Research Paper On John R Cash

John R. Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas on February 26, 1932 to Ray Cash and Carrie Cloveree. Cash died September 12, 2003. John R. Cash had seven children: Roseanne, Carlene, Kathy, Rosie, Cindy, Tara, and John. Johnny’s nickname was “The Man In Black.”

Cash was enlisted in the Air Force in 1950 and was sent to Texas where Cash met his wife. They would not let him use his initials as his real name so he had to use his legal name which was John R. Cash. After he served in the army, he started a band and landed a record deal.

When Cash started his music career he used “Johnny Cash ” as his name instead of using John. R. Cash. Johnny Cash was known for playing the guitar, songwriter, and a singer. A few of his most popular hits were

“Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk The Line,” and “Ring Of Fire.” The Sun Records owner gave in and Cash and the guys returned to Sun in the late 1954.(Streissguth) During the audition, Phillips liked their sound of music but did not like their gospel driven song choices, he some what felt like he would have a shortage market.
Sam Phillips was trying to discover new material and motivate the group to return with an original song (Johnny Cash).

“Sam Phillips said, we didn’t take Johnny Cash and Say, We’re gonna make you a rocker out of you.” (Oermann) Early 1955, Johnny and his crew recorded the song “Hey Porter,” which Cash wrote just a week after their first Sun session. After that, Cash released his second song called, “Cry, Cry, Cry” later that year it shot up to number 14 on the Billboard charts. Song later on followed, including a pair of top ten singles in “So Doggone Lonesome” and “Folsom Prison Blues.” However, true fame arrived in 1956, when Cash wrote and released “I Walk The Line,” it increased to number one and sold two million

copies.
The success and association with Sam allowed Johnny to join an elite crew of artists that include Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley. However, they were known as “The Million Dollar Quartet.” In 1957 Johnny, now the dad of two young daughters (Roseanne and Kathy) released his debut album, Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar.
By the early 1960s, Cash who had relocated his family to Ventura, California, and left Sun for Columbia Records in 1958, was a musical star.

With an on going tour schedule, Cash was constantly on the road three hundred nights a year, Brainstorming the country with a barrage of popular hits including “Ring of Fire” and “Understand Your Man.” Also, Johnny appeared consistently on the “Louisiana Hayride” and “Grand Ole Opry” radio broadcasts. However, the schedule and the pressures that faced him took a toll on his personal life. Drugs and Alcohol were constant tour companions while his wife Vivian went to go home and take care of their children. Johnny’s two daughters Cindy and Tara were frustrated with their fathers

absence.
In 1966 Cash’s wife, Vivian wanted a divorce. So from there, Cash moved back to Memphis, where he continued to live his life and soon after that he got out of control and started doing drugs. However, Cash nearly found himself in a near death state by a police officer in a small town in Georgia. That was not all that Cash did, he also had other incidents with an arrest for smuggling drugs into the US. Then after that, he started a forest fire in Tennessee which costed him a six figure fine. “I took all the drugs there are to take, and I drank.” (Johnny Cash) “Everybody said that Johnny Cash was through ‘cause I was walkin’ around town 150 pounds. I looked like walking death.” (Johnny Cash)
Johnny Cash life turned around after he met singer-songwriter June Carter in 1967. Carter was a member of the founding family of country music. When Cash and Carter first met, she friend zoned him and then later married him in 1968. After they got married, she helped Cash up his life and become sober. With Carter’s support, Cash kicked his drug habit and became a devout Christian fundamentalist. (Johnny Cash) Cash made an extreme turn around with his life from all the help of his wife. With that being said he made his very own show called “The Johnny Cash Show.” It provided a forum of a mass number of social issues about discussions that ranged from war in Vietnam to prison reform to the rights of Native Americans. That same year his show debuted and he took two Grammy Awards for the album Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison in 1968. As a result, that album was a number one hit and Cash reached gold record status by December 1969. After four months went by, Cash and Carter they had their first child, John Carter Cash in March 1970.
Ten years later, Cash was successful and released two hit singles “A Thing Called Love” in 1972 and “One Piece at a Time” in 1976. In 1972, Cash made an appearance with Kirk Douglas in a movie called “A Gunfight.” In addition, he wrote the scores for the feature Little Fauss and Big Halsy in 1970 and the TV movie The Pride of Jesse Hallam in 1980. (Johnny Cash) Cash produced a number one autobiography Man in Black in 1975. In 1980, Cash was the youngest artist of the Country Music Association Hall of Fame.
Cash had some health problems down the road, causing him to have abdominal surgery in Nashville to fix the problems when he took the drugs. Following the operation, he checked himself into the Betty Ford Clinic. (Johnny Cash) In 1987, Cash went back to hospital for heart surgery after collapsing down while he was on tour in Iowa. However, that did not stop cash from moving on and continuing his music career. After that, he was inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. Cash released another number one selling album American Recordings in 1994. That album had thirteen acoustic tracks that mixed traditional ballads with modern compositions. However, that album helped cash reach a new audience and a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
In Cash’s final years he published American IV: the Man Comes Around. That album was recorded in a cabin in Nashville on a singers estate. Over the next few years, Cash’s health was constantly get worse and worse and he hardly ever made an appearance in public. In May 2003, his wife June carter died of complications of her heart surgery she had. However, Cash still worked with Rubin by his side. He recorded his final track called Hundred Highways. After his wife passed away, Cash made said “I need to have something to do every day. Otherwise, there’s no reason for me to be here.” (Johnny Cash) After that Johnny Cash died of complications from diabetes on September 12, 2003.

Works Cited
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
Oermann, Robert K. A Century of Country: An Illustrated History of Country Music. New York: TV, 1999. Print.
Kingsbury, Paul, and Alanna Nash. Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America. London: DK, 2006. Print.