Johnny Cash: Always in Black

Beginning concerts with, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,” Cash delivered his own type of music comprised of country, rock and roll, blues, folk, rockabilly, and gospel. Starting to strum guitar strings as a young child and sing gospel while picking cotton in the fields with his family, Johnny knew he wanted to share his music with everyone. Gaining inspiration from his family’s economic standing, gospels and later his compassion for prisoners, Cash created successful albums including My Mother’s Hymn Book and Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison.

While attending basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Cash met his first wife, Vivian Liberto. The couple only dated for three weeks before Cash was deployed overseas. The two stayed in contact with numerous love letters between them. While in Germany, Cash organized his first band, the Landsberg Barbarians. 

After returning home Cash and Liberto became husband and wife and started a family in Tennessee. While trying to kick start his musical career, Cash supported his family as an appliance salesman. Some nights he would play with the Tennessee Two, guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant. Soon he found himself in front of Sam Phillips singing gospel, auditioning for Sun Records. After being turned down the first time Cash returned to Phillips playing a different style of music and was signed with Sun Records, taking Johnny Cash as his stage name. Cash’s first recordings with the label were “Hey Porter” and “Cry, Cry, Cry” in 1955.

Cash’s following hit recordings were Folsom Prison Blues, which made the country Top 5 and I Walk the Line, which even became number one on the pop charts Top 20. After leaving Sun Records, Cash signed with Columbia Records and recorded “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town.” Then, beginning in the early 1960s Cash started to tour with Mother Maybelle and the Carter family. At this point Cash’s career started to skyrocket, and with his success he became addicted to alcohol, amphetamines, and barbituates.

Cash then debuted another hit, “Ring of Fire,” written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore. Even though he was still delivering his creativity on stage, his wife had reached her limit. Vivian filed for divorce in 1966 on grounds of his dependency abuse and affairs. An emotional Cash continued with his musical career and the following year won a Grammy award for his duet with Carter for “Jackson.”

After touring with June Carter for multiple years Cash fell in love with her and asked the singer for her hand in marriage. Carter agreed she would marry him, but only after he sobered up. In 1968 Cash proposed again and Carter was able to say yes.

Johnny Cash even had his own show on the ABC network from 1969 to 1971 titled, The Johnny Cash Show. Each episode the Statler Brothers would open up for Cash, who would host guests such as Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton.

With his success Johnny Cash entered the Country Music Hall of Fame as the youngest inductee at age 48 in 1980. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, an amazing feat to conquer both.

After the death of his wife in 2003, Cash delivered his last concert on July 5, 2003 at the age of 71. Before the year was over Cash was laid to rest in September. Posthumously, Cash’s album American V: A Hundred Highways was released in 2006, with a follow up release, American VI, in 2009. Throughout his career Johnny Cash sold over 90 million albums.