Johnny Cash

I always felt bad for not having posted anything concerning Johnny Cash’s passing, anything at all. However, I was just reading these memories of the man (which is part of a large cover story on Rolling Stone) and found myself close to tears. There should be no need to say it, but the man was an icon in the truest sense of the word and there will never, ever be another like him. There was integrity and grace and death and darkness and hope and sin and redemption in his music and his life, and they’ll always be an inspiration to me.

My fondest Cash memory was driving down to the Cornerstone Festival a few years back with Nolan. We listened to a lot of country music that day, classic country including Marty Robbins, Hank Williams. But we turned to Cash to guide us down the final stretch of dirt road. We listened to “Daddy Sang Bass” repeatedly and no words could have fit our feelings better than that famous chorus — “No, the circle won’t be broken/Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye.” And how can you not get a chill when you hear him sing “One of these days and it won’t be long/I’ll rejoin them in a song/I’m gonna join the family circle at the throne”?

I bet that’s what he’s doing right now, singing up there with friends and family all around, and with June right there by his side.