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Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

photo: Andy Earl

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Johnny Cash: Pills'n'Thrills And Bellyaches

Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, June 1991

HITCHING UP HIS blue jeans to give his hands something to do, country music's Greatest Living Legend smothers a cough before the familiar voice offers ...

Johnny Cash

Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 1995

HE’S BACK IN BLACK...again. And, as ever, he means business. Johnny Cash, the original rock'n'roll spectre lets loose the leashes with new album Unchained, covering ...

Audio interviews

Johnny Cash (1989)

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 17 March 1989

The Man in Black on the controversy surrounding the 'Til Things Are Brighter tribute album; being threatened by the Klan for hugging Charley Pride; his friendship with Roy Orbison; the state of current country, and his Scottish roots. He also shows Sweeting his coin, gun and guitar collection!

File format: mp3; file size: 30.9mb, interview length: 32' 11" sound quality: ***

Johnny Cash (1996)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 14 October 1996

Johnny Cash talks to Barney Hoskyns about his health, his religion, his revival with Rick Rubin, and the myth of the Million Dollar Quartet

File format: mp3; file size: 50.5mb, interview length: 55' 07" sound quality: ****

List of articles in the library

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Johnny Cash, Maybelle Carter, George Jones, Mac Wiseman, the Glaser Brothers: Carnegie Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Robert Shelton, The New York Times, 11 May 1962

Troupe of Country Musicians Gives Program at Carnegie Hall ...

The Byrds, The Everly Brothers, Johnny Cash, P.J. Proby et al: Freedom From Hunger Benefit, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, 23 June 1965

Most Fantastic Show Ever! ...

The Nashville Sound

Report by Robert Shelton, The New York Times, 28 November 1965

NASHVILLE — ALTHOUGH there have been no birthday cakes visible, this music center has been savoring its sweet desserts during this anniversary year. ...

Johnny Cash — The C&W Legend Also Beloved By Rockers

Interview by Richard Green, Record Mirror, 21 May 1966

JOHNNY CASH has become almost a country and western legend in the twelve years that he's been recording. Rock 'n' roll fans in this country ...

Roy Orbison's Own Rock History #1

Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, December 1967

As told to Jim Delehant ...

'Dylan — He's The Best Songwriter Around Now...' said Johnny Cash

Profile and Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 11 May 1968

IN THE YEAR 1956, one of the most formidable of the small American labels was Sun records, owned and run by Sam Phillips who was ...

Bob Johnston: ...And a PS From the Man Who Produced the Last Dylan LP

Interview by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 9 November 1968

BOB DYLAN'S John Wesley Harding album was probably the most eagerly awaited record of the year. ...

Johnny Cash: Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (CBS 63308)

Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 12 November 1968

2018 note: The quality and impact of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is not because of the songs. It is because of the behaviour and ...

Johnny Cash: "Ain't Nothin' Too Weird For Me"

Report and Interview by Michael Lydon, The New York Times, 16 March 1969

  BACKSTAGE AT the Amarillo, Texas, Civic Auditorium, a fresh kid with glasses held out a plastic cup of coffee. ...

Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music (PBL; dir. Robert Elfstrom)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Miller Francis Jr., Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 24 March 1969

TO SAY THAT the 90-minute Johnny Cash PBL special was the best television show I've ever seen is to detract from the compliment; perhaps it ...

Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan: Mind blowing duo

Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 29 March 1969

NME's Richard Green talks to their producer, Bob Johnston ...

Sun Records: Country Meets Rock

Retrospective by Guy Stevens, International Times, 23 May 1969

An occasional series which looks into pop music and its antecedents is the latest plot to swell our readership figures, thereby making the fuzz look ...

The Johnny Cash Show (ABC TV/Screen Gems)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 12 June 1969

TV CASHES IN ...

Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Charlie Rich and Ronnie Hawkins: Arkansas Rock Pile

Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 28 June 1969

ROCK AND roll was the victory of regional locality over the world, of precise beliefs over general theory, of particular feelings over universal philosophies. ...

Johnny Cash: At San Quentin (CBS mono and stereo 63629; 37s. 6d )

Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, August 1969

CASH RECORDS SMASH IN JAIL ...

1969 — Gospel Makes Great Industry Strides

Report by Danny Goldberg, Billboard, 16 August 1969

GOSPEL MUSIC, songs with lyrics derived from the Old and New Testaments, a music with its roots in church choirs, is one of the oldest ...

New albums from the Doors, Country Joe, Johnny Cash, Creedence, CS&N and Blind Faith

Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 16 September 1969

Finding a new faith: GEOFFREY CANNON reviews pop music ...

