Johnny Cash

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Born J. R. Cash, 1929--September 12, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, singer, actor, and author.

He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 90 million albums around the world.

His genre-spanning songs and sounds embraced country, rock and roll, blues, folk, and gospel.

Cash was given the rare distinction of being inducted into the Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Gospel Music Halls of Fame as a result of his crossover appeal. After four years in the United States Air Force, Cash rose to prominence in Memphis, Tennessee, to poor cotton farmers.

Cash was known for his deep, quiet bass-baritone voice, the distinctive sound of his Tennessee Three back band, a rebellious appearance with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor, free prison concerts, and his trademark, all-black stage wardrobe, earning him the nickname "The Man in Black."

"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash," he began his set with the greeting "I'm Johnny Cash" followed by his signature song "Folsom Prison Blues." The majority of Cash's songs featured themes of sadness, moral tribulation, and restoration, particularly in the latter stages of his career.

"I Walk the Line", "Ring of Fire," "Get Rhythm," and "Man in Black are among his signature songs."

He also performed comedies such as "One Piece at a Time" and "A Boy Named Sue"; a duet with his future wife, June Carter; and railroad songs including "Hey, Porter," "Orange Blossom Special" and "Rock Island Line" appeared on his radio; and "One Piece at a Time" (followed by many more duets after their wedding); and "Rock Island Line" and "Rock Island Line"; and "One Piece at —

Cash covered songs by several late-20th-century rock stars, including "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails and "Rusty Cage" by Soundgarden, during his last stage of his career.

Early life

J. R. Cash of Kingsland, Arkansas, was born on February 26, 1932, to Carrie Cloveree (née Rivers) and Ray Cash. Roy, Margaret Louise and Jack, three older siblings, as well as three younger siblings named Reba, Joanne, and Tommy (who also became a well-known country artist). He was mainly of English and Scottish descent. Although his paternal grandmothers suspected Cherokee ancestry, Cash's daughter Rosanne's DNA test revealed she had no known Native American markers, she found no such markers. After a meeting with Major Michael Crichton-Stuart, the then-laird of Falkland, he traced his Scottish surname to 11th-century Fife. The name of his family is given at Cash Loch and other locations in Fife. He is a distant cousin of British Conservative politician Sir William Cash. His mother wanted to name him John, but his father preferred Ray, so J. R. was the only alternative they could agree on. When Cash enlisted in the Air Force, he was not allowed to use initials as a first name, so he changed it to John R. Cash. Johnny Cash began using the name Johnny Cash in 1955, when he first signed with Sun Records.

When Cash was three years old in March 1935, the family settled in Dyess, Arkansas, giving poor families the opportunity to work property that they may later own. He and his family used to work in cotton fields from the age of five, singing with them as they went. The cash farm in Dyess was affected by a flood, which led to Cash's song "Five Feet High and Rising" later in the day. The Great Depression gave him a lifelong love for the poor and working class, which inspired several of his songs.

Cash's older brother, who was close, was killed almost in two by an unguarded table at work and died a week later. According to Jack's autobiography, he, his mother, and Jack all had a sense of foreboding about the day; his mother urged Jack to avoid work and go fishing with Cash, but Jack continued to work because the family needed the money. Cash often reflected on the remorse he felt as a result of the shooting and spoke of the joy of "meeting [his] brother in Heaven."

Cash's earliest memories were dominated by gospel music and radio. Cash began playing and writing songs at the age of 12. Cash had a high-tenor voice when he first started singing before his voice was changed to a bass-baritone. He performed on a local radio station in high school. He released My Mother's Hymn Book, a decade later. Traditional Irish music, which he heard on the Jack Benny radio show, had also influenced him.

On July 7, 1950, Cash joined the Air Force. Cash was assigned to the 12th Radio Squadron Mobile of the United States Air Force Security Service at Landsberg, West Germany, after basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and advanced training at Brooks Air Force Base, both in San Antonio, Texas. He served as a Morse code operator intercepting Soviet Army transmissions. "The Landsberg Barbarians" was his first band while at Landsberg. He was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant on July 3, 1954, and he returned to Texas. He had a distinctive scar on the right side of his jaw as a result of surgery to remove a cyst.

