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Richard's Creations
Johnny Cash
Birth Name: J.R. Cash
Born: 2/26/1932
Death: 9/12/2003
Age: 71
Birthplace: Kingsland, Arkansas
Year of Grand Ole Opry Membership: 1956
Year in Country Music Hall of Fame: 1980
Johnny Cash was born J. R. Cash in Kingsland, Arkansas, to Ray and Carrie (née Rivers) Cash, and raised in Dyess, Arkansas.[citation needed]
Cash was reportedly given the name "J.R." because his parents could not agree on a name, only on initials[citation needed]. When he enlisted in the United States Air Force, the military would not accept initials as his name, so he adopted John R. Cash as his legal name. In 1955, when signing with Sun Records, he took Johnny Cash as his stage name. His friends and in-laws generally called him John, while his blood relatives usually continued to call him J.R.[citation needed]
Cash was one of seven children: Jack, Joanne Cash Yates, Louise Garrett, Reba Hancock, Roy, and Tommy. His younger brother, Tommy Cash, also became a successful country artist.
In the 50 years since Johnny Cash bought his first guitar, he's sung gospel songs and murder ballads, teen pop and country weepers, protest songs and vaudeville novelties. It's an output that's unmatched in American music, filled with a deep sense of respect for the past and an unsparing honesty about the present.
Johnny was the son of an Arkansas sharecropper, he reached mythic proportions as the Man in Black—what Cash calls "my symbol of rebellion"—speaking out for the poor, the hopeless, and the beaten down. Twenty-five years ago, Kris Kristofferson called him "a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction." But as the years go by, those fictions keep dropping away, and the truth is all that remains: Johnny Cash is the quintessential outsider, a stunning songwriter and a frighteningly imperfect man, embracing the best and worst in this country and in himself.
Biography
Quite possibly, the most recognizable voice in all of country music belongs to "The Man in Black," John R. Cash. His forays into the fields of country, folk, rock -- and even gospel music -- distinguish Cash as one of the most intriguing performers in all of twentieth century popular music. In addition to one of the most impressive musical careers of all time, he has enjoyed success and garnered tremendous respect as an author, actor, and Biblical scholar.
Born February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas, J.R. Cash was one of six children belonging to Ray and Carrie (née Rivers) Cash. When John was three years old, his father took advantage of a new Roosevelt farm program and moved his young family to Dyess Colony in northeast Arkansas. There the Cash family farmed 20 acres of cotton and other seasonal crops, and young John worked alongside his parents and siblings in the fields.
Music was an integral part of everyday life in the Cash household. John soaked up a variety of musical influences ranging from his mother's folk songs and hymns to the work songs from the fields and nearby railroad yards. He absorbed these sounds like sponge absorbs water. In later years Cash would draw from his life in Arkansas for inspiration: "Pickin' Time," "Five Feet High and Rising," and "Look at Them Beans" are all reflections on Cash's early life.
Cash remained in Dyess Colony until his graduation from high school in 1950. As a young man he set off for Detroit in search of work. He ended up in Pontiac, Michigan, and took work in an automotive plant. His tenure in the North Country was short-lived and Cash soon enlisted in the Air Force, the military would not accept initials as his name, so he adopted John R. Cash as his legal name. After basic training in Texas (where he met first wife Vivian Liberto), he was shipped to Landsberg, Germany. While in the service Cash organized his first band, the Landsberg Barbarians.
After his discharge in 1954 Cash returned stateside and married Liberto. He and his new bride soon settled in Memphis where Cash worked a variety of jobs -- including that of appliance salesman -- while trying to break into the music business.
In 1954 Cash auditioned as solo artist for Sam Phillip's Sun Records. He entertained hopes of recording gospel music for the label, but Phillips immediately nixed that idea. By the following spring, though, Cash was in the Sun Studios to record with his band The Tennessee Three. The original group consisted of guitarist Luther Perkins, bass player Marshall Grant, and Red Kernodle on pedal steel. Kernodle bailed out of the session and Cash's first release for the label, "Hey Porter" had a sparse, but highly effective instrumental accompaniment. Though an impressive single, the song failed to chart.