Johnny Cash: Country Boy

Profile and Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 20 September 1969

Hard life of the legendary folk star ...

Johnny Cash: Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 7 December 1969

20,000 AT GARDEN HEAR JOHNNY CASH ...

Johnny Cash — The Man, His World, His Music (Dir. Robert Elfstrom, Verité Production)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 21 February 1970

DON'T MISS THIS JOHNNY CASH FILM advises RICHARD GREEN ...

Johnny Cash Walks The Line...

Profile by Danny Goldberg, Circus, March 1970

JOHNNY CASH the Misfit: Drug induced and being busted for possession of benzedrine at the Mexican border happened long after he had made a name ...

Sun Records: The Ooby Dooby

Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 30 October 1970

"'SINFUL MUSIC,' the townsfolk in Memphis said it was. Which never bothered me, I guess." Elvis Presley, interviewed in 1957. In the early 1950s, the ...

Johnny Cash: Jailhouse, Jesus and H.G. Wells

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1971

THE HEAVY carved front door into House of Cash, Johnny Cash's state mansion, in Madison, Tennessee, swung inward to reveal blinding sunshine and the awe-struck ...

Cash

Report and Interview by Tom McWilliams, Playdate, May 1971

TALL, BROAD shouldered — Johnny Cash is a big man, bulky with a dignity weightier than his 39 years. Behind his black shirt front the ...

Bob Johnston: The most envied man in pop

Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 19 June 1971

Roy Carr talks to the man who records Dylan, Cash and Cohen ...

Cash Conference

Report by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 25 September 1971

Sun Records have Cash, Presley, Jerry Lee, Carl Perkins tapes locked in vault ...

Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 25 September 1971

THE LEGEND that has grown up around Johnny Cash got its first in-person airing in Britain for three years at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on ...

Johnny Cash, Carter Family, Statler Brothers, Carl Perkins: Civic Center, Atlanta GA

Live Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 14 February 1972

Oil Commercials & Falling Idols ...

Johnny Cash, Carter Family, Statler Brothers, Carl Perkins: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Andrew Means, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972

FOR ONE reason or another, Johnny Cash has a rather fearsome image. It's been tempered in recent times by some of the songs he's written ...

Johnny Cash: Hard Cash To Cleanse Your Soul

Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 7 October 1972

IT'S 7.30 P.M. at the backstage entrance of the Albert Hall and strange things are happening. It's Wednesday, the second of Johnny Cash's performances at ...

Johnny Cash: Ragged Old Flag

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 27 July 1974

I'VE ALWAYS HAD me suspicions about Johnny Cash. ...

Johnny Cash: The Junkie And The Juicehead Minus Me (CBS); B.B. King: Friends (ABC)

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 23 November 1974

IN WHICH two culture heroes find themselves well and truly on the artistic skids. ...

Johnny Cash - John R. Cash

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 21 June 1975

IN WHICH JOHNNY Cash meets up, quite casual-like, with the '70s and discovers that even though they don't really have a whole lot in common, ...

Johnny Cash: Man In Black

Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 16 August 1975

ANAHEIM: Forty miles from Los Angeles, Johnny Cash sits in the Royal Inn Hotel. Cash is in town to promote his autobiography, Man In Black, ...

Johnny Cash: Riding the Rails and Marty Robbins: Gunfighter Ballads

Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 30 August 1975

OKAY, SO HERE are two special double album packages from CBS that feature two of the world's greatest exponents of country and western melodrama. ...

Johnny Cash: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 27 September 1975

Cash — the legend lives on ...

Johnny Cash: The Gospel According to J.C.

Report and Interview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 4 October 1975

IF I'D never heard of Johnny Cash and someone came up and described him to me, I can't think of any other entertainer, short of ...

Johnny Cash: Look At Them Beans

Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 29 November 1975

I FEAR JOHNNY Cash has turned his back on progress once again. ...

Johnny Cash, The Carter Family: Felt Forum, New York NY

Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 15 January 1977

VIEW YORK: Johnny Cash is the John Wayne of American music, a gigantic figure who towers above his country contemporaries when it comes down to ...

Johnny Cash: The Last Gunfighter Ballad

Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 5 March 1977

THE PICTURE on the cover shows Cash, head and shoulders, in a beat-up cowboy hat that looks like the one he wore in the movie ...

George Jones: I Am What I Am (Epic JE 36586); Johnny Cash: Rockabilly Blues (Columbia JC 36779)

Review by Joe Sasfy, The Washington Post, 22 October 1980

Country to Count On ...

Chips Moman's Memphis Revival

Report and Interview by Joe Sasfy, Country Music, January 1984

Legendary stars, legendary producers, legendary backup singers and a pretty hefty studio band all got together for Chips Moman's new Memphis album. The veteran producer ...

