as soon as you heard his voice you knew it could only be Johnny Cash [Music] downam yeah well things come and go but Johnny Cash is he's a buil style somehow we always knew that that he was the man in Black that he stood a little taller than everybody else hello I'm Johnny K for over 40 years Johnny Cash towered over the landscape of American music Johnny Cash's music was uh unique in American music because his voice was unique hello I'm joh and the songs were very very simple in a country sort of way and they communicated in with this Stark s from prison yards to concert Halls cash dominated the scene as the Mythic Man in Black you just felt that he was kind of Truth personified especially as he got older he never tried to hide the fact that he he was a bad boy and and was self-destructive I've never seen another actor individual be able to handle just about any situation when the Manny black walks on that stage everybody stood at attention you can't buy that you can't go to school and learn that you know it's just something you have or you don't have Johnny was driven not just by the chords of a rhythm guitar but by the forces of good evil that shaped him as an artist and Survivor June would always say to me that there's two guys there there's John and then there's cash and I think there's the contradiction I think there was a dark side to John that he battled with all the time he he was also a guy who really dug deep as he would say into the gnarly truth his wife June Carter Cash brought Jon through the dark times and the intensity of their Union never waned through the years they had obviously a great Love U but there was a lot of uh humor and playfulness there um they probably didn't let each other get away with stuff um I think they I think they celebrated each other in his 60s Johnny became a hit with the MTV generation when he put his own stamp on some hard rock songs I was very impressed by his his open mind as to words rock music where a lot of people in the country field are very narrow and Prejudiced and really don't want to hear about nothing that challenges any of their viewpoints or beliefs well cash would would actually embrace these things it was Johnny's mother Carrie who brought music into his life and first recognized his talent she looked for musical ability in all of us and uh she sensed right away that Johnny had that talent and know just picked up real quick what what she tried to teach you Johnny known as JR to his family was one of seven children times were hard and making a living wasn't easy the entire family worked long hours in the fields of their small cotton Farm in Arkansas I remember the big bales of cotton my daddy would pull to the Jin the cotton Jin 2 miles away in town on on the wagon with a team of mules I remember the pump outside was the water we had the artisian well uh we didn't have running water until I was 13 after long days in the field Johnny turned to the radio to hear the Galaxy of country stars who inspired him Eddie Arnold Hank Williams Ernest tubs and the legendary Carter family when Daddy would go to sleep we would slip back in especially Jr would slip back in and turn the radio on and and listen to a few more songs or listen to the the grand old opera and I'm sure he began to think that that he could do that I know very often he would write a poem and he would quote that to us in the field or he would read that to us or say listen to this and see how this sounds and then uh later on he began to put those poetic writings into to music his father saw his son's interest in music as so much frivolity my grandfather was a hard man and he didn't give approv or love I I can't imagine well I can't imagine what it was like for my dad as being this very sensitive gentle musical artistic child and having this parent who didn't recognize it really and not only didn't recognize it but was kind of brutal it was to his brother Jack that Johnny often turned for approval even though he was only 2 years older they did a lot of things together they worked a lot together and and they played a lot together and uh they became very close because they had so much in common when Jack was 14 he took an extra job to help the family make ends meet he cut oak trees and defense posts at the local high school for $3 a day then on May 12th 1944 Jack fell on a table saw and was critically injured I saw my dad cry and and I saw my dad fall on his knees and pray and ask God to spare Jack's life it was if it was his will Jack clung to life for a week while the family stood vigil at the hospital hoping for a miracle but at 6:42 a.m. on May 20th 1944 Jack cash died the loss was devastating for 12-year-old Johnny When U God saw fit to take Jack then it left uh Johnny very uh very empty and I saw him uh more or less draw into a quiet subdued feeling I don't think my dad can be read or understood out of the context of him losing his brother because I think that that was the most significant event of his life and it changed him permanently and um after that I I think he was driven by his grief the one place Johnny found solace was in his music at 17 Johnny's singing won him top prize of $5 in a local amateur contest in 1950 he got to go on a senior class trip to the Grand Old opery in Nashville the Temple of country music The fabled Carter family was on the bill there and Johnny was captivated by June Carter you know she what she did did she did it with such ease and with such comfort and uh I think he liked