February 26 marks the 80th birthday of Johnny Cash.
Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas on this day in 1932, the fourth of seven children to Ray Cash and Carrie Rivers.
At age 18, Johnny joined the US Air Force. A year later, he met Vivian Liberto at a skating rink and married her in 1954. They had four daughters including first born Rosanne who herself became a huge Country star.
Vivian filed for divorced in 1966. In 1968, Johnny proposed to June Carter, who he had been friends with since 1968. They married on March 1, 1968 and had one child together, John Carter Cash, born in 1970.
Johnny started his recording career at Sun Studios in Memphis in 1955. His first recording was ‘Hey Porter’ and ‘Cry, Cry Cry’. In 1956, unknown Elvis Presley dropped by the studio while Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis were recording. Elvis jammed on a session with them. Years later it was released as the Million Dollar Quartet.
Decades later, Cash would be part of another million dollar quartet with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings. Together they were known as The Highwaymen.
Cash’s first major hit was ‘I Walk The Line’. It was a number one hit on the country chart in 1956 and Top 20 nationally.
Cash’s last recordings were produced by Rick Rubin for Rubin’s American Recordings label.
June Carter Cash died on May 15, 2003 at the age of 73. Johnny died less than four months after his wife on September 12, 2003.
The movie ‘Walk The Line’, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash was released in 2005. In 2006, Rosanne Cash told Noise11’s Tim Cashmere at SXSW that the movie was inaccurate and nothing more than Hollywood’s fictitious depiction of her father.