Personal life

Cash encountered Vivian Liberto, a 17-year-old Italian-American boy, at a roller skating rink in San Antonio, Texas, on July 18, 1951, while in Air Force basic training. They dated for three weeks before being sent to West Germany for a three-year tour. Hundreds of love letters were exchanged between the couple during the period. They were married at St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church in San Antonio on August 7, 1954, one month after his release. They had four children: Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy, and Tara. Cash moved his family and his family to a hilltop home overlooking Casitas Springs, California, in 1961. He had previously moved his parents to the area to operate the Johnny Cash Trailer Park, a small trailer park. Many run-ins with local law enforcement resulted from his drinking, causing multiple run-ins. Liberto later said she had applied for divorce in 1966 due to Cash's heavy drug and alcohol use, his regular tours, his repeated acts of adultery with other women, and his close friendship with singer June Carter. Their four children were then raised by their mother.

When on tour, Cash met June of the famed Carter Families and the two became infatuated with each other. During a live performance in London, Ontario, Cash proposed to June, thirteen years after they first appeared backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. In Franklin, Kentucky, the couple married on March 1, 1968. They had one child together, John Carter Cash, born on March 3, 1970. He was Johnny and June's only son. Cash, in addition to his four children and John Carter, became a stepfather to Carlene and Rosie, June's children from her first two marriages to honky-tonk singer Carl Smith, former police officer, and racer Edwin "Rip" Nix; respectively. Cash and Carter continued to work, raise their child, produce music, and tour for 35 years after their death in May 2003. June attempted to keep Cash off amphetamines during their marriage, often taking his prescriptions and flushing them down the toilet. And during his multiple admissions to recovery services and decades of heroin use, June stayed with him. Cash believed that his only reason for living after his death in May 2003 was his music; he died just four months later.

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Career

Cash and his first wife Vivian were moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he had sold appliances while studying to be a radio announcer. He appeared with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant at night. The Tennessee Twosome, Perkins and Grant, were identified as the Tennessee Twosome. Cash gathered the courage to visit the Sun Records studio in the hopes of securing a recording contract. He auditioned for Sam Phillips by singing mostly gospel songs, only to learn from the singer that he no longer recorded gospel songs. Phillips was said to have told Cash to "go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell," but Cash denied that Phillips made any such remark in a 2002 interview. Cash eventually ruled over the producer's with new songs produced in his early rockabilly style. Cash's first recordings, "Hey Porter" and "Cry," were released on Sun in 1955.

Cry!

Cry!

In late June, the country's biggest parade was held."

Elvis Presley died on Phillips on December 4, 1956, while Carl Perkins was in the studio recording new songs, with Jerry Lee Lewis backing him on piano. Cash was still in the studio, and the foursome began animpromptu jam session. Phillips kept the cassettes running, and the albums, nearly half of which were gospel songs, survived. They have since been released under the name Million Dollar Quartet. Cash: the Autobiography Cash wrote that he was the farthest from the microphone and sang in a higher pitch to blend in with Elvis.

"Folsom Prison Blues," Cash's next best seller, made the country's top five. His "I Walk the Line" rose to the top of the country charts and landed in the top 20 on the pop charts. "Home of the Blues" was the first series to be released in July 1957. Cash became the first Sun artist to release a long-playing album in the same year. Despite being Sun's most consistent and prolific artist at the time, Cash was feeling constrained by his small brand's contract. Phillips did not want Cash to record gospel and was earning him a 3% royalty rather than the normal rate of 5%. Presley had already left Sun, and Phillips was focusing the majority of his attention and promotion on Lewis.

Cash left Phillips in 1958 for Columbia Records to sign a lucrative contract. His single "Don't Take Your Guns To Town" became one of his biggest hits, and he produced a collection of gospel songs for his second album for Columbia. Cash, on the other hand, was left with a large backlog of recordings with Sun that Phillips continued to debut new singles and albums from that previously unreleased content until as late as 1964. Cash was in the unfortunate situation of seeing new launches on two brands simultaneously. The Sun's 1960 debut, a back cover of "Oh Lonesome Me," pushed the C&W to number 13 on the C&W charts.

Cash was given the teasing name "the Undertaker" by fellow musicians because of his habit of wearing black clothing early in his career. On long tours, he said he preferred them because they were quicker to keep looking fresh.