that about her she came on so strong and uh uh she was Jen was quite a comedian and she would uh run I Love Lucy a close race no you you're you're a good old boy right well thank you Jun you're you're you're nice looking boy look at that hair you got beautiful hair thank no no no no no don't don't hand it to me just let me admire it from you Johnny Cash vowed that he would meet June one day but their paths would not cross again for six years the Iron Curtain had fallen the Cold War was underway and America was about to enter a bloody conflict with Korea Johnny Cash would have to face one of the most crucial career decisions of his life when he came home from the Air Force he brought tapes of songs that he had written and sang into the tape recorder and I thought they were pretty good I thought boy you know he's pretty good singer and pretty good songwriter but it never dawned on me that this Jr cash person was going to become the biggest superstar in the history of the music business in June 1950 the United States entered the Korean War Johnny had no real prospects at home so at the age of 19 he signed up for a 4-year hitch in the US Air Force he took off for Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio it was soon discovered that Johnny had an uncanny aptitude for deciphering Moore's code he was given top security clearance and sent to lansburg Germany where he proved an ace at intercepting messages from the Soviet Union by the end of his tour the Air Force badly wanted Johnny to reinlist and promoted him to staff sergeant but Johnny was not prepared to give up his dreams and turn his back on a career in music he'd also fallen in love with a young woman he'd met during basic training in Texas Vivian Liberto they had continued to correspond so basically here were two people who kind of didn't know each other uh you know in person uh and they just went right ahead and got married on August 7th 1954 Johnny married Vivien in a Catholic ceremony in San Antonio then 22-year-old Johnny Cash and his new bride took off for Memphis where he could better pursue his Ambitions as a singer but being a bread winner meant having a day job so he went to work as an appliance salesman I remember going in the store one day when he was working there and he had a certain Tow and he looked he looked pretty sharp to me I kind of wanted to buy something you know because he was my brother was the salesman but U his his heart was was in his music and that began to to be obvious to all of us during this period Johnny's older brother Roy worked at an auto repair shop in Memphis and introduced him to two musical mechanics Marshall Grant played bass and Luther Perkins played the electric guitar they were built as Johnny Cash and the tenness 2 on stage the three musicians often appeared in what would become a signature color for cash black and of course with hean Luther and Marshall they did wear black cuz that was you know kind of the uniform of the day and didn't show any dirt and it was cheap you know and it looked good on stage and like that so that's kind of where the black outfits got started Johnny desperately wanted his shot and went to the man who could make it happen the head honcho of Sun Records Sam Phillips I was impressed with his voice P voice have always fascinated me as someone speaking to me on the phone or just saying hello somehow another I'm drawn to that type of thing right off I was drawn to Johnny Cash's voice Johnny was given the chance to record a song he wrote called Hey Porter but to put out a single he needed a number for the flip side he wrote The Love Song Cry Cry Cry it defined the trademark cash style I think you only live to see the light up down I wasted my time when I would try try try when the lights GL C cry cry Johnny's style wasn't quite country and wasn't quite rock and roll it was unique Johnny Cash was talking right directly to you baby you're going to cry cry cry and and you know with that monotone voice of his and and that sound that t oh golly nobody sounded like him there was an energy and an edginess um something dark even when I was too young to know what the dark was um something Primal that that he he had a handle on that that he was connected to by the spring of 1955 the single that featured hay Porter and cry cry cry had sold 100,000 copies in the southern states alone Johnny had made it virtually overnight and started touring with none other than Elvis Presley he signed a recording contract with sun records and turned out another hit fome Prison Blues I'm stuck in fome prison the first time I ever heard him on radio was just amazing cuz I just about wrecked my car on the Hollywood freeway it was F from prison blues I thought he sounded like he looked which was that big rugged sound and he didn't disappoint me at all and I remember laying on a towel on the beach with my radio and when he would come on I would jump up and holler to everybody Hey listen this is my brother listen this is my brother with royalties from his records Johnny was able to buy a new home and a used pink and black Lincoln he and Vivien also celebrated the arrival of their first child Roseanne on May 24th 1955 but for all the happiness and comfort his success provided viven was wary of the pitfalls of Show Business life Johnny put his own feelings about the Temptations of life on the road in a song he wrote in 1956 he wanted to call it because you're mine Carl Perkins suggested that a better title might be I Walk the