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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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We're rolling.

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Today is Sunday morning.

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Okay, I-I'm gonna have
to think about it,

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see what I can think of to say
that hasn't been said before.

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I sing because I'm happy

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I sing because I'm free

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His eye is on the sparrow
and I know He watches me.

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I guess probably
the lessons of life
is what brings humility,

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and that's the lessons
of pain and suffering.

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In that cave in Chattanooga,

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I was as far away from God

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that I had ever been,
could ever be.

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One of the truly
great names in music,

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a stylist, a legend
in his own time,

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Mr. Johnny Cash.

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Hello. Well, I'm Johnny Cash.

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I don't know
what the Seven Deadly Sins are,

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but I've been guilty
of all of 'em.

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And I got so...

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strung out on the amphetamines
that, uh...

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that nothing
really mattered anymore.

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There's no lonelier place
on Earth for a man to be

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than separated from God.

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I went into this cave,

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and kept walkin',
and crawlin', and climbin'
'til my light had run out.

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Every fiber of my being
totally exhausted.

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And I lay there
in the darkness...

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the end of the line.

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I lay there to die...

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Johnny Cash was my hero.

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The world called him "Johnny."

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June called him "John."

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His mama and daddy
called him "J.R."

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And that's who he was
to me, J.R.

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Some viewed him as a rebel.

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To others, he was a saint.

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And that's the story here.

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But to truly know the man,

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we need to go back
to the beginning.

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Arkansas was
the end of the world--

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rural, untamed, empty.

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This is where people came
at the end of the line.

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This was their final ground.

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My father was born in 1932,

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down in south central Arkansas.

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He came from a land
where people were tough

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and life was hard.

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Walking back in this home...

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is so bittersweet for me.

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There was such love
in this house,

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and tears,

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and hard work.

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Remembering is, uh...

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sweet and it's
very heartbreaking.

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Very emotional for me.

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They were given the house,

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and the land, and a mule,

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and 40 acres to farm.

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Arkansas summers
were brutal.

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There was not only
no air conditioning,

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there was no electricity,
there was no running water.

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And so this was the lot

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that the Cash family was
in the middle of,

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throughout the Depression,
and after.

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Life on the cotton farm
was hard, hard work.

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We would pick cotton

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with long canvas cotton sacks,

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day by day, exhaustion at night.

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Every member
of the Cash family worked,

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including Mother Carrie.

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Old or young,

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the family was often
out there ten hours a day

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working the cotton fields,
day after day after day.

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And we'd sing all day
to pass the time away.

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Before we knew it,
the day'd be over.

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♪ Jesus is calling... ♪

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And then
we'd come home at night,

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and my mother would sing
gospel music around the piano.

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Johnny would lead
and we'd all join in.

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We went to bed,
get up the next day
and do it all over again.

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Through that all,

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singing the songs
of his mother's hymnal

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with his family in those fields,

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my father fell in love
with music.

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The Biblesays,

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"Train up a child in the way
that they should go,

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and when they're old,
they'll not depart from it."

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That doesn't mean
that we won't veer
off the path at times,

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or make some bad decisions,

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but it means, there's
a spiritual foundation
in our life.

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Carrie Cash laid that foundation
in the life of Johnny Cash.

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And those were the seeds
his mother sowed into his life.

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We'd lay on Mama's
linoleum floor.

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Jack would read The Bible,

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and Johnny would write
songs and sing.

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The story goes that
he would lay in bed at night

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and listen to the radio.

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Music was
the young boy's escape.

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J.R. was a dreamer.
And he was artful.

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My father always told me
I was wasting my time

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listening to them ol' records
on the radio.

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I said, "But it sounds good.
I like it."

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He said, "It's gonna keep you
from making a living.

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You'll never do any good

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so long as you got
that music on your mind."

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Family patriarch
Ray Cash

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was the portrait
of a hard-hit,
struggling farming man.

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As with so many artful kids,

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the relationship that J.R.
shared with his father,
Ray Cash,

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was difficult,
to say the least.

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He had to live up
to what his father's
expectations were.

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His father would
believe in him, sometimes,

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and then he would fall short.

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And I think
when you have a father

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who is not communicative,

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and is not embracing,
and is not affirming,

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it affects you.

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It's strange that my dad
never hit me a lick.

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On the other hand,
he never hugged us.

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He never, ever came close
to even telling us
he loved us.

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Ray would not give him
any affirmation or affection.

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And so when Ray would sink
into the oblivion that he would,

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it would be J.R.'s brother,
Jack, who stepped up.

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Jack was my best friend,

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and my big buddy,

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my protector, my mentor.

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I really admired him.

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They were inseparable.

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Went swimming together.

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They'd fish together.
They'd work hard together.

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Him and Johnny
would get into scuffles

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and then they'd hug
each other. True brothers.

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It was a friendship.
It was a kinship.

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But my dad aspired
to be like him.

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Jack was
the Golden Child of Dyess

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that everyone aspired to be.

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He would go to school.

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After school he would stay
and pick up a few cents

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working odd jobs
to help pay the bills.

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He was kind. He was gentle.

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He read his Bible every day
and was very godly.

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He'd already told us
that he'd been "called
to preach," you know?

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It was that faith that Jack had

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that my father looked up to.

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Jack, he'd love
to hear me sing.