Cash toured with the Carter family in the early 1960s, including Mother Maybelle's daughters Anita, June, and Helen. During these tours, June remembered admiring him from afar. He appeared on Pete Seeger's short-lived television series Rainbow Quest in the 1960s. He appeared in, wrote and performed the opening theme for, a 1961 film called Five Minutes to Live, and was later re-released as Door-to-door Maniac.

Saul Holiff, a London, Ontario promoter, was in charge of Cash's career. The couple's friendship was the subject of Saul's book My Father and the Man in Black.

Cash began bingeing amphetamines and barbiturates as his career flourished in the late 1950s. Waylon Jennings, a heroin abuser who was heavily addicted to amphetamines, was able to share an apartment in Nashville for a short time. The stimulants would be used to stay awake on tours. Friends blasted his "nervousness" and irregular conduct, with some of them dismissing the warnings of his increasing opioid use.

Even though Cash was in many ways spiraling out of control, he could still bring hits thanks to his frenetic ingenuity. His version of "Ring of Fire" was a crossover hit, debuting at number one on the country charts and debuting at number 20 on the pop charts. It was originally performed by June's sister, but Cash provided the unique mariachi-style horn system. It had come to him in a dream, he said. Vivian Liberto described a different version of "Ring of Fire" as the source of "Ring of Fire." In her book I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny, Liberto claims that Cash gave Carter half the credit for monetary reasons.

Cash's camper caught fire in Los Padres National Forest, California, on June 15, causing a forest fire that killed many hundred acres and nearly killed him. Cash believed that the fire was caused by sparks from a defective exhaust system on his camper, but Fielder says Cash started a fire to remain warm and that in his drugged state, he didn't know the fire was out of control. Cash told Cash, "I didn't do it, my truck did, and it's dead, so you can't question it." The fire blazed 508 acres (206 ha), scorched the forest off three mountains, and drove off 49 of the refuge's 53 endangered California condors. "I don't care about your damn yellow buzzards," Cash said. He was sued by the federal government and was awarded $125,172. Cash eventually settled the lawsuit and paid $82,001.

Although Cash cultivated a romantic outlaw image, he never served a prison term. Despite being arrested seven times for misdemeanors, he stayed just one night on each stay. He was arrested in Starkville, Mississippi, late at night, for trespassing late at night onto private property to pick flowers. (He wrote the song "Starkville City Jail," which he discussed on his live At San Quentin album.) He was arrested by a drug squad while on tour this year in El Paso, Texas, on October 4. The officers suspected him of smuggling heroin from Mexico, but discovered 688 Dexedrine capsules (amphetamines) and 475 Equanil (sedatives or tranquilizers) tablets inside the singer's guitar case. Because the pills were prescription drugs rather than illicit narcotics, he was given a suspended term. Cash first received a $1,500 bond and was released on condition until his arraignment.

Cash unveiled a number of concept albums in the mid-1960s. His Bitter Tears (1964) was devoted to spoken word and songs protesting Native Americans' plight and mistreatment by the government. Despite early success, this album was met with resistance from some followers and radio stations, who opposed its controversial approach to social topics. A book was published in 2011, which resulted in a re-recording of the songs by contemporary artists and the making of a documentary film about Cash's attempts with the album. In February and November 2016, PBS screened this film. Sings the Ballads of the True West (1965) was an experimental double album that mixed authentic frontier songs with Cash's spoken narration.

Cash was divorced from his first wife and had performances postponed, but he continued to succeed, despite being at a low point due to his heroin use and deceptive behavior. Cash's duet with June Carter, "Jackson," earned a Grammy Award in 1967.

Since police discovered he was carrying a bag of prescription pills and was in a car accident, cash was last arrested in 1967 in Walker County, Georgia. Cash threatened to bribe a local deputy but the bill was turned down. In LaFayette, Georgia, the singer was released for the night. After a long chat, sheriff Ralph Jones released him after advising him of the dangers of his conduct and wasted potential. Cash credited his experience with helping him turn around and save his life. He returned to LaFayette later to perform a benefit concert; the city's population was less than 9,000 at the time) and raised $75,000 for the high school. In a 1997 interview, Cash reflected on his experience in that "I was taking the pills for a while, and then the pills started taking me." For a month, June, Maybelle, and Ezra Carter went into Cash's mansion to help him get off drugs. At a concert at the London Gardens in London, Ontario, Canada, cash was suggested onstage to June on February 22, 1968. The couple married in Franklin, Kentucky, a week later (on March 1, Kentucky). After having "cleaned up," she decided to marry Cash.