In 1955, when signing with Sun Records, he took Johnny Cash as his stage name. Cash's follow-up release for Sun, however, fared substantially better. "Cry, Cry, Cry" managed to crack Billboard's Top Twenty, peaking at No. 14. A long succession of chart singles followed: "So Doggone Lonesome" and "Folsom Prison Blues" both broke into the trade publication's Top Ten. But Cash's fourth chart single proved to be his career song. "I Walk the Line," shot to Billboard's No. 1 position and remained on the record charts for an incredible 43 weeks, ultimately selling over two million copies.
By 1957 Cash had racked up an impressive string of hits and was working more than 200 dates a year. That same year he realized a longtime dream when he was invited to perform on the Grand Ole Opry. The following year he switched to Columbia Records in search of more artistic freedom. He still had aspirations of making gospel records and felt he had a better chance of accomplishing this goal at another label. Throughout the remainder of the fifties and into the 1960s Cash continued to produce remarkable records and charted consistently. "Don't Take Your Guns to Town," "I Got Stripes," "Ring of Fire," "Understand Your Man," and "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" all hit the upper registers of the record charts. Appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, and other top-rated network programs followed. His early 1960s concept albums such as Bitter Tears and Ballads of the True West made him a favorite among the folk music crowd, culminating in an appearance at the Newport Folk Festival.
But all was not well. Cash was spinning out of control. His marriage was collapsing and divorce seemed inevitable. Too, his grueling tour schedule (which was now up to 300 shows a year) had taken its toll. Cash became dependent on narcotics to keep up the hectic pace. By the mid-1960s, Cash was a wreck and it began to impact his career.
By 1967, though, Cash managed to overcome his addiction with the help of his singing partner June Carter and her family. In 1968 he and Carter were married and his career experienced a renaissance. Throughout the remainder of the decade and into the 1970s Cash was at the top of his game. A pair of live recordings made at Folsom Prison and San Quentin both went gold and a passel of awards followed including the CMA's Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist awards in 1969.
The final payoff though, was a network television spot. Premiering in 1969, The Johnny Cash Show aired over ABC. Taped at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, the show featured an eclectic mix of guests ranging from Bob Dylan and Neil Young to Louis Armstrong and Merle Haggard. Through his selection of guests, Cash helped to bridge the generation gap and break down musical barriers. He also used the show as a forum to discuss and raise the country's collective consciousness about social issues of the day such as the plight of the Native Americans, prison reform, and the conflict in Vietnam. The show ceased production in 1971 but Cash continued to host numerous specials for several years.
In 1980, at the age of 48, Cash became the youngest living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bestowed its honor on him in 1995, thus making him one of a handful of country artists in both organizations.
* He has recorded more than 1,500 songs and they can be found on about 500 albums, counting only American and European releases.
• More of his albums (44) remain in print today than most artists ever make.
• He is the youngest person ever chosen for the Country Music Hall of Fame and the only person ever selected for the Country and Rock Music Hall of Fame.
• He has placed 48 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop charts, about the same number as the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys.
• He has tallied more Pop hit singles than Barbara Streisand, Michael Jackson (including his Jackson 5 hits), the Four Seasons, David Bowie, the Supremes, Elton John, Billy Joel, Kenny Rogers, the combined totals of Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon and Simon & Garfunkel, Martin Gaye, B.B. King, Roy Orbison, Kool & the Gang, Linda Ronstadt. Diana Ross, the combined total of all of the Osmond Family, Jerry Lee Lewis and the combined total of Lionel Richie and the Commodores.
• He has won eight Grammy Awards, the most recent in 1995. Two of his Grammys came for writing liner notes, for his At Folsom Prison album and Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline record.