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He told me that I was supposed
to do that with my life.

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Johnny said, "I'm gonna sing.
I know I'm gonna sing."

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And Jack said,
"I know I'm gonna be a pastor."

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Okay,
so let's talk
about Jack's accident.

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It was a Saturday
morning in 1944.

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Johnny and Jack woke up
in their shared bed,

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like they did
every other morning,

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not knowing that this
would be their last.

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Jack worked part-time
after school and on weekends

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at a local wood mill,
cutting fence posts.

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He happily volunteered
to make a few cents

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to help pay the family bills.

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He said, "Mama, I have a feeling
I shouldn't go today."

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And Mama said, "Well, don't go.

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Go fishing with J.R."

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My father was begging
Jack to stay with him
and to go fishing.

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"Please stay with me.
Go fishing."

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And he said,
"No, I'm gonna go make $3.
We need it for the groceries."

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So he told Johnny,
"I'll meet you at the blue hold

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and we'll fish
when I get through."

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And so they both
went their separate ways

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and Jack went to the sawmill.

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And he was sawing
some fence posts...

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and as he pushed the fence post,

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it jerked him into the saw.

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Here comes my father
in a car with a preacher.

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Daddy took
a bloody brown sack,

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he pulled Jack's clothes
out of that bag,

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and showed me
where the table saw
had cut him

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from his ribs down
all through his stomach.

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And that was the first time
I ever saw my dad cry.

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He was cut
from his neck to his groin.

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And survived,

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even though it tore him open
very badly.

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And Johnny was sitting
at his bedside, holding his
hand,

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and he looked at Daddy,
and he said,

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"Daddy, will you meet me
in Heaven?"

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Daddy dropped down on his knees
and gave his heart to the Lord,

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and so did the doctor.

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As Jack lay
in his hospital bed,

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he had clear visions
of the other side.

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He said, "Mama,
do you hear the angels?

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Do you hear them singing?"

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And Miss Carrie Cash said,
"No, son, I don't hear them."

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He said,
"They are so beautiful.

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Heaven is so beautiful."

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Jack called me "Janna."

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He said, "Janna, tell me bye."

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And I was scared.

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And I said, "No,
I don't want you
to go anywhere."

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I wish I had.

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But I couldn't.

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And that's when he left us.
He went to Heaven.

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My father lost
his best friend that day.

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00:13:05,828 --> 00:13:10,790
Having experienced
the loss of a son
in a tragic accident,

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I can understand
the devastating grief

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that comes at you
like a tidal wave.

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00:13:16,578 --> 00:13:21,235
When you lose someone
and they die unexpectedly,

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it impacts your life
in such a significant way,

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00:13:24,455 --> 00:13:29,373
you can actually measure
your life from before and after

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00:13:29,547 --> 00:13:31,288
that traumatic event happened.

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Jack was buried
on a Sunday.

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The next day,
the entire family

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00:13:40,950 --> 00:13:42,647
was back out in the fields,
picking cotton.

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We didn't take days off.

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You just didn't have
time to grieve.

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My mother would work behind us,

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and I'd look back
and she'd be down on her knees,

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weeping, saying, "Why? Why?"

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00:14:03,843 --> 00:14:06,802
On her worst day,

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00:14:06,976 --> 00:14:09,849
in the mud, on her knees,

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00:14:10,806 --> 00:14:12,764
after burying her son.

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00:14:15,158 --> 00:14:18,640
And we'd go help her up
and try to console her.

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00:14:20,381 --> 00:14:21,904
And Carrie said,

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00:14:22,078 --> 00:14:24,428
"I'll get up when God
tells me to get up."

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00:14:29,433 --> 00:14:32,872
That is what J.R.
took with him, as he grew up.

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00:14:36,527 --> 00:14:39,574
When Jack died,
there was an enormous void.

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00:14:41,271 --> 00:14:43,621
And J.R. seemed
more determined than ever

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00:14:43,839 --> 00:14:46,276
to do something important
with his life,

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00:14:46,494 --> 00:14:50,715
almost in tribute to his hero,
his brother, Jack.

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When times were tough,
Johnny knew what his roots were.

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00:14:54,981 --> 00:14:57,635
He started out wanting to be
a gospel singer.

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I was standing
here with Mama,

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00:15:01,117 --> 00:15:03,424
and Johnny was standing
right out there,

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00:15:03,598 --> 00:15:05,817
by that iron hand pump.

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00:15:05,992 --> 00:15:08,777
And all of a sudden,
his voice lowered.

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00:15:08,951 --> 00:15:11,127
And she said, "What is that?"

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00:15:11,301 --> 00:15:15,262
I said, "That's J.R."
And she called him in,

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00:15:15,436 --> 00:15:17,177
and she asked,
"Was that you singing?"

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00:15:17,351 --> 00:15:18,830
And he said, "Yes, Mama."

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00:15:19,005 --> 00:15:20,658
He said, "I'm gonna sing."

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00:15:20,832 --> 00:15:24,401
And I saw Mama put her hand
on Johnny and she said,

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00:15:24,575 --> 00:15:26,577
"You have a calling of God."

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00:15:27,883 --> 00:15:31,278
And so Mama took Johnny
to a voice teacher,

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00:15:32,975 --> 00:15:35,064
and she listened very intently.

