I remember how gut-wrenching it was the day the Johnny Cash died. I felt like I lost an old and true friend. I can't say I ever met him, but I feel like I knew him well.  If you listened to what he had to say in the stories he sang and the tales that he told, you could find out anything you wanted to about the man.  Famously, he walked the line, but he also walked the talk. 

If you look at the arc of his career it matches the arc of his life.  He created music not to sell records, but to tell his story.  Every phase, every cause and every up and down has been turned into song and shared with all who care to listen and to all who can't help but listen.  I am definitely one of the latter, but am more so someone who actually cares about listening.   Johnny is an inspiration to me for many reasons.  First and foremost he was his own man, a self-made man, and it was by his terms that he acted out his life.  If you are looking for a character in history that typified the folklore of the American way or American figure...it was Johnny; they need to make more room on Mount Rushmore.

He grew up on a small farm in Arkansas, experienced great tragedy and poverty as a child, had a dream that he stood by, through deep valleys and towering peaks, to turning into a reality which he ultimately achieved. He went on to become of the most recognised figures in the world.   Through all of this he never lost sight of who he was and how he came to be.

He was desperate early in his career, ravaged by drugs and stoked by fame.  He was saved by love and saved through his faith. He always reached out to people and reached down to help his fellow man up.  We can learn a lot from Johnny Cash...he was honest which means that he wore his flaws on his chest like medals for all to see and learn from just as much as he wore his heart on his sleeve.

Just a few minutes ago, I was listening to a bootleg of a show he did in 1994.  This was right around the time that he experienced a rebirth (yet again) of his career through the involvement of producer Rick Rubin. At the time right before Rubin entered the scene, Johnny was trying to just be himself, but no one was listening. Record companies wanted gimmicks, but Johnny just wanted to play what was on his mind...as he always did.  Rubin sought out Johnny and said, I want to record you...on your terms.  It was a historical pairing. The results were five defining albums that were as rich as the Arkansas soil that Johnny tilled many years earlier.

This bootleg struck me because of the voice Johnny sang in. It was a knowing voice, a voice you felt compelled to listen to and believe every word it sang. You trusted it...unequivocally.  This was 1994 and Johnny had been singing for a long time.  The voice was not tired and old, nor was it outdated...it was "outlasted". He had experienced so much, but was still not finished and that is what he voice sounded like: a man with a rich and deep history who was still cutting paths and who still had at least three steps on the setting sun.

A stone cold cool story for you.  In 1998, Johnny Cash won a grammy for Country Album of the year.  The irony was not lost on Johnny or Rick Rubin.  The same industry that said Johny was washed up a few years earlier, rewarded him with it's highest honour.  Just after this, Johnny and Rubin's record label (aptly titled, "American Recordings") took out a full page ad Billboard magazine.  The ad was the famous 1970 picture of Johny with a full on and furious middle finger sticking up, defiantly.  In the upper of the ad, the copy read: "American Recordings and Johnny Cash would like to acknowledge the Nashville music establishment and country radio for your support."  Johnny Cash...on his own terms.

Here is the ad:

_____

I have a bumper sticker on my car and it reads: "Johnny Cash is a friend of mine".  I believe this to be true. He's never let me down.

So, here it is, my tribute to Johnny Cash, written a few years after his death:

The Man in Black

He walked with kings and never lost the common touch. He knew not a distance between preacher and follower. He could speak to many different people and he could speak for many different people.

While he walked this Earth he spoke and we listened. And though he has passed on, his words still ring true; immortal.

Johnny Cash was one of us.

He was one of us…but he was also something more than what we could ever collectively be. This everyman spoke words we could not communicate and articulated feelings we could not express.

Johnny Cash was special and I am proud to say that I lived in his time.

Johnny Cash never forgot where he came from; he never forgot that everyone else came from somewhere too. He invited everyone and anyone to live within the stories that he told through song. Johnny Cash walked the line for love, he walked the line for his faith and he walked the line for all of us who were unable to do so.

Do we not all seek to be inspired?

Let me share with you my inspiration…Johnny Cash. His is an influence…empowering-unavoidable…in that once you experience it, it stays with you.