JOHNNY CASH
1932 to 2003
Born in Kingsland Arkansas to cotton
farming parents he moved to Detroit in 1950 to work in a automobile factory. It was while he was here that he joined the US Air Force and ended up in Germany for a four year term.
Sam Phillips signed Johnny to Sun Records in Memphis in 1955, the town he had settled in after leaving the US Air Force to start his career in singing and song writing.
This being the glory period for Rockabilly saw Johnny, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley break through the Country/Rockabilly barrier into the pop charts, all four entertainers leaving their Sun Studio distinctive sounds on the industry.
Before now Hank Williams was the only country artist to have made his way into the pop charts in America.
The Man in Black became a pop chart regular from his first single “I Walk The Line“ and while at the Sun Studios made more hits than Jerry Lee Lewis or Carl Perkins.
1958 saw Columbia Records and Johnny walk a line of gold hits with a collection of songs celebrating American folklore and the life of working class people.
The early 60’s brought turmoil and divorce through wild parties, barbiturates and amphetamines.
Finding religion and discarding drugs saw Johnny marrying June Carter daughter of Maybelle Carter of the original Carter Family. They performed many hits together between 1964 and 1976. In 1969 his single “A Boy Named Sue“ went number one on the country and pop charts making it one of his biggest hits. His album “Johnny Cash At San Quentin“ crossed the double platinum figure signalling his career was definitely back on line. The 60’s saw nineteen hits.
In his career he recorded over one hundred records, won nine Grammy Awards, won 6 Country Music Association Trophies and became one of an elite handful who have been inducted into both the USA Country Music Hall of Fame (1980) and the USA Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1992).
Passing away in 2003 he will always be remembered for those immortal words
“Hello, my name is Johnny Cash“.