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00:15:35,238 --> 00:15:38,763
And she said,
"Well, you can leave now."

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00:15:38,938 --> 00:15:41,853
And Johnny said,
"You mean I'm no good?"

245
00:15:42,028 --> 00:15:43,812
And the voice teacher said,

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00:15:43,986 --> 00:15:47,816
"You have a gift from God
that I wouldn't dare touch."

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00:15:48,034 --> 00:15:51,515
The biggest goal
of a dreamer
from Dyess, Arkansas

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00:15:51,689 --> 00:15:53,474
was to get out.

249
00:15:53,691 --> 00:15:55,824
And so J.R. ended up doing

250
00:15:55,998 --> 00:15:58,958
what many young men
from the South
and elsewhere did.

251
00:15:59,175 --> 00:16:00,698
I joined the Air Force.

252
00:16:02,918 --> 00:16:05,399
College was another hope
that was almost unattainable

253
00:16:05,573 --> 00:16:07,879
for a cotton farm boy.

254
00:16:10,491 --> 00:16:12,580
He was
a Morse Code interceptor,

255
00:16:12,754 --> 00:16:15,148
and would take in the Morse Code
from the enemy

256
00:16:15,322 --> 00:16:17,324
and make it into English,

257
00:16:17,498 --> 00:16:21,241
so our forces
could find out what to do.

258
00:16:21,458 --> 00:16:23,939
I think
it's during that three years

259
00:16:24,157 --> 00:16:26,637
that I really began
seriously thinking

260
00:16:26,855 --> 00:16:29,597
about a career
in the music business,

261
00:16:29,814 --> 00:16:32,034
'cause it's really
all I lived for.

262
00:16:32,208 --> 00:16:35,907
J.R.
was briefly stationed
in San Antonio, Texas.

263
00:16:36,125 --> 00:16:40,651
And it's there he fell deeply
and totally in love

264
00:16:40,869 --> 00:16:43,002
with a pretty girl
named Vivian Liberto.

265
00:16:44,568 --> 00:16:47,136
They spent
a couple of weeks dating

266
00:16:47,310 --> 00:16:50,270
and then the next three years,
while he's in Germany
in the Air Force,

267
00:16:50,444 --> 00:16:53,360
the two of them
exchanged countless letters.

268
00:16:53,534 --> 00:16:57,625
Those letters show
a man so hopelessly in love.

269
00:16:57,842 --> 00:17:00,454
Much of his poetry
and his gift with lyrics

270
00:17:00,628 --> 00:17:03,631
is refined in these letters.

271
00:17:03,848 --> 00:17:07,504
He poured his heart out
to Vivian, and she to him.

272
00:17:07,722 --> 00:17:09,289
We got married right away.

273
00:17:09,463 --> 00:17:11,334
Got a very cheap car,

274
00:17:11,508 --> 00:17:15,251
and a old apartment
in a rundown part of Memphis.

275
00:17:15,425 --> 00:17:17,732
To some, Memphis
was the Promised Land.

276
00:17:17,949 --> 00:17:21,040
Memphis was just over
the Mississippi River bridge,

277
00:17:21,257 --> 00:17:23,042
but it was another world.

278
00:17:27,046 --> 00:17:30,136
♪ The Mighty Mississippi
gonna take me down... ♪

279
00:17:30,310 --> 00:17:33,443
There were
so many cultures
all colliding in that town.

280
00:17:33,661 --> 00:17:36,185
It was wild. It was exciting.

281
00:17:36,403 --> 00:17:39,841
It was a landscape filled
with creativity and diversity.

282
00:17:40,059 --> 00:17:42,583
I started trying
to get on the radio,

283
00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:45,020
but I had to go to work
and make a living,

284
00:17:45,238 --> 00:17:47,849
trying to sell appliances
and home improvements.

285
00:17:48,067 --> 00:17:50,156
And the next thing
you know, Elvis has recorded

286
00:17:50,330 --> 00:17:53,550
for Mr. Sam Phillips
down at Sun Studios.

287
00:17:53,724 --> 00:17:57,989
This little nondescript,
squat building
at 706 Union Avenue

288
00:17:58,164 --> 00:18:02,603
was fast becoming the center
of a new style of music.

289
00:18:02,777 --> 00:18:04,257
I started calling
Sam Phillips.

290
00:18:04,431 --> 00:18:06,650
I never could get him.

291
00:18:06,868 --> 00:18:08,652
Called once, I said,
"I'm John Cash,
I'm a gospel singer."

292
00:18:08,826 --> 00:18:10,176
He couldn't see me.

293
00:18:10,350 --> 00:18:11,916
Mr. Phillips
puts him off.

294
00:18:12,091 --> 00:18:15,137
He calls, leaves messages,
he sits on the curb.

295
00:18:16,660 --> 00:18:20,142
So one morning,
I found out what time
the man went to work.

296
00:18:20,316 --> 00:18:23,841
I went down with my guitar
and sat on his steps
until he got there.

297
00:18:24,015 --> 00:18:28,629
Sam is walking into the office
and he accosts the man.

298
00:18:28,846 --> 00:18:31,980
I said, "I'm John Cash.
I'm the one who's been calling.

299
00:18:32,154 --> 00:18:35,897
And if you'd listen to me,
I believe you'll be
glad you did."