Line because you're mine I walk the song was a mega hit for cash climbing to the top of the country charts where it remained for 43 weeks it crossed over onto the pop charts and sold more than 2 million copies I Walked the Line brought Johnny national attention let's have a great big grand opery welome for Johnny for the first time he was invited to perform at the Grand Old opery there he finally had his chance to meet June Carter and though the two were both married at the time he found that he was still smitten she was sitting backstage um he walked up to her and introduced himself and uh and she said I know who you are and um and he said one day I'm going to marry you and she just looked up at him and said that would be nice June Carter wasn't Johnny's only new fan he went out and stopped the show at the Grand o opy with six encores back at Sun Records the hits kept coming first with Big River then guess things happen that way and the ballot of a Teenage Queen he sold 6 million records on the sun label and took his own show on a tour of soldout houses Johnny was enjoying these days on the road and the contact with the fans but his life was about to take a dark turn to meet the demands of Performing night after night he started taking amphetamines I cannot tell you what a magical feeling those amphetamines had on you at the time and you could stay up for four or five days at a time and forget about stage fright there was no such thing you walked out and you were King but cash was on a dangerous path there were Tales of mood swings and bizarre incidents dumping horse manure in hotel hallways and chopping through the wall of his room with the fire axe well there were just little mischievous things they would do like saw off the furniture of a hotel room and make it for small people to enjoy like changing the Decor of a hotel room from uh a beautiful designer color to all black to match the Wardrobe of the show I think a lot of that was just to stay sane because realized these were all one nighters two two 300 one nighters a year was a a long long time on the road his behavior landed him in jail a few times and his new Outlaw Persona created a new constituency for his music fome Prison Blues became an Anthem for prison inmates they identified with the song and the singer even though Johnny had never done hard time he was never sentenced and put away and sent up the river uh the way the guy in Fon Prison Blues is um he has spent some nights in jail uh when uh when he was a threat to Public Safety and and his own safety in other words when he was so high that they just had to put him in the Pokey by 1958 Johnny felt he had done his time at Sun Records Sam Phillips would not increase his royalties and refused to make the gospel album Johnny had always wanted to record after 3 years in a split that was not amicable Johnny left son and Sam Phillips I did not impose my will on any of these quote unquote potentially uh creative people that's what I wanted is diamonds that had not been touched just mind and then let's shape it and go from there and so it was an innocent thing that John did that could have happened to to to any of us but nonetheless he left and I wasn't too happy about [Music] it Johnny found what he was looking for at Colombia records and in 1959 hymns by Johnny Cash the first of his Many religious albums was released Johnny also began appearing more frequently as an an actor on television shows and had his sight set on film roles with his career growing in all directions he relocated to Southern California Johnny's house was the Gathering Place in Southern California and he was the only one of our gang that had a pool so that made his house kind of central for all activities and stuff and uh and Vivian was a very gracious Hostess of course the girls were little you know his family was also growing eventually it would include four daughters Johnny and Vivian looked like the picture perfect affluent couple but moments of togetherness were rare the cash marriage was crumbling under the weight of Johnnie's absences my mother loved him and his music and who he was I don't think she had a clue where that was going or that he would become so famous or what that meant the interference in her private life and how he would be taken away and how he would be so busy and consumed with this and you know it was just completely mindboggling to her she couldn't cope with that she wanted a nice small very tidy family life it wasn't going to happen with him they were so different by the 1960s Johnny Cash was more than an established recording star he was emerging as a modern American folk hero his live performances electrified audiences in big cities and small towns hello I'm Johny I mean a great show with Johnny Cash was As Good As It Gets believe me as far as being part of a of a great show and feeling that Elation from the crowd a lot of times I would just have to stand out there and say folks I'm sorry but he's not coming back good night then in 1962 June Carter joined his company as a performer it was a turning point for Johnny and it wouldn't be long before his Boyhood crush on her would blossom into love well when Jan and the cardal family started working with him I saw a big difference in him I saw that uh he was working with people that he felt comfortable with and people that could sing his kind of music with him and make it sound even better and I even asked him myself one time there's always been some magic between