• Cash's 1987 Grammy came through his participation in The Class Of '55 recordings with the late Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. The project represented a rebirth of "The Million Dollar Quartet" recordings featuring Cash, Perkins, Lewis and the late Elvis Presley and, interestingly enough, it predated Orbison's participation in The Traveling Wilburys.
• He has had chart success as a solo artists, as part of a duet, as the leader of a trio, and as a part of the award-winning Highwayman quartet.
• Long before the term "concept album" was coined, Cash created such thematically unified albums Ride This Train (1960), Blood, Seat, & Tears (1963), Bitter Tears (1964). and Johnny Cash Sings Ballads Of The True West (1965).
• People forget just how hot Johnny Cash was, when his sales career was at its zenith. In the fall of 1969, Johnny Cash was the hottest act in the world, selling around 250,000 albums per month of his Folsom Prison and San Quinten albums. At that time, he was even outselling the Beatles.
• As Rich Kinezie observed it Country Music magazine 10 years ago, Cash "strengthened the bonds between folk and country music so that both sides saw their similarities as well as their differences. He helped to liberalize Nashville so that it could accept the unconventional and the controversial and he did as much as anyone to make the 'outlaw' phenomenon possible."
• As host of The Johnny Cash Show on ABC-TV (1969-1971), he served up 60 hours of prime-time TV, which featured performers like Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Linda Ronstadt, Ray Charles, Neil Young, James Taylor, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Kenny Rogers, Roy Orbison, Hank Williams Jr., Dennis Hopper, Judy Collins, Charley Pride, the Oak Ridge Boys, Patti Page and Merle Haggard, most rarely seen on TV back then.
• His 1975 autobiography Man in Black has so far sold around 1.5 million copies, about 300,000 in hardcover.
• He is one of the very few people in the history of music to sell more than 50 million records.
• He has placed at least two singles on the Country charts for 38 consecutive years, including an amazing 25 hits between 1958 and 1960.
• He produced and co-scripted a movie about the life of Jesus, Gospel Road, and filmed it in Israel. The film is distributed by Billy Graham's organization and is still in great demand today.
• He has starred in four additional theatrical films including one of the last great westerns, A Gunfight, with Kirk Douglas. In addition, he has been a featured star in seven TV movies including The Pride Of Jessee Hallam, a hard-hitting, poignant story of one man's struggle against illiteracy. The show has proven to be a valuable tool in the battle against illiteracy.
• He has toured extensively for 38 years on a scope far beyond the normal tour bus routine of U.S. honky-tonks, state fairs, and showrooms. Hundreds of thousands of fans in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and throughout Europe have seen The Johnny Cash Show. He has toured in Vietnam and throughout the U.S. State Department, he has appeared in concert in many Eastern European nations such as Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia.
• He has fathered four daughters (Rosanne, Tara, Cindy and Kathy) and a son (John Carter), all of whom have performed with him at one time or another. In addition, Rosanne has become our of country music's top singer-songwriters.
~ Awards ~
Grammy Best Country Album 1998
Music City News Living Legend 1989
Academy of Country Music Single of the Year 1985
Grammy Best Country Performance by Duo/Group W/Vocals 1971
CMA Album of the Year 1969
CMA Entertainer of the Year 1969
CMA Male Vocalist of the Year 1969
CMA Single of the Year 1969
Grammy Best Male Country Vocal Performance 1969
CMA Album of the Year 1968
Grammy Best Country & Western Performance by Duo/Group (Vocal or Inst.) 1968
Grammy Best Male Country Vocal Performance 1968
Fan Club Information
430 Oaklawn Road
Winston-Salem, NC 27107
"Songs of Johnny Cash"
~A collection of his songs~ - (Wav)
Johnny Cash Full Albums
Albums are 3MB to 4MB size and are Wavs
Greatest Hits
Johnny Cash At San Quentin
2003 - 2009 Richard's Creations