300
00:18:36,115 --> 00:18:38,029
And he said, "Come on in."

301
00:18:38,247 --> 00:18:42,904
And he started
singing some covers
of gospel songs.

302
00:18:43,078 --> 00:18:47,474
Sam said, "I'm just as saved
as the rest of you boys are.

303
00:18:47,648 --> 00:18:51,304
But I can't sell gospel music.

304
00:18:51,478 --> 00:18:54,524
I wanna hear you in your voice."

305
00:18:55,656 --> 00:18:58,572
He said,
"Come back tomorrow
and bring some musicians."

306
00:18:58,789 --> 00:19:03,142
So I went down to a garage
where my brother, Roy, worked.

307
00:19:03,316 --> 00:19:05,187
He met Marshall Grant
and Luther Perkins,

308
00:19:05,361 --> 00:19:07,711
two amateur musicians,
just as my dad was.

309
00:19:07,929 --> 00:19:10,453
The next day
was our first session.

310
00:19:10,627 --> 00:19:14,631
We went in, and he turned on
the recorder the whole time
I was there.

311
00:19:16,764 --> 00:19:19,419
The music that he made
with The Tennessee Two

312
00:19:19,593 --> 00:19:21,769
was this brilliant,
beautiful racket.

313
00:19:23,858 --> 00:19:26,034
The sound was unique,

314
00:19:26,252 --> 00:19:28,558
and it was something
that people had
just never heard before.

315
00:19:28,732 --> 00:19:31,518
I developed a pretty
unusual style, I think.

316
00:19:31,735 --> 00:19:33,215
If I'm anything,

317
00:19:33,476 --> 00:19:35,174
I'm not a singer,
but I'm a song stylist.

318
00:19:37,350 --> 00:19:39,743
My music had to be simple
and stay simple,

319
00:19:39,917 --> 00:19:41,963
and uncomplicated
and unadorned.

320
00:19:42,181 --> 00:19:44,183
I thought it was fabulous.

321
00:19:44,357 --> 00:19:46,446
Dad, he wanted
to have a drummer in the band,

322
00:19:46,620 --> 00:19:48,665
but he didn't wanna hire
a drummer.

323
00:19:48,839 --> 00:19:53,583
Johnny
put a dollar bill
in the strings of the guitar

324
00:19:53,757 --> 00:19:56,978
and made that
boom-chicka-boom sound.

325
00:19:57,152 --> 00:20:00,329
You listen to what sounds
like a snare drum that's not.

326
00:20:00,503 --> 00:20:02,984
That's my dad.

327
00:20:03,158 --> 00:20:05,900
No,
they were not over-schooled
or over-taught,

328
00:20:06,074 --> 00:20:11,427
and so naturally it was gonna
come out raw and beautiful.

329
00:20:11,645 --> 00:20:13,255
I think Sam Phillips

330
00:20:13,429 --> 00:20:16,998
saw the originality
in my difference,

331
00:20:17,216 --> 00:20:18,608
and he'd had a lot of success

332
00:20:18,826 --> 00:20:20,480
recording people
that sounded different.

333
00:20:22,525 --> 00:20:26,137
I never gave up my dream
to sing on the radio.

334
00:20:26,312 --> 00:20:29,358
And that dream
came true in 1955.

335
00:20:30,794 --> 00:20:33,536
♪ Hey porter! Hey porter! ♪

336
00:20:33,710 --> 00:20:35,669
My first introduction
to Johnny Cash
was through my dad.

337
00:20:35,843 --> 00:20:39,107
I was a little girl,
and this Johnny Cash comes along

338
00:20:39,281 --> 00:20:42,197
and puts out the song,
"A Boy Named Sue".

339
00:20:42,371 --> 00:20:45,374
And we laughed and laughed
and laughed over that song.

340
00:20:45,548 --> 00:20:48,725
One of my friend's older brother
played me this song.

341
00:20:48,899 --> 00:20:52,251
I think I was, like, 15, 16,
something like that.

342
00:20:52,425 --> 00:20:53,643
And I heard it
for the first time,

343
00:20:53,817 --> 00:20:55,689
I said, "Yo, this dude fire!"

344
00:20:55,863 --> 00:20:58,300
I would listen to eight-tracks
all the time with my stepdad

345
00:20:58,474 --> 00:21:01,042
of Merle Haggard
and George Jones,

346
00:21:01,216 --> 00:21:04,088
and Johnny Cash was
one of the eight-tracks
that he had.

347
00:21:04,263 --> 00:21:05,960
So I heard a lot of that music
growing up.

348
00:21:06,177 --> 00:21:08,789
♪ And ask everybody
that ain't asleep ♪

349
00:21:08,963 --> 00:21:12,271
I remember specifically
having a CD stuck

350
00:21:12,445 --> 00:21:14,708
in the CD player
of one of my work trucks

351
00:21:14,882 --> 00:21:16,927
when I first got
out of high school.

352
00:21:17,101 --> 00:21:18,625
And I couldn't switch
to radio or anything.

353
00:21:18,799 --> 00:21:20,279
I just had to listen
to Johnny Cash

354
00:21:20,453 --> 00:21:22,411
over and over and over again.

355
00:21:22,585 --> 00:21:24,457
And that's where
I really fell in love
with Johnny's music.

