Johnny Cash (1932–2003,) byname of J.R. Cash, was an American singer and songwriter whose work broadened country and western music scope. His notable songs are ‘I Walk the Line’ (1956) and ‘A Boy Named Sue’ (1969.)
Born into a cotton farming family in Kingsland, Arkansas, Cash was christened simply J R and became Johnny by general usage. A complex and often deeply troubled personality, he became the best-known performer in country music in the 1960s and helped spread it to a vast new audience. After discharge from the U.S. Air Force, he signed to Sun Records in 1955, where the success of ‘I Walk The Line’ established his style and brought him a contract with Columbia.
Cash turned out a string of hits in the 1960s and had his own television show 1969–71. Nicknamed ‘The Man In Black’ (he had a 1971 hit of that name,) he battled many personal problems. In the 1960s, Cash’s popularity began to wane as he battled drug addiction, which would recur throughout his life.
Cash bounced back as a member of The Highwaymen with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson from 1985. A new generation hailed a series of recordings for American Records beginning in 1984. Cash’s later records included Unchained (1996,) American III: Solitary Man (2000,) American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002,) and the posthumous American V: A Hundred Highways (2006.)
Cash’s wife was the singer June Carter Cash. His daughter is the country artist Roseanne Cash. Cash’s autobiographies are Man in Black (1975) and Cash (1997.) Walk the Line (2005) is a film based on Cash’s life.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Johnny Cash
It’s all fleeting. As fame is fleeting, so are all the trappings of fame fleeting. The money, the clothes, the furniture.
—Johnny Cash
Topics: Fame
You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.
—Johnny Cash
Topics: Failure
How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man.
—Johnny Cash
Topics: Learning, Heaven
After about three lessons my voice teacher said, ‘Don’t take voice lessons. Do it your way. You’re a song stylist. Always do it your way.’
—Johnny Cash
Topics: Singing
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