Sunrise In Memphis

Report and Interview by Joe Sasfy, Musician, February 1986

Nashville's Hottest Producer, Chips Moman Returns to the Birthplace of Rock ...

The Johnny Cash Show: Country Festival, Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 12 April 1986

THE PILL POPPIN' POPE OF POP ...

Johnny Cash: Peterborough Country Music Festival

Live Review by Bob Stanley, New Musical Express, 12 September 1987

THE WHOLE town seems to have been waiting for this moment all week... "Hello. I'm Johnny Cash." ...

Johnny Cash

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Unpublished, written for Q, 1988

Who do people think Johnny Cash is? "A conservative country singer who lives down in the South somewhere," according to the Man in Black himself, ...

Johnny Cash: A Little Farther... Down The Line

Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, June 1988

ONSTAGE, JOHNNY Cash likes to joke about his daughter Rosanne's recording of 'Tennessee Flat Top Box': "She played it for me and I said, 'That's ...

Perkins, Presley et al: The Complete Million Dollar Session

Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, June 1988

TOTALLY UNEXPECTED, totally out of the blue, and just when you'd almost given up on hearing anything this exciting again... ...

Johnny Cash: Southern Comfort

Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 12 May 1989

The Man in Black is back fighting the good fight. Adam Sweeting catches up with Johnny Cash, travelling troubadour, in Cambridge ...

Johnny Cash: Back in Black

Report and Interview by Mal Peachey, Daily Telegraph, 13 October 1990

FOR 35 YEARS, he has begun every performance with the line, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash", as if anyone needs telling. He greets people personally with ...

Johnny Cash: Old, Gifted And Black

Report and Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 27 April 1991

A C&W star for longer than most people have been alive, you'd expect JOHNNY CASH to be a down home, redneck good ol'boy. Hell no! ...

Johnny Cash: The Gospel Collection

Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Sony, July 1992

ONE NIGHT in August 1957, after an appearance on Town Hall Party in Compton, California, Johnny Cash went to the home of Lawrence and Hazel ...

Johnny Cash: The Man in Blackpool

Report by Mick Houghton, Q, April 1993

JOHN R. CASH is somewhat bemused by questions about Butlin's – or Bognor come to that. He's between sets at Southcoast World (Butlin's, Bognor to ...

Rick Rubin: The Buddha of Suburbia

Interview by RJ Smith, Details, July 1993

Rick Rubin built a recording empire from a dorm room at NYU. With Def American Recordings, he's taken the sound of the streets to the ...

Johnny Cash: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 4 July 1994

"CAN YOU name anyone in this day and age who is as cool as Johnny Cash?", Rolling Stone magazine rhetorically asks. No one at this ...

Johnny Cash: American Recordings

Review by Mark Cooper, MOJO, September 1994

SOMETIME IN THE LATE '80S, Columbia Records unceremoniously dropped Johnny Cash. No matter that Cash had been one of Sun's Million Dollar Quaret, alongside Elvis ...

Cool Cash — The Man in Black's Latest Risk Pays Off

Interview by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 September 1994

New generation of fans embraces touring legend ...

Johnny Cash (1996) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 14 October 1996

This is a transcript of Barney's audio interview with Johnny. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Johnny Cash: From Rags to Ostriches!

Interview by Sylvia Patterson, New Musical Express, 16 November 1996

Speed, booze, burning mountains, then, of course, the killer ostrich. Country legend JOHNNY CASH has had them all (plus a heap more) and still lived ...

Johnny Cash: A Law Unto Himself

Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, December 1996

WE'RE PASSING through Andover, Kansas, scene of one of the worst tornadoes in American history: a monstrous twister that levelled the little town and took ...

How To Buy Johnny Cash

Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, October 1997

COLLECTING ALBUMS by Arkansas' Man In Black is a doddle. For starters, he's never made any really bad ones. And most of the ...

Johnny Cash: Love/God/Murder

Review and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, August 2000

Three themed, career-spanning compilations, selected and introduced by the Man In Black. Extra linernotes by June Carter (Love), U2's Bono (God) and Quentin Tarantino (Murder). ...

Johnny Cash: American III: Solitary Man

Review by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, December 2000

ONE OF THE bullet-point discussions of this album – on which the mythopoeic Man in Black does the Rick Rubin thang a third time, thus ...

Johnny Cash: The Man Comes Around (American Recordings)

Review by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, December 2002

WEIGHTED DOWN by the difficult circumstances behind its recording – illness, hospitalisations, two bouts of pneumonia this past year alone, speculation that the increasingly fragile ...