356
00:21:24,631 --> 00:21:26,633
I'd listen to him
on the radio when I was a kid.

357
00:21:26,807 --> 00:21:29,766
He was growing and developing

358
00:21:29,940 --> 00:21:32,160
and he was just
a bigger-than-life character.

359
00:21:32,334 --> 00:21:34,249
I listened to Johnny Cash,

360
00:21:34,423 --> 00:21:36,991
and nobody would go,
"Johnny Cash?"
They'd go, "Cool."

361
00:21:37,165 --> 00:21:39,602
There was not one person
that didn't respect Johnny Cash.

362
00:21:39,820 --> 00:21:42,170
♪ 'Cause I smell frost
on cotton leaves ♪

363
00:21:42,344 --> 00:21:44,085
♪ And I feel
that Southern breeze ♪

364
00:21:44,259 --> 00:21:47,175
My first experience,
1983, cassettes.

365
00:21:47,349 --> 00:21:50,047
Imagine me trying to take
a drink from a fire hose.

366
00:21:50,221 --> 00:21:51,962
That's listening to Johnny Cash.

367
00:21:52,136 --> 00:21:56,010
This voice that I hear
is memorable.

368
00:21:56,184 --> 00:21:57,838
I can't get it out of my head.

369
00:21:58,012 --> 00:21:59,405
It's a raw voice.

370
00:21:59,579 --> 00:22:00,971
It's almost like a rebel voice.

371
00:22:01,189 --> 00:22:02,625
♪ I need nobody to tell me... ♪

372
00:22:02,799 --> 00:22:04,975
I remember
"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash"

373
00:22:05,149 --> 00:22:07,456
comin' out of the speakers
of my little record player
in my bedroom,

374
00:22:07,630 --> 00:22:09,458
and I was mesmerized
by that sound,

375
00:22:09,632 --> 00:22:11,808
and I didn't know
what I was listening to.

376
00:22:11,982 --> 00:22:16,378
I just knew it had me
and wouldn't let me go.

377
00:22:16,552 --> 00:22:20,382
And I remember
one day "Hey Porter"
and "Cry, Cry, Cry" came on.

378
00:22:20,556 --> 00:22:22,341
And Mama said, "That's J.R.

379
00:22:22,515 --> 00:22:26,040
J.R. singing on the radio.
Isn't that wonderful?"

380
00:22:26,214 --> 00:22:27,694
And she had tears.

381
00:22:27,955 --> 00:22:29,435
- ♪ All right ♪
-We all did.

382
00:22:36,006 --> 00:22:38,139
Along about three
months later,

383
00:22:38,313 --> 00:22:40,707
Elvis Presley asked me to go
on tour with him.

384
00:22:40,924 --> 00:22:43,231
And from that time on,
I was on my way.

385
00:22:43,405 --> 00:22:45,668
And I knew it,
I felt it, and I loved it.

386
00:22:48,758 --> 00:22:51,370
Immediately he was thrust
on the road,

387
00:22:51,544 --> 00:22:54,503
his young wife Vivian at home.

388
00:23:02,859 --> 00:23:06,602
They would travel
in a big, long, black Cadillac.

389
00:23:06,776 --> 00:23:08,778
We did not let Johnny
drive the car.

390
00:23:08,952 --> 00:23:11,172
Johnny was
the world's worst driver.

391
00:23:11,346 --> 00:23:13,653
Even though he owns the car,
he rides, we drive.

392
00:23:13,827 --> 00:23:15,481
That's the way that worked.

393
00:23:22,183 --> 00:23:24,098
We were really
having fun with our music,

394
00:23:24,272 --> 00:23:27,318
and every day was a gold mine.

395
00:23:27,493 --> 00:23:31,061
It was real,
it was raw.

396
00:23:31,235 --> 00:23:32,846
And this was the Johnny Cash

397
00:23:33,020 --> 00:23:34,587
that people were
falling in love with.

398
00:23:35,979 --> 00:23:38,982
There's two kinds of people,
those that know
and love Johnny Cash,

399
00:23:39,156 --> 00:23:40,462
and those that will.

400
00:23:41,768 --> 00:23:45,162
His style was, he would write
conversationally.

401
00:23:45,336 --> 00:23:46,860
He would write
the way people talk.

402
00:23:48,209 --> 00:23:50,951
He just spoke
of common, everyday life.

403
00:23:51,125 --> 00:23:53,040
Real words for real people
in the real world.

404
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:58,001
I was kinda stunned
when I would see
the record sales.

405
00:23:58,175 --> 00:24:01,527
I thought at first it was
all hype, but then
every record I released,

406
00:24:01,701 --> 00:24:04,443
I knew I was gonna sell
a quarter of a million.

407
00:24:04,617 --> 00:24:06,227
Poetry. It was poetry, man.

408
00:24:10,623 --> 00:24:13,060
Let's welcome Johnny Cash
and the Tennessee Two!

409
00:24:20,676 --> 00:24:24,550
♪ I keep a close watch
on this heart of mine ♪

410
00:24:24,724 --> 00:24:27,770
When Johnny Cash
and The Tennessee Two
were on tour,

411
00:24:27,988 --> 00:24:30,338
working shows
with all the other bands,

412
00:24:30,512 --> 00:24:33,080
musicians were talking
about their latest conquests,

413
00:24:33,254 --> 00:24:35,430
their girlfriends on the side.