Cash's journey culminated in the rediscovery of his Christian faith. Reverend Jimmie Rodgers Snow, son of country music legend Hank Snow, received a "altar call" in Evangel Temple, a small church in the Nashville area. However, Cash did not completely stop using amphetamines in 1968, according to Marshall Grant. Cash did not quit smoking before 1970, and stayed drug-free for a period of seven years. Grant claims that John Carter Cash's son, John Carter Cash's son, inspired Cash to end his dependence.

In 1977, cash began using amphetamines for the first time. He was acutely addicted in 1983 and became a patient at the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage for medical care. He avoided opioids for many years, but it relapsed. He became addicted by 1989 and enrolled in the Cumberland Heights Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center in Nashville. In 1992, he began attending the Loma Linda Behavioral Medicine Center in Loma Linda, California, for his final rehabilitation services. (His son followed him into this hospital for healing many months later.)

In the late 1950s, cash began performing concerts in jails. On January 1, 1958, he appeared at San Quentin State Prison for his first public prison performance. Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968) and Johnny Cash at San Quentin (1969), two of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968). Both live albums debuted on Billboard country album music, and the latter made it to the top of the Billboard pop album charts. Cash became a worldwide success in 1969 after he eclipsed even The Beatles by selling 6.5 million albums. In comparison, the prison concerts were much more popular than his later live albums, such as Strawberry Cake, which were sold in London and Live at Madison Square Garden, which peaked at number 33 and 39 on the album charts, respectively.

The Folsom Prison Blues was a hit single on the national charts and number two on the US top ten pop charts, with single "A Boy Named Sue" by Shel Silverstein-penned novelty song "A Boy Named Sue," a Shel Silverstein-penned novelty song that debuted at number one on the country charts and number two on the top ten pop charts.

In 1972, cash was collected at the sterker Prison in Sweden. In 1973, the live album Psterker (At sterker) was released. Cash went through "San Quentin" with "sterker" instead of "San Quentin." A concert at A Concert Behind Prison Walls was shot on television broadcast in 1976 and received a belated CD release following Cash's death as A Concert Behind Prison Walls.

Cash brought attention to the Native American people's issues. In an attempt to defame the US government, Cash performed songs about indigenous people. Many non-Native Americans stayed away from singing about these topics. Cash and June Carter appeared on Pete Seeger's television show Rainbow Quest in 1965, where Cash outlined their roots as an activist for Native Americans.

Columbia Music, the brand for which Cash was recording at the time, was against including the song on his next album, considering it "too radical for the public." In the 1950s, cash singing songs of Indian tragedy and settler violence were fundamentally opposed to the popular style of country music, which was dominated by the image of the righteous cowboy who simply makes the native's soil his own.

He released Bitter Tears of the American Indian in 1964, coming off the success of his previous album I Walk The Line.

We're Still Here: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited, a documentary by Antonino D'Ambrosio (author of A Heartland and a Guitar), tells the tale of Johnny Cash's "Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian), which chronicles Native Americans' struggles. On August 21, 2018, the film's DVD was released.

The album featured tales of a variety of Indigenous peoples, many of whom were victims of violent imperialism by white settlers: the Pima ("The Ballad of Ira Hayes"), Navajo ("Apache Tears"), Lakota ("As Long As the Grass Shall Grow"), and Cherokee ("Talking Leaves"). Cash wrote three of the songs himself and one with Johnny Horton's assistance, but the bulk of the protest songs were written by folk artist Peter La Farge (son of activist and Pulitzer prizewinner Oliver La Farge), who visited New York in the 1960s and whom he admired for his activism. The album's single, "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" (about Ira Hayes, one of the six children to raise the American flag at Iwo Jima), was ignored by nonpolitical radio at the time, and the record label denied it any recognition due to its radical protesting and "unappealing" nature. Cash retaliated, and was even advised by a country music magazine's editor to leave the Country Music Association: "You and your audience are just too smart to identify with common country people, country singers, and country DJs."