Johnny Cash: Outta My Way

Retrospective and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, January 2003

Thirty-five years ago, ex-felon Johnny Cash was invited to perform in two of America's toughest prisons – one of which he was no stranger to ...

Johnny Cash: Cash's Video Adieu

Report by Martin Aston, MOJO, May 2003

It's been on CNN and it made Bono and Rick Rubin cry. Johnny Cash's video for Hurt might be the most powerful music video ever ...

The Mantra In Black: Ten Reasons Why Johnny Cash Always Matters

Comment by Gary Pig Gold, earcandymag.com, October 2003

1. LUTHER PLAYED THE BOOGIE Without a red hot and blue band to back it all the way up, even a Man in Black's powers ...

Johnny Cash, 1932-2003

Obituary by Jon Wilde, Uncut, December 2003

Jon Wilde pays tribute to the Man In Black who made country rock'n'roll. ...

Johnny Cash at San Quentin was my idea

Memoir by Geoffrey Cannon, unpublished, 2004

2018 note: Steve Turner emailed me in 2004 and said he was working on the official biography of Johnny Cash, and had been told that ...

Johnny Cash: Unearthed (American Recordings/Lost Highway)

Review by Jon Wilde, Uncut, January 2004

Five-CD epitaph includes 64 never-before-heard tracks. ...

Johnny Cash: Unearthed (American Recordings/Lost Highway)

Review by Mat Snow, MOJO, January 2004

A fitting musical monument for a monumental life and career ...

The Last Great American — Johnny Cash: Unearthed (American)

Review by Mark Cooper, The Word, January 2004

Johnny Cash's final recordings were as powerful as anything in his whole career ...

Johnny Cash: Life

Review by Andy Gill, Uncut, May 2004

Eighteen songs — chosen by Cash himself just before his death to represent "life lessons" spanning the period 1958-1988 that puts his reputation as a ...

Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin: American Communion

Retrospective and Interview by David Kamp, Vanity Fair, October 2004

Johnny Cash thought his recording career was over. Then he met legendary producer Rick Rubin. Together, Nashville's Man in Black and the co-founder of Def ...

Johnny Cash: The Gunslinger

Retrospective and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, November 2004

A year on, the world is still reeling from the death of Johnny Cash, the speed-crazed rock'n'roller who became America's defining voice. From tragedy to ...

Johnny Cash's Concept Albums

Retrospective by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, November 2004

THEY WERE "CONCEPTS" all right, but that didn't make them the product of cool, analytical thinking. Back in the early '60s, Johnny Cash was wrestling ...

Johnny Cash: Cash Upfront

Comment by Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, 28 January 2006

WALK THE LINE, James Mangold's cinematic telling of the early life of Johnny Cash, takes its title from one of its subject's best-known songs. ...

Johnny Cash: Personal File

Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 15 June 2006

Unreleased home recordings set this two-disc Cash collection apart ...

Johnny Cash: American V

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, July 2006

MORE THAN THREE YEARS after his death, the Man In Black is still enjoying the kind of final-act career resurgence that artists half his age ...

Johnny Cash: Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (Legacy Edition)

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, October 2008

IN THE DOCUMENTARY included with this new edition of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, daughter Rosanne shatters the mythology surrounding her dad, gently bringing him ...

Bob Johnston on Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Nashville Skyline

Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, May 2009

JUNE 17th MARKS the 40th anniversary of the original Columbia Records release of Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline album, produced by Bob Johnston. ...

Johnny Cash: When Johnny Came Marching Home

Retrospective by Graeme Thomson, The Word, August 2011

In 1993 Johnny Cash sat on Rick Rubin's sofa and began playing songs — just as a "getting to know you" exercise. It turned out ...

Out Of The Blue and Into The Black: Johnny Cash

Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, April 2012

IT'S NOT EXACTLY boom-chicka-boom, but the twangy guitar part that kicks off Johnny Cash's 1971 album Man In Black is the same minimal single-string picking ...

Bob Johnston, 1932-2015

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 18 August 2015

Record producer who played a significant role in the recording career of Bob Dylan. ...

Johnny Cash: Jail House Rock

Retrospective by Alan Light, MOJO, February 2020

JOHNNY CASH stood on the makeshift stage at Folsom Prison, set up in the cafeteria, behind death row. Almost a hundred men had been executed ...

The 30 best live concert albums of all time

Guide by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2020

LAST WEEK, A STORY appeared in the New York Times that predicted that live music would not return to the world's stages until the autumn ...

see also Carlene Carter

see also June Carter Cash

see also Rosanne Cash

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