Cash on Cash: Interviews and Encounters with Johnny Cash

by Robert Burke Warren

Overview

Cash on Cash offers unprecedented insight into one of the most significant American cultural figures of the twentieth century.

As an interviewee, Cash was an exemplary communicator to an astonishingly broad spectrum of people: always open and articulate, part friend, part spiritual authority, part flawed hero. Throughout a decades-long career, as Cash took risks, embracing new technologies, formats, and attitudes, he cleaved to a simple, core message of unvarnished truth.

A comprehensive collection of Johnny Cash interviews and feature stories, some widely published and others never previously transcribed, culled from the 1950s through the early days of the new millennium, Cash on Cash charts a singular evolution. From hardscrabble Arkansas poor boy to rockabilly roustabout; international fame to drug addiction and disgrace; born again Christian to gimlet-eyed chronicler of spiritual darkness; TV and movie star to Nashville reject; redemption to loss and back again, several times.

Cash’s story, told in his own words, shines unfiltered light on a journey of archetypal proportions that resonates still.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641606349
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/20/2022
Series:	Musicians in Their Own Words , #21
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	1,039,529
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Robert Burke Warren is a published novelist, musician, educator, and journalist based in the Catskill Mountains of New York. His music writing has been published in Vulture, Paste, Salon, the Woodstock Times, Longreads, the Rumpus, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s publications, and the 2006 Da Capo Press anthology The Show I’ll Never Forget.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface xiii

Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two

November 15, 1958 | Town Hall Party 1

Division Street Corral Interview Red Robinson

June 27, 1959 | Interview Transcript 7

Johnny and June Interview and Performance Pete Seeger

1966 | Rainbow Quest 13

The Restless Ballad of Johnny Cash Christopher S. Wren

April 29, 1969 | Look 28

G Chords and Revolutions: The Johnny Cash Show, 1969 Rosanne Cash

2015 | Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats 36

An Interview with Johnny Cash Jack Killion Peter McCabe

1973 | Country Music 41

Interview Larry Linderman

August 1975 | Penthouse 56

Interview Áine O'Connor

1975 | RTÉ Ireland 72

Cash Comes Back Patrick Carr

1976 | Country Music 77

Pacific Coliseum Interview Red Robinson

August 28, 1976 | Interview Transcript 93

Johnny Cash's Freedom Patrick Carr

April 1979 | Country Music 97

Monroe County Fair Interview Don Gonyea

August 8, 1981 | Interview Transcript 109

Norrköping, Sweden, Press Conference

November 3, 1983 | Original Transcript 116

Interview Glenn Jorgenson

1983 | It's Great to Be Alive 124

Superstar Cash Still Speaks for the Hearts of Americans Robert K. Oermann

April 26, 1987 | Nashville Tennessean 134

"Biggest Party Ever" Opens New Cash Exhibit Robert K. Oermann

March 23, 1988 | Nashville Tennessean 141

Queen Elizabeth Theatre Interview Red Robinson

July 9, 1988 | Interview Transcript 145

Rock & Roll Nail of Fame Induction Lyle Lovett

January 15, 1992 | Original Transcript 148

Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash Interview Robert K. Oermann

March 1995 | Interview Transcript 153

1-800-TRY-CASH Rosanne Cash

December 1996 | Interview 167

Interview Terry Gross

November 4, 1997 | Fresh Air 173

Interview Anthony Decurtis

October 2000 and February 2002 | Interview Transcript 188

The Man in Black and White … and Every Shade In-Between Bill Friskics-Warren

November-December 2002 | No Depression 212

Interview with Johnny and Rosanne Cash Holly George-Warren

August 2003 | Interview Transcript 231

Sylvie Simmons Interviews Johnny Cash Sylvie Simmons

November 2003 | MOJO 247

About the Contributors 257

Credits 263

Index 267

Editorial Reviews

"Johnny Cash’s songs of love, death, and divine retribution suggested a man of a somber, mysterious nature. In Cash on Cash, Warren has collected Cash’s own words, from successive stages of a legendary career, to reveal the generous and life-embracing spirit that drove the Man in Black. His unfiltered thoughts and insights—with Warren’s insightful framing of each entry—present a complete biographical sweep of a life well lived, an arc of personal growth and spiritual self-discovery that makes this book surprisingly deeper and far more valuable than a mere collection of interviews." —Ashley Kahn, author of George Harrison on George Harrison, A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album, and other music titles

"I had a few encounters with the Man in Black, and any further insights into his brilliance, humility, complexity, and charm is going to be a winner for me. A towering figure who kissed my mum smack on the lips backstage at a gig in my hometown Wales back in 1990 and silenced all her doubts about my career choices." —Jon Langford, musician, artist, writer
 

“This book lovingly makes the case for Johnny Cash’s reappraisal and continued relevance. Robert Burke Warren has breathed new life into Cash’s words with his own concise and compelling historical narrative. His insights give invaluable context—and he does it all in the same plainspoken and unpretentious language as the Man in Black himself.” —The Reverend Shawn Amos, musician, author of Cookies & Milk

"Johnny Cash is so much more than an icon. He was a complex, complicated man of deep faith, staunch principles, and mortal failings. Robert Burke Warren has captured all the ripples and depths here, revealing the man as well as the myth and the legend." —Holly Gleason, author, Woman, Walk the Line

"[Cash on Cash] is an intriguing and often insightful collection. For Cash aficionados, music critics, and researchers." — Library Journal

"Robert Burke Warren does a deft job of pulling together both familiar and previously unpublished interviews into a revelatory self-portrait." — Chronogram

From the Publisher

09/01/2022

The Johnny Cash interviews contained in this collection span his career from a 1958 TV appearance to the summation of five days of conversations months before his death in 2003. Cash is hardly an obscure figure; he's been the subject of several books (including two autobiographies) and a major film (2005's Walk the Line). What new discoveries, then, are to be made here? For one thing, while a few interviews are with high-profile outlets (including a 1975 Q&A with Penthouse magazine; a 1969 profile in Look; and a 1997 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air), the majority of these interviews are with smaller news outlets that would be difficult to find online without the aid of a librarian or archivists. For another, taken together they make an interesting series of snapshots: not only of Cash's career, but of how he, and music journalists, talked about that career and about his art. It's especially interesting to read how Cash's thinking on his own creativity and artistic persona evolved over time. VERDICT An intriguing and often insightful collection. For Cash aficionados, music critics, and researchers.—Genevieve Williams

Library Journal