Where are your guts? Cash released a letter in Billboard on August 22, 1964, calling the record business cowardly: "D.J.s – station managers – owners [...] where are your guts?" When I discovered that so many stations are afraid of Ira Hayes, I had to fight back.

Just one question: WHY???

Ira Hayes is a natural healer [...] Rochester, Harlem, Birmingham, and Vietnam are all strong drugs. Cash continued to promote the song himself and used his celebrity on radio disc jockeys, who would eventually help the song debut to number three on the country charts, while the album climbed to number two on the charts.

On The Johnny Cash Show later this year, he continued to tell tales of Native-American plight, both in song and in short films, such as the Trail of Tears' history.

The singer was adopted by the Seneca Nation's Turtle Clan in 1966 in response to his resistance to his activism. He served at the Rosebud Reservation in 1968, near to the Wounded Knee massacre's historical epic, in order to raise funds to help with the construction of a school. In the 1980s, he attended the D-Q University.

Cash's Historical Landmarks Association published a review of John G. Burnett's 1890, 80th-birthday essay on Cherokee removal in 1970 (Nashville).

Cash appeared in his own television show, The Johnny Cash Show, from June 1969 to March 1971 on ABC's ABC network. The show, directed by Screen Gems, was staged at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. In every episode, the Statler Brothers opened for him; the Carter family and rockabilly hero Carl Perkins were also among the regular show entourage. In addition, cash, including Linda Ronstadt in her first TV appearance, Louis Armstrong, Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers, and The First Edition (who appeared four times), James Taylor, Ray Charles, Roger Miller, Roy Orbison, and Bob Dylan all enjoyed booking mainstream celebrities as guests, including Neil Young, Louis Armstrong, John McCain, Eddie Ferrand, Derek and the Dominos.

He appeared in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from September 15 to promote the first season of The Johnny Cash Show, which was held from September 15 to 18. During these performances, Johnny Cash and Al Hurricane performed together, with support from ABC and local concert producer Bennie Sanchez. He contributed the title song and other songs to Robert Redford's film Little Fauss and Big Halsy, which starred Michael J. Pollard and Lauren Hutton, as well as Johnny Cash Show era. In 1971, Carl Perkins' poem "The Ballad of Little Fauss and Big Halsy" was nominated for a Golden Globe award.

Cash first met Dylan in the mid-1960s and became a neighbor in Woodstock, New York, in the late 1960s. Cash was raving over the possibility of introducing the reclusive Dylan to his audience. On Dylan's country album Nashville Skyline, Cash performed a duet with Dylan, "Girl from the North Country," and also wrote the album's Grammy-winning liner notes.

Kris Kristofferson, who was starting to make a name for himself as a singer-songwriter, was another artist who received a major career boost from The Johnny Cash Show. Cash refused to alter the lyrics to please network executives during a live performance of Kristofferson's "Sunday Mornin' Down": the song's references to marijuana remain intact:

The closing program of The Johnny Cash Show was a gospel music special. The Blackwood Brothers, Mahalia Jackson, Stuart Hamblen, and Billy Graham were among the guests.

Cash had a reputation as "the Man in Black" by the early 1970s. He often appeared in predominantly black suits with a long, black, knee-length jacket. This outfit stood out in comparison to the rhinestone suits and cowboy boots worn by the majority of the major country acts of his day.

Cash said he wore all black on behalf of the poor and hungry, as well as those who have been detained by age or drugs. "With the Vietnam War so painful in my mind as it did in most Americans, I wore it as 'in mourning' for the lives that may not have been'"... "I don't see no reason to change my position,'" he said. The elderly are still poor, the homeless are still poor, children are still hungry, and the elderly are still dying before their time, and we aren't making any efforts to make life proper. "There's still a lot of shadow to go with."

Initially, he and his band wore black shirts because that was the only similar shade they had in their various outfits. Early in his career, he wore other colors on stage, but he said he adored wearing black both on and off stage. He said that beyond political reasons, he simply liked black as his on-stage color. As the uniform's shirt, tie, and trousers are solid black, the outdated US Navy's winter blue uniform used to be referred to by sailors as "Johnny Cashes."

