Johnny Cash, the greatest cowboy of them all, was born on this day back in 1932. We’re celebrating the Man in Black’s would-be 78th birthday with an interesting fact for every year since then. Revel in the random Cash-related miscellany — from what he nicknamed his tour bus to which president was his all-time favorite — after the jump.
1. Johnny Cash started smoking when he was 12 years old.
2. The Masons rejected Cash’s application for membership “on moral grounds.”
3. Cash learned how to hypnotize himself from country singer Johnny Horton.
4. To commemorate his birthday, Cash’s family wants you to wear black.
5. Cash adopted his signature all-black suits as a good luck charm after he wore a black t-shirt and jeans to his first public performance.
6. His first gig with the Tennessee Two was playing for a group of elderly ladies in a church basement.
7. When he was a child working in the cotton fields, Cash used to eat young cotton buds, despite his mother’s warnings that they would give him bellyaches.
8. He took only one voice lesson, after which the teacher advised him not to let anyone change the way he sang.
9. His parents named him J.R. Cash as a compromise between the names “John” and “Ray.” When he enlisted in the Air Force, Cash gave his name as “John R. Cash.”
10. The first song he remembers singing was the hymn “I Am Bound for the Promised Land.”
11. Though he was never in prison, Cash served a total of 7 nights in jail for different incidents.
12. After being arrested for trespassing in Starkville, Mississippi, Cash broke his toe trying to kick out the bars of his jail cell.
13. The title for “Walk the Line” was a suggestion from Carl Perkins.
14. During his act in the 1950s, Cash flaunted a killer Elvis impersonation.
15. During his stint in the Air Force, Cash learned to translate Russian Morse code.
16. He bought his first guitar in Germany for 20 deutschemarks ($5 American).
17. The first song he heard on a radio was “Hobo Bill’s Last Ride” by Jimmie Rodgers.
18. While in the Air Force, Cash traveled to London for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.
19. When he first tried to record for Sun records, Cash pitched himself as a gospel singer. After that didn’t work, he just sat on the steps of the recording studio until he could convince Sam Phillips to listen to his songs.
20. Roy Orbison was Cash’s next-door neighbor in Tennessee for over 20 years.
21. Cash advised Jerry Lee Lewis not to record “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin On,” preferring his rendition of Jack Clement’s “It’ll Be Me.”
22. Cash used to exchange birthday greetings with Elizabeth Taylor, whose birthday is the day after his.
23. “Blue Suede Shoes,” Cash claims, came from a story he told Carl Perkins about an airman who used to tell Cash not to step on his blue suede shoes.
24. Cash’s advice on living life on the road: “Back in 1957, there was no Extra Crispy. Other than that, it’s the same.”
25. When Cash first moved to Memphis, he enrolled in a radio class at Keegan’s School of Industry, hoping to become a DJ.
26. The first time Cash met honky-tonk pioneer Ernest Tubb, Tubb advised Cash, “Just remember this, son. The higher up the ladder you get, the brighter your ass shines.”
27. At the Carter Family Fold, a mountain music concert hall in Virginia, Cash was the only artist allowed to use an amplifier.
28. He met his first wife, Vivian Liberto, at a skating rink in San Antonio.
29. During his time in the Air Force, Cash wrote all his letters to Vivian in green ink.
30. After Johnny Carson moved to New York to start The Tonight Show, Cash bought Carson’s house in Encino.
31. The camper Cash used for his amphetamine binges in the desert was named Jesse James. It had its windows spray-painted black so Cash could sleep during daylight hours, “but also because I just liked to spray-paint things black.”
32. After an oil leak from Jesse James set the Los Padres National Wildlife Refuge on fire, Cash became the only person ever successfully sued by the U.S. for starting a forest fire.
33. The blaze Cash’s camper started killed all but 9 of the endangered condors at the refuge. When questioned about the birds at the deposition, Cash replied: “I don’t give a damn about your yellow buzzards.”
