, posthumously released as A Concert Behind Prison Walls. Cash used his stardom to bring awareness to the issues surrounding Native American people, recording the album Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian in 1964, which featured stories of indigenous humanity and their violent oppression by white settlers. The album's single, The Ballad of Ira Hayes, was generally not played by commercial radio, and Cash faced resistance from the record label and country music establishment, who considered it too radical. In reaction, on the 22nd of August 1964, Cash posted a letter as an advertisement in Billboard, calling the record industry cowardly and asking why so many stations were afraid to play the song. He kept promoting the song and persuaded disc jockeys to play it, and it eventually reached number three on the country charts, while the album rose to number two on the album charts. In 1966, in recognition of his activism, Cash was adopted by the Seneca Nation's Turtle Clan, and he performed benefits at the Rosebud Reservation to raise money to help build a school.
The Highwaymen And The Comeback
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, although 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 three hit albums, which were released beginning with Highwayman in 1985, followed by Highwaymen 2 in 1990, and concluding with Highwaymen , The Road Goes On Forever in 1995. Cash relapsed into addiction after being administered painkillers for a serious abdominal injury in 1983 caused by an incident in which he was kicked and wounded by an ostrich on his farm. At a hospital visit in 1988, Waylon Jennings suggested that Cash have himself checked into the hospital for his own heart condition, and doctors recommended preventive heart surgery, which Cash underwent, claiming to have had a near-death experience during the operation. No longer sought after by major labels, he was offered a contract with producer Rick Rubin's American Recordings label, which had recently been rebranded from Def American, under which name it was better known for rap and hard rock. Under Rubin's supervision, he recorded American Recordings in 1994 in his living room, accompanied only by his Martin Dreadnought guitar, and the album featured covers of contemporary artists selected by Rubin. The album had a great deal of critical and commercial success, winning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and Cash wrote that his reception at the 1994 Glastonbury Festival was one of the highlights of his career, beginning a decade of music industry accolades and commercial success.
Final Years And Legacy
In 1997, during a trip to New York City, Cash was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Shy, Drager syndrome, a form of multiple system atrophy, which was originally misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease and later altered to autonomic neuropathy associated with diabetes. The illness forced Cash to curtail his touring, and he was hospitalized in 1998 with severe pneumonia, which damaged his lungs. During the last stage of his career, Cash released the albums American III: Solitary Man in 2000 and American IV: The Man Comes Around in 2002, which included cover songs from several late 20th-century rock artists, notably Hurt by Nine Inch Nails and Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails commented that he was initially skeptical about Cash's plan to cover Hurt, but was later impressed and moved by the rendition, and the video for Hurt received critical and popular acclaim, including a Grammy Award. June Carter Cash died on the 15th of May 2003, aged 73, and Cash continued to record, completing 60 songs in the last four months of his life, even performing surprise shows at the Carter Family Fold outside Bristol, Virginia. His final recordings were made on the 21st of August 2003, and on the 12th of September 2003, at approximately 2am Central Time, while hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, Cash died of complications from diabetes, at age 71. His death came less than four months after his wife's, and public funeral services were held at the First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee, where he was buried next to her at Hendersonville Memory Gardens. His legacy continues to be honored through various tributes, including the Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville, the Johnny Cash Trail in Folsom, and the release of posthumous albums like American V: A Hundred Highways and American VI: Ain't No Grave.