you and the Carter family how did that come about and he said well that was a bad kiss of love between me and June inevitably Johnny's feelings for June strained his marriage to Vivian to the breaking point still she was hoping to keep the family together and as a devout Catholic would not consider divorce Johnny spent less and less time at home and became more dependent on pills then no one really talked to us about what was wrong it was drugs but I didn't know what that was or I just knew that when he was when he did come home he was very restless and he seemed unhappy very dark he seemed like he was tethered to his body with a very thin thread he was not all there Johnny's habit was now demanding up to 100 pills a day 50 amphetamines to take him up and 50 assorted pills to bring him down I was afraid he was going to die he he came very near death several times when we were on the road together and I was afraid he was going to die and we'd be picking up the trade papers and reading about the late and great Johny Cash Cash was never bigger at the box office but his tours were Now marred by cancellations he even blew a big gig at Carnegie Hall in New York when his voice abandoned him I could not see how he could do the Carnegie har show and he did it and his voice was so oh it was gone he went I fell in burning R you it just bad and I could just see disappointment written all over his face although you know he was giving it as all I think he felt absolutely terrible about it the audience was very forgiving and he apologized to the audience you know he said I I hope you you'll give me a break and let me and come hear me next time in the midst of these troubled times June Carter and band member Merl Kilgore wrote a song that became a high point in Johnny's career in Ring of Fire he took what was basically a slow folk song to a whole new level by using instruments unheard of in country music he told June that the idea for the orchestration came to him in a dream she said John tell M what you dreamed he said I dreamed I heard trumpets Mexican trumpets playing the Ring of Fire released in June of 1963 ring of fire was a sensation and Rose to number one on the country charts I looked at June and she winked at me and I said we have got a monster though Johnny Cash was an ambassador of country music his views were in tune with many of those in the folk music world in 1964 he appeared at the Newport Folk Festival I keep a close watch on this heart of mine because you're mine I Walk the Line Johnny began collaborating with folk and rock artists like Bob Dylan take one Johnny Cash Bob Dylan Bob was very big fan still is used to mention use used to use cash as a musical sort of example and this you know something like cash would do this or that and I know he admires him as a man Johnny's experiments with drugs were now getting him into serious trouble on one visit home in 1965 he took his black van into the California Hills and apparently high on drugs accidentally started a forest fire he was fin close to $100,000 so it was always something like that uh always these um very dramatic catastrophic things happening I mean was literally on the edge of my seat for my entire childhood waiting for something else terrible to happen to my dad but cash directed the bulk of his destructive energy toward himself he was losing weight rapidly and was described as looking like walking death he became very unpredictable he's always been loving and kind and gentle and uh you know would do anything in the world for anybody and his personality changed drastically in the early 1960s it became so bad that I was almost sure he was going to die by 1965 the prescriptions for pills Johnny was able to get from a variety of doctors could not keep up with his needs desperate he bought a huge amount of pills in Mexico and was arrested in El Paso when he tried to bring them across the border cash was in freef fall and he knew it that's part of the pain that comes from addiction is that not you know not only you destroying your physical self but all your potential and your gifts and your goals and your love and your relationships that they're all going down with the ship in early October of 1967 Johnny Cash was was still in the middle of a long downward spiral a losing battle with addiction to drugs he hadn't slept or eaten in days and he was feeling he'd wasted his life desolate he walked one day into an old cave on the outskirts of Chattanooga he hoped he would never come out alive but he couldn't die uh you know his body would not cooperate with him and uh and he also had uh had a kind of vision as as he put it uh I mean he didn't see anything didn't see any Angels didn't hear any voices or anything but just got the very clear idea that uh that this was not his time to die after hours in total Blackness he emerged from the cave to find June Carter and his mother waiting for him they took him back to his home near Nashville and over the next few weeks June saw Johnny through a harrowing withdrawal it was days and nights of tortured sleep and terrible nightmares but finally with June's love and support Johnny came around she really believed in him and wanted to protect him and wanted him to get off drugs and um you know I think she saw a vision for his future that maybe he wasn't even aware of at at the time June Carter was also a devout Christian and Johnny Drew strength from her Rel religious convictions his own renewed Faith helped him return to the stage he