I took some of the international students to Nashville for the day. I asked them what was at the top of their list of what they wanted to see. Everyone wanted to visit the Johnny Cash Museum.
The music and legendary icon has crossed time and place. Johnny Cash remains one of the most influential musicians of the time. Visiting this museum has long been on my list of places to visit. Therefore, I happily agreed to their request.
The Johnny Cash museum is in the heart of downtown Nashville. The building houses not only the Johnny Cash Museum but also the Patsy Cline Museum. It costs $27 to visit the Johnny Cash Museum. An additional $25 is needed to go upstairs to the Patsy Cline Museum. Sorry Ms. Cline, but I’ll have to visit your museum another time. Today, the attention was all for The Man in Black.
JR Cash was born in Arkansas to a poor family of cotton farmers. He was the middle child of the 7 children. The family would work in the fields together and sing as they worked. His mother and a family friend taught him how to play guitar. By the time he was 12, he was writing his own songs. He was also performing on the local radio station.
As a young adult, he enlisted in the Air Force. He was told he could not go by his given initials. Therefore, he listed himself as John R. Cash. He spent three years serving in Germany as a Morse Code operator. Then, he returned home to marry his first wife Vivian.
That sense of patriotism continued through his life and decades later he wrote ‘The Ragged Old Flag‘. The video of him reading this poem is on repeat as part of the museum.
After moving to Memphis, he was working as an appliance salesman while he studied to become a radio announcer. At night he played his guitar with the two man band named the ‘Tennessee Two’.
He applied to Sun Records a few times about a recording contract to play some gospel music. But the producer, Sam Phillips, was no longer accepting gospel music. But as Cash developed his “rockabilly” style, he was then contracted by Sun Records.
The museum had the original copy of ‘I Walk The Line’ signed by Johnny Cash and the producer Sam Phillips.
Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash came together in the studio one day. They had an impromptu jam session. This jam session would come to be known as the Million Dollar Quartet. Johnny Cash later wrote in his autobiography that he sang at a higher pitch to blend in with Elvis.
Johnny Cash would later marry June Carter who came herself from a legendary musical family. June’s mother, Maybelle Carter, was part of the trio who first recorded their music at the Bristol Sessions.
It was 1927. Musicians from across the country came to the small town of Bristol. Bristol sits on the border of Tennessee and Virginia. They wanted to use the latest technology to record their music. During these recording sessions, the Carter family often participated. They recorded their own music and joined with others.
Brad and I visited the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol a couple of years ago. We loved learning more about these musical legends. They paved the way for other artists.
From June 1969 to March 1971, Johnny Cash had his own program at the Ryman Auditorium. Many artists were boosted into popularity from being featured on the Johnny Cash Show. During this time, he reconnected with his Christian roots. The final program of the Johnny Cash Show was a gospel music special with other artists.
Johnny Cash was friends with all the presidents and performed multiple times at the White House. President Nixon learned that he could not tell Johnny Cash what to sing. It was best to let him sing what he wanted. He was even the Grand Marshall for the United States Bicentennial parade.
In 1980, Cash was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. At the time, he was the youngest inductee at 48. He also was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. His style always transcended the musical boundaries.
He would record a grand 97 albums throughout his life. The museum is home to every album cover adorning a wall and another wall with his gold and platinum albums.
Cash was not only a musician but he was artist as well. He was constantly sketching and drawing. He sketched his own Shroud of Turin that he kept in the pages of his bible.
In 1971 he received an honorary Doctorate Degree in Divinity from Gardener- Webb University. He never forgot the grass roots of gospel singing that he had grown up with. Many of his songs carried themes of moral tribulation and redemption.
The last area of the museum had screens playing the music video for his song ‘Hurt’. It was such a powerful moment watching the clips from his life. June Carter passed away at the age of 73 in May 2003. She urged him to keep working. Taking that to heart, he recorded 60 more songs in the next 4 months of his life.
Johnny Cash passed away in September 2003 at the age of 71.
What an incredible experience to learn more about Johnny Cash and the impact that he had on the music world. Though he certainly experienced troubled periods of heartache, rejection, and addiction, he continued to create music. His music reached to the heart of people. This museum is a beautiful tribute to his life and legacy of being the Man in Black.
If you enjoyed reading on this music legend, then you might be interested in other places in Tennessee connected to Johnny Cash:
The Ryman Auditorium- Nashville Tennessee
Country Music Hall of Fame- Nashville Tennessee
The Grand Ole’ Opry- Nashville Tennessee
Bristol Sessions and the Birthplace of Country Music Museum – Bristol Tennessee & Virginia
Thanks for coming along on this visit to the Johnny Cash Museum. May you find life and love like a ring of fire.
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