34. Country guitarist Merle Travis taught Cash how to sink a Bowie knife at twenty paces.
35. The first time Cash met songwriter Peter Le Farge, Cash gave him enough Thorazine that Le Farge slept for “three or four days.”
36. An ostrich attack left Cash with five broken ribs and internal bleeding.
37. During a hospital visit for surgery, Cash smuggled in a card of Valium in the bandages over his suture. (Half of the pills dissolved into the wound.)
38. At his house in Jamaica, Cash had a “Billy Graham room” with a guest bed specifically for Graham.
39. President Jimmy Carter was June Carter’s cousin, related to Cash by marriage.
40. Cash was also distantly related to King Duff, the first king of Scotland.
41. Carrie Cash, Johnny’s mother, worked at the gift shop for the “House of Cash” museum until her death.
42. Muhammad Ali wrote a poem for Cash called “Truth” which Cash kept locked in a vault.
43. The motto on the Cash family coat of arms reads “Better Times Will Come.”
44. In the 1985 miniseries North and South, Cash played the abolitionist John Brown.
45. He wrote, produced, and narrated Gospel Road, a movie about Jesus’ life, which featured June Carter Cash as Mary Magdalene.
46. The same night Cash got fired from the Grand Ole Opry, he crashed June Carter’s Cadillac into an electrical pole.
47. Cash collected 19th century guns and antique books.
48. At Dolly Parton’s first performance on the Grand Ole Opry stage, Cash coached her backstage.
49. When Cash was 5 years old, his dad shot his dog for eating the table scraps meant for the hogs.
50. When visiting the White House, Cash compared shoe sizes with President Clinton. Cash is a size 13, Clinton is a size 12.
51. Cash’s signature introduction (“Hello, I’m Johnny Cash”) debuted at his concert at Folsom prison.
52. According to his autobiography Cash, if he were stuck on a desert island, Cash would bring Bob Dylan’s The Freeweelin’ Bob Dylan, Merle Travis’ Down Home, Jimmie Davis’s Greatest Gospel Hits, Emmylou Harris’ Roses in the Snow, Rosanne Cash’s The Wheel, a gospel album by Rosetta Tharpe, “something by Beethoven,” and You Are There by Edward R. Murrow.
53. The tune for “I Walk the Line” was inspired by a recording of Bavarian guitar music Cash had accidentally played backwards.
54. Once, on tour in the late 1950s, Cash and his band members bought 500 baby chickens and a hundred of them loose on each floor of a hotel.
55. At another hotel, they flushed cherry bombs down the toilet and blew the plumbing out.
56. The 1962 crime drama Five Minutes to Live was Cash’s first role in a full-length feature film.
57. On his tours in the early 1960s, Cash was billed as “America’s Foremost Singing Storyteller.”
58. Cash spent a night in jail in El Paso for smuggling two socks full of amphetamines across the Mexico border.
59. During Cash’s divorce, he shared an apartment in Nashville with Waylon Jennings.
60. Before one meeting with his addiction counselor, Cash drove a tractor into the lake beside his house.
61. The scar on the right side of Cash’s face was from a botched surgical procedure while he was in the Air Force.
62. Cash guest-starred as Kid Cole on four episodes of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
63. June Carter finally accepted Cash’s proposal for marriage at a hockey arena in Ontario.
64. In 1984, when Cash felt that his record label was ignoring him, he released an intentionally awful album called Chicken in Black, with a title song about Cash’s brain being transplanted into the body of a chicken.