loved in November of 1967 he performed without the aid of drugs for the first time in a decade but his personal life was still in disarray in a surprising turn of events his wife viven agreed to divorce she had become convinced it was in the best interest of the family I remember feeling greatly relieved like maybe they can both have a chance to be happy separately now 12 years earlier at the Grand Old opery Johnny predicted he would one day marry June Carter and he did on March 1st 1968 it marked the beginning of one of the longest and happiest unions in Show Business I think that's so cute you know June used to date Elvis Presley a long time ago and a friend of hers and said something like you know you probably got all really Val valuable collection of Alis stuff you know all that she goes what then he goes you know all those letters he wrote you and clothes and this and that she said well John threw all that in the lake and I found that Charming you know Johnny was so in love with June Carter I've never seen anybody that much in love with somebody and it just carried throughout the years I tell you what you know you go on a road for about 3 or 4 days and it's been hectic it's been hit the road do the show go to bed go to sleep and every once in a while we'll say I'll say Hey you love me you know and she said of course I said well come give me a big hug or she'll do the same thing you know and we take a break from it you know we stop the rat race and and we hold on to each other for a little while by the end of of the 1960s the man in Black was more than ever the favorite headliner at prisons around the country well the prisoners loved what he was doing and they appreciated his being there because he was for the underdog and that was his Persona and they felt that he cared about them if maybe no one else did and there was some purpose to still get out of there and not just deteriorate Johnny recorded a live concert at fome prison in 1968 that was a landmark in his career the album quickly earned gold and then platinum records on his next release Johnny Cash at San Quenton he performed a novelty song that became a huge breakout hit well I don't blame him cuz he running hi but the meanest thing that he ever did was before he left he went and named me Sue I remember when John was on stage late in the show and he decided to sing A Boy Named Sue for the first time he really hadn't memorized the lyrics that shell Silverstein had written so he read the lyrics while he was singing the song but the prisoners just went wild it was it was really a happening that night he was big and bent and gray and old and I looked at him and my blood ran cold and I said my name is Sue A Boy Named Sue became Johnny's first top 10 hit on the pop charts by the end of 1969 Johnny's records accounted for an amazing one out of every five albums sold in the United States that same year he became one of the first major country stars to headline a network television variety show hello I'm Johnny Cas people like Bob Dylan who would never have been seen by hardcore country music fans had it not been for that show so it was a very groundbreaking show in a lot of ways if Johnny was thriving in his public life he seemed content at last in his personal life as well to add to their blessings Johnny and June welcomed a son John Carter Cash on March 3rd 1970 for Johnny the baby heralded a new era of personal professional and spiritual growth then at the age of 48 the country singer from the cotton fields of Arkansas became the youngest living person ever inducted into the country music Hall of Fame Johnny's Father Ray who thought that music would be his son's downfall was there to honor his achievement ironically it was from this great height that Johnny began to Tumble into a period of obscurity the cash sound seemed to be out of fashion and his record sales were dwindling but there was still the touring in 30 years his love of the road had never diminished and everywhere his fans came out for him in large numbers [Music] then after undergoing eye surgery in 1981 whether from old demons or new troubles Johnny relapsed into a serious addiction to painkillers and alcohol his family knew he would have to get clean or die so we did an intervention we just kind of said we weren't going to stand for it anymore and how badly we had been treated because he was so messed up and he was going to treatment and that was it and he was tremendously relieved in 1983 Johnny entered the Betty Ford Center for rehabilitation over the next two months the Intensive program there helped him turn his life around once again it was now time to turn around his professional Fortunes in 1985 he teamed up with a group of old friends to form the highway men Johnny joined forces with Chris kristopherson Willie Nelson and whan Jennings everybody says it's Mount Rushmore it's the four of them together and also they were all old friends and so there's just boys pounding around go out on the road together and make these records They had a great time together he was big and bent and gray and old and I looked at him and my blood ran cold and I said my name is Su how do you do you going to die the group was an instant hit but even with their exhilarating success Johnny was dropped by Columbia Records it was the end of a spectacular creative and Commercial run of almost three decades when uh Johnny was dropped from Columbia Records Dwight Yokum went to see the president of Columbian nationville and