414
00:24:35,648 --> 00:24:38,868
J.R. said, "Not me.
I walk the line."

415
00:24:39,086 --> 00:24:41,828
♪ I keep my eyes wide open
all the time ♪

416
00:24:42,002 --> 00:24:44,352
"I Walk the Line"
is a song of steadfastness,

417
00:24:44,526 --> 00:24:47,877
and fidelity,
of love to his wife, Vivian.

418
00:24:48,095 --> 00:24:51,577
♪ Because you're mine,
I walk the line ♪

419
00:24:55,189 --> 00:24:57,234
And he was telling her
that it didn't matter.

420
00:24:57,408 --> 00:24:58,888
Those were just fans.

421
00:25:01,891 --> 00:25:05,547
'Course it didn't turn out
right, but that's
what he told her.

422
00:25:05,765 --> 00:25:08,637
When Vivian saw
the effect John's singing had

423
00:25:08,855 --> 00:25:11,292
on his audience
of adoring girls,

424
00:25:11,466 --> 00:25:13,947
it was not
what she had signed up for.

425
00:25:14,121 --> 00:25:17,820
He was embarking on this life
where the audiences
were craving him.

426
00:25:18,038 --> 00:25:22,042
In simple terms, he was
fast becoming a superstar.

427
00:25:22,216 --> 00:25:23,739
She was a housewife.

428
00:25:23,913 --> 00:25:26,263
She wanted her husband.
She wanted her family.

429
00:25:26,437 --> 00:25:28,701
Vivian had seen
the rise of Elvis Presley

430
00:25:28,875 --> 00:25:30,920
with all the girls
and all the accolades.

431
00:25:31,094 --> 00:25:33,227
She didn't want that.

432
00:25:33,488 --> 00:25:37,231
While she absolutely
loved Johnny Cash
until the day she died,

433
00:25:37,405 --> 00:25:39,842
she's got four children.

434
00:25:40,016 --> 00:25:41,888
He's out on the road.

435
00:25:42,062 --> 00:25:43,672
And Dad wanted
to be on the radio.

436
00:25:43,846 --> 00:25:45,848
He said when he got into music,
it never occurred to him

437
00:25:46,022 --> 00:25:49,286
that he was gonna have
to be traveling
day after day for years,

438
00:25:49,460 --> 00:25:52,594
that that was going to become
his life, was the road life.

439
00:25:55,684 --> 00:25:57,425
Being "Johnny Cash"

440
00:25:57,773 --> 00:26:00,341
was something that he really
never thought about or planned,

441
00:26:00,515 --> 00:26:01,908
but it was inevitable.

442
00:26:09,524 --> 00:26:12,614
As the song says,
"The road is crushing,

443
00:26:12,832 --> 00:26:15,182
and it goes on forever.
It's endless."

444
00:26:17,053 --> 00:26:20,535
The thing about it
is, when you're in a garage
with your friends

445
00:26:20,709 --> 00:26:22,581
and you're learning songs,

446
00:26:22,755 --> 00:26:24,713
you never realize at some point
you're going to be on the road

447
00:26:24,887 --> 00:26:28,238
for four years without a break.

448
00:26:28,456 --> 00:26:31,590
Boredom had a lot to do
with it. It's very boring
out there on the road.

449
00:26:31,807 --> 00:26:34,636
That two hours on the stage
is all we live for.

450
00:26:34,854 --> 00:26:36,682
The rest of the time
is really a drag.

451
00:26:38,292 --> 00:26:41,512
Being on the road is
this separate reality.

452
00:26:41,687 --> 00:26:43,732
You're so isolated, in a way.

453
00:26:43,906 --> 00:26:45,865
It is not a normal life.

454
00:26:46,039 --> 00:26:48,650
There's nothing normal
about being in show business.

455
00:26:48,824 --> 00:26:50,870
You do two,
maybe three shows a night.

456
00:26:51,087 --> 00:26:53,742
And then you drive yourself
hundreds and hundreds of miles

457
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:56,136
through the night
on dangerous roads.

458
00:26:56,310 --> 00:26:58,747
And you've got to do it
again the next night.

459
00:26:58,921 --> 00:27:00,575
You got 6,000 people
in the audience

460
00:27:00,749 --> 00:27:02,577
waitin' on you to come out
and sing a song,

461
00:27:02,751 --> 00:27:05,232
and it gets to the point
where you wanna shut it off.

462
00:27:05,406 --> 00:27:07,538
You don't wanna feel
anything, so you drink,

463
00:27:07,713 --> 00:27:09,497
or you get high,

464
00:27:09,671 --> 00:27:11,847
or you find yourself
with multiple women or whatever.

465
00:27:12,021 --> 00:27:15,024
Anything to kinda
get rid of the feeling,
and once the feeling's gone,

466
00:27:15,198 --> 00:27:16,809
it's anything to get
the feeling back.

467
00:27:19,986 --> 00:27:23,032
Week after week,
hundreds of shows a year,

468
00:27:23,250 --> 00:27:25,078
the white line always wins.

469
00:27:27,689 --> 00:27:28,908
Johnny Cash!

470
00:27:31,824 --> 00:27:32,738
Johnny Cash!