Cash's renown and number of hit songs began to decline in the mid-1970s. He produced commercials for Amoco and STP, an unpopular venture at the time of the 1970s energy crisis. In 1976, he performed adverts for Lionel Trains, for which he also wrote the lyrics. However, Man in Black, his first autobiography, was released in 1975 and has sold over 1.3 million copies. Cash (The Autobiography) - In 1997, there was a second in the series.

Cash's friendship with Billy Graham culminated in the production of a film about Jesus' life, called Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus, which Cash co-wrote and narrated. In 1973, the first one was published. Cash saw the film as a sign of his personal conviction rather than a proselytizing device.

Cash and June Carter Cash appeared on several television shows on the Billy Graham Crusade television specials, and Cash continued to include gospel and religious songs on many of his albums, though Columbia refused to release A Believer Sings the Truth, a gospel double-LP Cash record that was later sold on an independent label, despite Cash still under Columbia's control. Riding The Rails, CBS' one-hour TV special, on November 22, 1974, a musical history of trains.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he continued to appear on television, hosting Christmas specials on CBS. In an episode of Columbo called "Swan Song," a starring role appeared on later television appearances. "The Collection" was published in June and he appeared in a Little House on the Prairie episode. In the 1985 American Civil War television miniseries North and South, he gave a performance as abolitionist John Brown. Johnny and June appeared in Dr. Quinn's Medicine Woman in recurring roles in the 1990s.

Beginning with Richard Nixon, he was amiable with every US president. He was closest to Jimmy Carter, with whom he became close friends and who was a distant cousin of his wife, June.

Richard Nixon's office requested that he play "Okie from Muskogee" (a satirical Merle Haggard track about hippies, young opioid users, and Vietnam war veterans), "Welfare Cadillac" (a Guy Drake song that chastises welfare recipients' credibility), and "A Boy Named Sue," when invited to appear at the White House for the first time in 1970. Cash refused to attend the first two performances and instead chose "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" and his own compositions, "What Is Truth" and "Man in Black." Cash said that the reasons for rejecting Nixon's song choices were not aware of them and receiving only short notice to rehearse them rather than for political reasons. However, Cash said that even if Nixon's office had enough time to learn and rehearse the songs, their choice of pieces that reflected "antihippie and antiblack" sentiments may have backfired. Nixon joked that one thing he had learned about him was that he did not tell him what to sing in his remarks when introducing Cash.

Johnny Cash was the grand marshal of the United States Bicentennial parade. In 2010, Nudie Cohn's shirt went for $25,000 in auction. He gave a concert at the Washington Monument following the parade.

Cash, as the country's youngest living inductee in 1980, became the country Music Hall of Fame's youngest inductee at age 48, but his 1980s performances struggled to make a major difference on the country charts, although he continued to tour successfully. He recorded and toured with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson as The Highwaymen in 1985, the first hit song to be released in the mid-1980s, with Highwayman starting in 1985 and ending with Highwaymen in 1995.

Cash appeared in a number of television shows during the time. He appeared in The Pride of Jesse Hallam in 1981, receiving fine reviews for a film that called attention to adult illiteracy. In 1983, he appeared as a hero in Murder in Coweta County, based on a true-life Georgia murder case, in which Andy Griffith co-starred Andy Griffith as his rival.

After being given painkillers for a serious abdominal injury in 1983 that was triggered by an incident in which an ostrich was kicked and injured on his farm, cash relapsed into heroin.

Jennings suggested that Cash be admitted to the hospital for his own heart disease during a hospital visit in 1988, this time to watch over Waylon Jennings (who was recovering from a heart attack). Doctors urged preventive heart surgery, and Cash underwent double bypass surgery in the same hospital. Both patients recovered, but Cash refused to use any prescription painkillers out of fear of a return to dependency. Cash later reported that he had what is described as a "near-death experience" during his surgery.