walked in and said how dare you do this to Johnny Cash and he pointed at the desk that he was sitting at and he said Johnny Cash bought the that desk that you're sitting at for you how dare you in 1988 Johnny Cash almost died when he developed pneumonia after double bypass surgery his recovery took a long time but by 1994 he was back on the road touring again one memorable performance during this year was a return engagement at Carnegie Hall he shared the stage with his daughter an I sang I still miss someone with him and it was so sweet for both of us it was like we healed a part of our relationship in that song on that stage which is the way he heals a lot of things you know which is the way he works out a lot of his life is on stage in front of a lot of people Johnny now made a move that surprised many people he teamed up with producer Rick ruin known for his work with offbeat young bands like the beasty boy boys and the Red Hot Chili Peppers but Reuben's take on his music was just what cash needed I think that when we started working together he got reinvigorated and he was really excited that first that people cared to want to really work with them to make good records and take as long as it took really put the effort in and then in return seeing the response I think invigorated him even more Johnny's first release on Ruben's American recordings label won a Grammy for Best contemporary folk album and on the second he took a huge creative leap by choosing to record Rusty Cage it had been a hit for the rock group sound garden it's a really aggressive heavy metal record and um I played it for John and he just shook his head like he really thought I was crazy [Music] I'm going to break my going to break my Roy of course the first time that I heard it and heard that it was going to go on the record I was thrilled I know and I also couldn't believe just how simply you know they they made this song go and it sounded to me like a Johnny Cash song um and that I think considering all the things I've done in my career I was probably the most excited by that as the 1990s came to a close Johnny Cash was suffering from the effects of chronic illnesses asthma glaucoma diabetes and a debilitating nervous system disorder that doctors at first misdiagnosed as Parkinson's but in May of 2003 it was Johnny's wife June in the hospital for bypass surgery 8 days after the byass at the age of 73 she died of complications from the operation for the first time in over 35 years John was without his staunchest supporter His True [Music] Companion June went I I always got the feeling that John he he wasn't going to do very well without it he had his music and he would say that that's what I have and he he focused his attention on his music in his fourth release for American records Johnny once again revamped a hard rock song this one titled hurt told of the devastating effects of addiction and the Searing video gripped music fans of all ages I hurt myself today to see if I still feel that's an extraordinarily painful video to watch and yet um I think it's set the standard for why should we even bother with this form of music video if we can't reach people and touch people and the way he did with that song and his performance and the images and that brutal honesty and instead of going and trying to make it you know a whitewashed version of his life when he's singing the song is's really sort of taking you into something that is so personal um that I think at the end of that even though it was sad to me I also felt privileged and I felt like here's a guy that's pretty much Fearless when it comes to Art and music and uh you know those are that's a great role model to have they're really opened up a new audience room it's I can't think of anyone else that has done that in like their late 60s he was unique in that the video was nominated for six MTV Music Awards Johnny had hoped to attend the ceremonies in New York but poor health kept him at home Johnny's Health continued to decline and just a few weeks after the award show he was rushed to the hospital he died there on September 12th of respiratory failure at the age of 71 he told me that just before he passed away he he went up to visit June and he said I'll be with you soon in one sense I felt he was free the pain that he was going through without Jun was just something that people who haven't that kind of had that kind of relationship I don't think we can imagine it I think it was intolerably painful for him and I just felt that he was at peace though Johnny Cash is gone for his Legions of fans he will remain the American Troubador who embraced every kind of music and made it his own there was never any doubt that Johnny Cash's Legacy would burn brightly but in his last years he took steps to make sure the story was told right getting involved in the pre-production of the highly anticipated biopic Walk the Line John was heavily involved in the script and the screenplay um to get it right Wen Phoenix Stars opposite ree Witherspoon as a young Johnny Cash and June Carter finding their footing in love and launching their musical careers this song's for your award Johnny Cash the iconic man in Black is a memory that still strikes a chord in all walks of [Music] life he is the very definition of country music his Rocky Road to stardom took him from a box car to the Hall of Fame with stops at the big house and the White House and he did it all without compromise the man is a a Maverick set to musicame