65. He used to carry around a jar of instant coffee and ladle spoonfuls of it into the coffee he ordered in restaurants.
66. The first episode of The Johnny Cash Show featured Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan as guests.
67. On Independence Day in 1976, Cash served as grand marshal for the federal government’s bicentennial parade.
68. In 1986, Cash published the novel Man in White based on the life of the apostle Paul.
69. Cash’s video for “Delia’s Gone” shows Cash tying up and burying Kate Moss.
70. Richard Nixon was Cash’s favorite president.
71. While checked into the Betty Ford Clinic in the 1980s, Cash met and befriended Ozzy Osbourne.
72. After his wife June died, Cash had her Wildwood Flower album cover painted on the elevator in his house.
73. Cash suffered from aviataphobia (fear of flying) and ophidophobia (fear of snakes).
74. In the Air Force, Cash wrote short stories under the pen name Johnny Dollar.
75. During his first two years touring, Cash clocked over 100,000 miles of road travel.
76. Cash once stuck a bowie knife into a hotel room’s reproduction of the Mona Lisa that didn’t meet his standards.
77. As a 22-year-old inmate, Merle Haggard saw three of Cash’s shows in San Quentin. He later credited Cash for inspiring him to work on his singing.
78. “The Man Comes Around” came from a dream Cash had about the Queen of England.
Comments (51)
This is great! Thanks :-)
Great info, indeed…next time have someone proofread it.
I don’t give a damn about your yellow buzzards
@rosannecash says “mostly true, except for numbers 4 and 70″ on her tweet.
one of the greatest country entertainers, if not the greatest, of all time.
78 reasons I’m happy I woke up this morning. aces.
Nice Piece
“An ostrich attack left Cash with five broken ribs and internal bleeding.” Want to know more!
-MM
I’m assuming the ostrich attack was after the Condor incident and was probably a contract job.
Fucking hate johnny Cash and fucking annoying Americans always exaggeratuing that piece of shit!
Well dude, that was an intelligent and insightful bit of criticism
#33 is nothing but an urban legend. There is not documentation in the condor conservation history about this happening.
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Lol jealous much? Why post something if you don’t even enjoy the artist? Johnny Cash was an inspiring man and musician.
Johnny was on an episode of Columbo where-as he was a pilot that had killed his wife–love that episode…
Is there any information to verify #70? I’m not going to try and say what Johnny’s political views were, but I’ve never heard anything positive about Nixon. The only Nixon story I remember hearing is that he asked Johnny to the White House and then asked for Welfare Cadilac and Okie From Muscogee. I took Johnny to be a least a bit insulted by the President not knowing any of his songs, and Johnny didn’t approve of the message of Welfare Cadilac.
To Rammalammadingdong
You can try to get to watch “100 most shcoking moments of rock history ever”.Program made by VH1.This story was somewhere in fourth tens (I supposed 42 or 48).
Fue, es y será único. Un artista como no hubo otro. Reconocido en el mundo entero, el hombre de negro.
Excepcional… no tengo más palabras.
What he said !? (Paty Ali)
Your a legend Jonhny Cash …
This is great information!!
Thanks for giving your time to make us all a bit smarter, rather than using it to criticize the writing skills of someone else… unlike some people here. ;)
I’m surprised about the Nixon thing… *shivers*
I have heard a story about Johnny Cash on tour in Australia and I was wondering if someone could confirm it: The story goes that Johnny Cash was in Darwin in 1957 on tour and he got into a fight with a local muscian about the the attributes of Australian crocodile boots vs American alligator boots – the story is that he was arrested for drunk and disorderly and spent a night in the cells in Darwin-has anyone heard this story? Can anyone verify it? Thanks for your help.
Some older fans of Roy Orbison might remember a terrible fire in his Hendersonville, Tennessee home that occurred when Roy was on tour in England. Roy’s two young sons were apparently playing with matches in an upstairs closet and both of the boys died in the fire. Roy’s neighbor, Johnny Cash, offered to buy the property where Roy’s sons died, which he did, and he planted a beautiful grove of trees where Roy’s house once stood. Roy bought the property beside the grove and built another home, where he spent the remainder of his life. It was a touching gesture that Johnny made, turning the scene of that awful incident into a memorial to Roy’s children.
