I don’t recall when I first enjoyed listening to Johnny Cash, but I certainly rode his later wave of popularity when he came out with his American Recordings albums and won the Music Video of the Year award with his rendition of “Hurt.” His faith and public persona were all I had been allowed to know about growing up, so his sordid history of addiction wasn’t really part of the story line I knew at first.

When he passed in 2003, a friend of mine created a series of tribute T-shirts and stickers, which I purchased, which was probably the first time I ever invested myself in knowing the man, and I’ve since tried to learn more of the background behind the singer and his songs. The movie Walk the Line didn’t cover nearly as much of Johnny Cash’s righteous side as I had hoped, so this late-in-life autobiography gave me precisely the professional and spiritual insights I had been hoping to learn.

Johnny Cash writes with a story-teller’s charm, and it really does feel like you’re sitting down with him on the porch overlooking a Jamaican sunset, or in a bus watching the trees pass. Rather than being a year-by-year retelling of his life, this book is really quite all over the place, organized more thematically than chronologically and emphasizing more the people he has known and memories he has made than merely his own country music success. It’s not quite what I had expected, which gives the book all that much more charm.

Cash does get into the stories of his addiction, but—-as an old man recalling his sins ought—he avoids getting into the sordid details. His guilt and sorrow for the pain and damage he caused is palpable, not because he talks about it, but because he makes it quite clear that he doesn’t want to talk about it! Who would? I feel that this early admission from Cash set the pace for the entire book:

I’m thankful, very thankful, that at this moment, I have absolutely no craving for any kind of drug. I’ve been up almost three hours today, and this is the first time I’ve thought about it, and even then it’s in the spirit of gratitude. So my disease isn’t active. Last night I saw a bottle of wine passed around the table, and I never once thought about taking even a sip of it. (So why am I thinking about it now? Watch it, Cash! Gotta never be complacent. Never take anything for granted. Don’t forget, great prices have been paid and will be paid again if you get too smug, too egotistical and self-assured.) (12)

Cash also gets into his Christian faith a bit, but again without much detail. At first, I wondered why he kept even this part a secret, but then he explained himself by recounting why he announced his faith in Christ on national television:

“I had to take a stand on my beliefs. I’d been a Christian all my life, and while I’d never advertised it (and never will; I’ve always guarded my testimony closely), I didn’t believe I could compromise or evade when the question was put to me. I had to tell the truth.” (278)

How does Cash excuse his behavior through the years, all the while being a Christian? Well, he doesn’t excuse it as much as regret it (much like Paul recommends as we “forget those things which are behind and reach forth to the things that are before”): “There never was a dividing line between Johnny Cash the Christian and plain old Johnny Cash.” (279)

Johnny Cash also displays his sense of humor in these pages. I’ll just share two examples that made me smile:

“My Elvis was the Elvis of the ’50s. He was a kid when I worked with him. He was nineteen years old, and he loved cheeseburgers, girls, and his mother, not necessarily in that order (it was more like his mother, then girls, then cheeseburgers). Personally, I liked cheeseburgers, and I had nothing against his mother, but the girls were the thing.” (125)

“As to my musical future, my prospects look good. I can whack on a guitar as incompetently as I could a year ago, probably more so. I think I can sing just as well, or as badly, as I ever could. And I’ve got more songs trying to go through me than ever; I’ve written three in the last three weeks.” (408)

I really enjoyed this book, and while Johnny Cash’s acoustic style as heard on American Recordings is far more to my taste than his rockabilly through the years, this book has sent me back to his older albums to listen to him as he grows. It’s also sent me to YouTube where I’ve seen some interesting things (like his Elvis impersonation, which is just delightful, as well as his final public concert). He was a good man, a quiet city set on a hill. Though he wasn’t gifted with evangelism as his pal Billy Graham was, well that’s just all right with Johnny Cash. He worked his role of pointing the way well, for as he puts it, “Posthole diggers and seed sowers are mighty important in the building of the Kingdom.” (300)

©2017 E.T.

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