471
00:27:36,176 --> 00:27:38,613
A fellow musician
slipped him a pill,

472
00:27:38,831 --> 00:27:41,572
saying, "This will
keep you going."

473
00:27:41,747 --> 00:27:45,315
So Johnny took it, thinking,
"This is God-sent."

474
00:27:48,536 --> 00:27:51,278
We really did not think
that amphetamines
were a problem.

475
00:27:51,495 --> 00:27:53,280
Poor George.

476
00:27:53,497 --> 00:27:55,586
He's having a long headache.

477
00:27:55,804 --> 00:27:58,198
Is this the way
you feel in the morning?

478
00:28:00,156 --> 00:28:01,897
What's the best way to reduce?

479
00:28:02,071 --> 00:28:04,073
Eat plenty or starve yourself?

480
00:28:06,032 --> 00:28:09,818
Doctors
were prescribing
these pills by the billions.

481
00:28:10,036 --> 00:28:11,820
They were prescribed
to housewives.

482
00:28:12,038 --> 00:28:14,431
They were marketed
to college students.

483
00:28:14,605 --> 00:28:17,217
They were marketed to people
to help them lose weight.

484
00:28:17,434 --> 00:28:19,175
They were marketed
to truck drivers

485
00:28:19,393 --> 00:28:20,568
to help them on the road.

486
00:28:21,830 --> 00:28:24,311
It was like taking a pill
for your heart
or for your blood pressure.

487
00:28:24,485 --> 00:28:26,095
It wasn't, like, a bad thing.

488
00:28:26,269 --> 00:28:29,055
And nobody really thought
too much about it.

489
00:28:29,229 --> 00:28:32,667
A lot of people in the South,
"If it's a prescription,
it's okay."

490
00:28:32,885 --> 00:28:34,538
He wasn't
sniffin' cocaine.

491
00:28:34,756 --> 00:28:36,062
He wasn't shooting heroin.

492
00:28:36,236 --> 00:28:38,455
He was taking prescribed pills

493
00:28:38,629 --> 00:28:42,198
because doctors told him
that they were medicine.

494
00:28:42,372 --> 00:28:44,984
When you're on the road
that many dates a year,

495
00:28:45,158 --> 00:28:47,116
there's all these things
pulling at him.

496
00:28:47,290 --> 00:28:50,206
And after a while, you just--
you need a little help.

497
00:28:50,380 --> 00:28:51,425
You know?

498
00:28:51,599 --> 00:28:52,992
That's when all of a sudden,

499
00:28:53,340 --> 00:28:55,037
"Well, I better take
a downer to go to sleep."

500
00:28:55,211 --> 00:28:57,170
"Oh, now I better take
some speed to wake up."

501
00:28:57,344 --> 00:28:59,955
And now you're on
a whole rollercoaster.

502
00:29:00,173 --> 00:29:02,871
Well, if one works,
two must be even better.

503
00:29:03,089 --> 00:29:04,830
But then after five, and ten,

504
00:29:05,047 --> 00:29:06,962
you need to find a way
to slow it all down.

505
00:29:08,877 --> 00:29:10,400
I was just
like everybody else.

506
00:29:10,574 --> 00:29:12,402
I took drugs to get up,

507
00:29:12,576 --> 00:29:14,796
and I took drugs to go down,
make me feel better.

508
00:29:14,970 --> 00:29:16,537
And then
before you know it,

509
00:29:16,711 --> 00:29:18,844
you're poppin' pills
left and right like candy.

510
00:29:19,018 --> 00:29:22,282
You know, it's just
a vicious, vicious cycle.

511
00:29:22,456 --> 00:29:24,850
I was taking
the pills for a while,

512
00:29:25,024 --> 00:29:28,505
and then the pills
started taking me.

513
00:29:28,679 --> 00:29:32,118
You know, so that's
when it starts spiraling
out of control.

514
00:29:34,903 --> 00:29:37,253
The pills
give you a high,

515
00:29:37,427 --> 00:29:39,995
and you feel
like you can do anything.

516
00:29:40,169 --> 00:29:41,344
But when they wear off,

517
00:29:41,518 --> 00:29:42,563
you feel worse than you did

518
00:29:42,737 --> 00:29:43,912
before you took 'em.

519
00:29:45,348 --> 00:29:47,916
When I started
drinking beer
along with the amphetamines,

520
00:29:48,090 --> 00:29:50,266
I'd drink about four
or five a night,

521
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:53,400
but I got up to 12, 14.

522
00:29:53,574 --> 00:29:57,143
Sometime I'd misjudge
how high I was, you know?

523
00:29:57,317 --> 00:29:59,493
And I'd get on stage
and I was a wreck.

524
00:30:04,063 --> 00:30:05,586
All the drugs
made him forget

525
00:30:05,804 --> 00:30:07,501
that people
were counting on him.

526
00:30:10,286 --> 00:30:12,898
Thousands
and thousands of dollars
of promoters' money

527
00:30:13,072 --> 00:30:14,943
were at stake
if he didn't show up,

528
00:30:15,117 --> 00:30:17,641
and he didn't show up
for a bunch of dates.

529
00:30:17,816 --> 00:30:20,383
The Statler Brothers,
who were in his band,

530
00:30:20,557 --> 00:30:24,518
he took them to California
and met Vivian and the girls,

531
00:30:24,692 --> 00:30:26,607
and said he was going out
for cigarettes.