Cash's brain was transplanted into a chicken, and Cash's was given a bank robber's brain in exchange. Robert Hilburn, a biography, criticizes the assertion that Cash made a deliberately bad song in reaction of Columbia's treatment of him. On the contrary, Hilburn argues that it was Columbia that performed Cash with the song, which Cash, who had previously scored major chart hits with comedies such as "A Boy Named Sue" and "One Piece at a Time," accepted the song live on stage and filming a comedic music video in which he dresses up in a superhero-like bank robber costume. Cash's enthusiasm for the song waned after Waylon Jennings told Cash that he looked "like a buffoon" in the music video (which was shown on Cash's 1984 Christmas TV special), and Cash demanded that Columbia strip the music video from broadcasting and recalling the single from stores, breaking the venture's bona fide chart's success—but not before it was described as "a fiasco."

He recorded several sessions with legendary countrypolitan producer Billy Sherrill (who also produced "The Chicken in Black") between 1981 and 1984; they would be released by Columbia's sister company Legacy Recordings in 2014 as Out Among the Stars. Cash produced an album of gospel recordings that ended up being released by a different label around the time of his departure from Columbia (this was due to Columbia's closing down of its Priority Records division, which was not intended to have released the recordings).

Cash left Columbia after more unsuccessful recordings were released between 1984 and 1985.

Cash returned to Sun Studios in Memphis in 1986 to team up with Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins to produce the album Class of '55; according to Hilburn, Columbia still had Cash under control at the time, so special arrangements had to be made to encourage him to participate. Cash's first book, Man in White, a book about Saul and his conversion to Apostle Paul was published in 1986. Johnny Cash Reads The Complete New Testament was released in 1990.

Cash was out of his recording career from 1989 to 1991, but he had a short and painful relationship with Mercury Records. During this period, he recorded an album of some of his best-known Sun and Columbia hits, as well as Water from the Wells of Home, a duets album that pitted him with, among others, his children Rosanne Cash and John Carter Cash, as well as Paul McCartney. Following his Mercury Records contract, he released a one-off Christmas album.

Although Cash never had another chart hit from 1991 to his death, his career was revived in the 1990s, bringing more attention to a younger audience that was not traditionally associated with country music. Marc Riley (formerly of the Fall) and Jon Langford (the Mekons) assembled "Til Things Are Brighter," a tribute album containing mainly British-based indie-rock acts' interpretations of Cash's songs from 1988. Cash was excited about the venture, telling Langford that it was a "morale booster"; later, Rosanne Cash said he had a "strong connection with those artists and was greatly respected"; It was a good thing for him: he was in his element. He knew what they were tapping into and adored it." Both directions of the Atlantic attracted newspaper interest. He performed a version of "Man in Black" for the Christian punk band One Bad Pig's album I Scream Sunday in 1991. He performed "The Wanderer" on U2's album Zooropa's closing track in 1993. "The Wanderer," a Rolling Stone writer who was written for Cash by Bono, "defies both the U2 and Cash canons, combining rhythmic and textural elements of Nineties synth-pop with a Countrypolitan remark fit for a Seventies western's closing credits."

He had been given a deal with producer Rick Rubin's American Recordings, which had recently rebranded from Def American, under which brand it was more recognizable for rap and hard rock, but not so sought after by major labels. He recorded American Recordings (1994) in his living room, flanked only by his Martin Dreadnought guitar – one of many Cash performed through his career under Rubin's direction. Rubin's album featured contemporary artists selected by Rubin. The album received a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, earning a Grammy Award. Cash wrote that his 1994 Glastonbury Festival reception was one of his career's highlights. This was the start of a decade of music industry accolades and commercial success. He partnered with Brooks & Dunn to contribute "Folsom Prison Blues" to the Red Hot Country's AIDS benefit compilation Red Hot + Country. He appeared on Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" album on the same album.

On several episodes of the television show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Cash and his wife appeared on several episodes. As the "Space Coyote" that leads Homer Simpson on a spiritual journey, he also lent his voice for a cameo role in The Simpsons' "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer).

For a cover of Willie Nelson's "Time of the Preacher," guitarist Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, bassist Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, and drummer Sean Kinney of Alice in Chains, willie Nelson.

Cash performed on Unchained (also known as American Recordings II), which earned the Best Country Album Grammy in 1998. Rick Rubin's album was produced by Sylvia Massy engineering and mixing. The overwhelming majority of Unchained was captured at Sound City Studios, which also featured guest appearances by Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, and Marty Stuart. He wrote Cash: The Autobiography in 1997, believing that he did not tell enough of himself in his 1975 autobiography Man in Black.

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