2 things. I loved “I Walk The Line” back in 1956. I about wore out the song on the juke box at the drug store counter. And, am I the only one who actually heard “Chicken in Black”? Too too funny.
thank you johnny cash for what you left us with here on earth, your music,your love, and rosanne through her some of your magic lives on.
such a man- what can you say about Johnny Cash- love his love story about him and June- they were soulmates and shye helped him through alot and he worshipped the ground she walk on- you could see it when he looked at her- their love! I loved his songs from childhood to now as adult- still play him continueously- my son, an adult went to see movie of him I Walk The Line in honor of my Father who had passed- that only made my son respect him more- made him seek out his music and what he could find on Johnny Cash.So he still lives on and yes Roseann we love too. Love and miss the man, Johnny Cash and his wife June, however I believe their together.
#64 isn’t true, either. “Chicken in Black” only appeared as a Columbia single, and Columbia never released that 1984 novelty on a Johnny Cash album, much less one titled after it.
Johnny will always be a legend!Thanks for the inspiration you still give today. RIP my brother.
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#79 He was a no talent, alcoholic, ex con who got extremely lucky. I think he and his music and his vocals suck beyond comprehension.
@GSmooth: He wasn’t really an ex-con (he only spent a few nights in county jail). He was certainly an alcoholic, and he was also extremely lucky. He admits to as much in his autobiography. The part about him having no talent and “suck[y] beyond comprehension” music and vocals…I guess I can’t really convince you otherwise if his overall influence, the near-universal praise he receives from critics, and his consistent popularity over multiple generations aren’t enough.
Just another fact about this incredibly talented man, he took his first amphetamine when he was out on tour with Faron Young and Ferlin Husky. It was a white Benzedrine tablet that was scored with a cross. He cont. using the amphetamine market name -”Dexedrine”- (Dextroamphetamine) – Dexedrine is still used for AD/HD today, (I actually have AD/HD, and take a form of Dexedrine.) but is no where near the potency as it was back then for obvious reasons. (Black Beauty’s, well those were Dexidrine the stongest ones you could get.) – John said, “Those black ones would take you all the way to California and back in a ’53 Cadillac with no sleep.” (I just think this is an interesting fact about the man, `cause you only ever here of his addiction to uppers described as amphetamines.)
this was very interesting for me and my son we love johnny cash…my son is 9 and loves the heck outa johnny.. but who dont rite? and u look great big joe soon were gonna have to call u lil joe….lol.. and the uncle cracker song supper hot and supper sexy song i love everything about that song…
to DUDe- JOHNNY CASH WAS A BAD ASS. AND ANY ONE WHO DOESNT THINK THAT IS A DUESH
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okay.. to all the haters out there, dont be hatin on the man in black. he is the best known singer and a great influence. yeah he done bad things but so has everyone else. he came back with songs that are still great today! so any more problems, come talk to me..
Johnny Cash is one of the greatest men to ever walk the earth. He had his ups and down, but who hasn’t? If you listen to his words, what he stood for and how he lived his life in the latter years there is no doubt where his presides now. His music will live on forever. As the shirt I bought off of ebay says, “Johnny Cash Changed My Life.”
Ordinary this submit is totaly unrelated to what I was looking google for, nevertheless it was listed at the first page. I suppose your doing something proper if Google likes you enough to put you on the first web page of a non comparable search.
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I love Country Music, but I cannot stand Johnny Cash…
FIRST: TO dUdE………..If you fucking HATE johnny cash, why are you reading this??? Read something else. p.s. If you had know him, you could not have hated him. Also, Ii know he made a comment once that the word ‘HATE’ was a useless word and no sentence known to mankind needed to use the word ‘HATE’.
SECOND: TO CRAIG G: I know for a fact that the story you are referring to is not true. Cash didn’t go to Australia in 1957. He was arrested several times on misdemeanors and never in Australia. He absolutely loved Australia and had planned to buy land there before he fell ill in 1997. He was not a fighter. He was a peaceful, loving man who would not waste his time fighting another man over boots. Rest assured.
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The mold was broke after Johnny Cash was made. There will never be another like him.
J.R. Was alright!
GSmooth&dUde. You should really think about killing yourselves you pathetic pieces of shit.
Ash, unless you suffer what cash went though you havent got a clue,Its not just the music.
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