THE SQUARE NAIL: "AMERICANA ON TWO LEGS"

Ralph Emery defines Johnny Cash pretty well in those four words. Is there anyone more red, white, and blue...than the man in black? Yet there was so much more to Johnny.

You may or may not like the cavernous baritone voice, but Johnny Cash songs touch raw emotion in audiences. His ballads connect as poetry set to rhythm. Since 1959, the man has sold over 53 million albums, and he had at least two hit singles a year on the Country music chart for 33 years running. Pretty impressive talent to come out of a dirt farm in Dyess, Arkansas.

Look at this precious face. How did he end up wearing black clothing? Most people would agree that the wardrobe schtick fits his maverick swim against the mainstream. J. R. Cash had a father-wound that left him an angry man in his early years. His life was full of contradictions:

a Bible scholar/an outlaw...

an unfaithful marriage partner/a faithful marriage partner...

a man full of pills and booze/a man clean and sober...

a writer of music that appealed to life outside authority/ a writer of music that appealed to life submitted to the ultimate Authority...

So who was the real Johnny Cash?

He was every man. One of his songs spoke of "the beast within me" to describe the internal battles that made his life hard. His earliest battle was with guilt when his brother Jack (left) died at age 14. Twelve-year-old John adored Jack and thought God took the wrong boy because Jack was "the good one".

In that battle and future addiction battles, all his wealth was of no use, except to enable. Surely there were times he desperately wished for the clock to be rolled back because of the people he had disappointed and hurt. He was a role model that needed a big "do-over". He knew to do right, but in the first half of his life he seemed powerless to live right. Ironically, his experiences birthed lyrics that gave others strength. He spoke up for the underdog and the overlooked. People loved the way he put words to what they felt.

Was he a contradiction? Yep. Johnny Cash was like sausage...a peppery blend.

This picture is Johnny with his first wife Vivian. She was 17 when they met. They dated 3 weeks before the Air Force sent him to Germany for 3 years. John returned and married Vivian a month later. Together they had four little girls.

John's son, John Carter Cash, was a co-producer for "Walk the Line", the movie that told his father's story. John Carter Cash says that his father began to really get serious about his faith about the time the movie's storyline ended. That would have been the late 60's...when Johnny gives June credit for helping him turn away from drugs and turn toward the Lord. They married in 1968.

So is this post-1968 Johnny Cash the real Johnny Cash? Was there a demonstrative change in his behavior? Do a fruit-check. He and June had a good marriage for 35 years. They ministered together, made millions, and gave away tons of money to the cause of Christ and to other projects near to Johnny's heart. They helped at Billy Graham crusades and John recorded CD's of gospel songs. He recorded a reading of the New Testament. He found peace with his father. In l986 he wrote a book about the apostle Paul entitled "The Man in White". He still struggled with drugs, but by all outward signs, Johnny Cash WAS the title of that book. But I would be a poor judge of another man's heart; the Lord is the only Righteous Judge.

It still is reasonable to think we could pull up a chair toward the end of Mr. Cash's life and listen as he sings of what he has learned. In the first of two videos (below), Johnny sings a song he did not write called "Hurt". See if you think it seems to fit Johnny Cash's life experience perfectly. (It helps to fit because that video has his life pictures behind the song.) The "Hurt" lyrics speak of his fame and trinkets as an "empire of dirt". The second link is to an audio written by Johnny Cash. Both videos were made just before his death, and they are heavy and real...a legacy to anyone who wants to avoid the Cash potholes.