532
00:30:26,781 --> 00:30:30,002
Four days later,
he wasn't back. He forgot.

533
00:30:32,047 --> 00:30:35,224
At the Olympia Theater
in Paris, France,
instead of playing the show,

534
00:30:35,398 --> 00:30:39,315
he took off with Joan Baez
and Bob Dylan and just partied
all over town,

535
00:30:39,489 --> 00:30:41,187
while 2,000 people
are sitting in seats

536
00:30:41,361 --> 00:30:43,537
for a Johnny Cash show
that never happened.

537
00:30:43,711 --> 00:30:45,669
A lot of people lost money

538
00:30:45,844 --> 00:30:47,846
and he was kind of lost himself.

539
00:30:49,630 --> 00:30:53,112
He was a mere shell
of the man he once was.

540
00:30:53,286 --> 00:30:55,636
Those aspirations to be
a gospel singer,

541
00:30:55,810 --> 00:30:57,377
they're in the rearview mirror.

542
00:30:58,944 --> 00:31:03,339
It was kind
of a scatter-brained
period for me.

543
00:31:03,513 --> 00:31:05,385
You know, it affects
everything in your life

544
00:31:05,602 --> 00:31:07,822
when you're
on mood-altering drugs.

545
00:31:07,996 --> 00:31:10,216
Everything in your life
is, uh,

546
00:31:10,433 --> 00:31:12,479
is not right.

547
00:31:12,871 --> 00:31:16,222
In the midst
of all this, his health
is disintegrating.

548
00:31:16,396 --> 00:31:19,486
He lost so much weight,
he looked like a cadaver.

549
00:31:22,054 --> 00:31:24,447
And on the charts,
he's invisible.

550
00:31:24,621 --> 00:31:28,538
Desperation kind of starts
setting in, here.

551
00:31:28,712 --> 00:31:30,323
And so, next thing you know,
there you are,

552
00:31:30,497 --> 00:31:32,238
going down the tubes
without realizing you are,

553
00:31:32,412 --> 00:31:34,109
and so is your marriage,
and so is your family,

554
00:31:34,283 --> 00:31:35,763
and so is everything else
in your life.

555
00:31:38,592 --> 00:31:41,203
J.R. and Vivian
are in a difficult time.

556
00:31:42,988 --> 00:31:45,599
I think the change
of Johnny's personality

557
00:31:45,773 --> 00:31:47,818
was something else,

558
00:31:47,993 --> 00:31:49,820
and then, of course,
the real change came

559
00:31:49,995 --> 00:31:53,172
when he just fell madly in love
with June Carter.

560
00:31:55,870 --> 00:31:58,264
She became a member
of the show cast,

561
00:31:58,438 --> 00:32:00,875
and was working
all the show dates with us.

562
00:32:01,049 --> 00:32:02,964
But it all started
with an automobile ride

563
00:32:03,138 --> 00:32:04,661
from Oklahoma City to Dallas.

564
00:32:04,835 --> 00:32:06,925
And June did not have a ride,

565
00:32:07,099 --> 00:32:09,231
so Marshall Grant
had told her was,

566
00:32:09,405 --> 00:32:13,279
"June, we've got six people
in that car already."

567
00:32:13,453 --> 00:32:17,065
And Johnny said, "Well,
she can sit on my lap.
It's only three hours."

568
00:32:17,239 --> 00:32:19,676
So, that was the beginning.

569
00:32:19,894 --> 00:32:23,071
June was married
to someone else,
just as he was.

570
00:32:23,245 --> 00:32:25,204
Both of them
later described it

571
00:32:25,421 --> 00:32:29,382
as being something
that they simply
could not stop.

572
00:32:29,556 --> 00:32:31,862
It was not something
to be proud of,

573
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:33,952
and he wasn't proud of it.

574
00:32:35,475 --> 00:32:38,173
Which only added
fuel to the fire
for the amphetamine thing,

575
00:32:38,347 --> 00:32:40,001
because it was tearing
Johnny apart.

576
00:32:40,219 --> 00:32:41,916
J.R. was quoted saying

577
00:32:42,134 --> 00:32:44,310
he would stop
taking the pills for a time,

578
00:32:44,484 --> 00:32:46,877
and his conscience
would return.

579
00:32:47,052 --> 00:32:49,141
He would go home,

580
00:32:49,358 --> 00:32:52,883
and it became obvious the toll
that fame, fortune, and pills

581
00:32:53,101 --> 00:32:54,624
were taking on his family.

582
00:32:54,842 --> 00:32:57,236
And then the guilt
would overwhelm him.

583
00:32:58,846 --> 00:33:01,675
And the only way
that he could ease that guilt

584
00:33:01,892 --> 00:33:03,024
was to take another pill.

585
00:33:11,076 --> 00:33:14,383
J.R. genuinely
loved Vivian, and June,

586
00:33:14,557 --> 00:33:17,169
and his heart was torn
in two directions.

587
00:33:17,343 --> 00:33:19,693
He couldn't seem
to find his way.

588
00:33:19,867 --> 00:33:22,870
It was a volatile situation,
to say the least.

589
00:33:25,090 --> 00:33:29,224
That is
something that is
so difficult to reconcile.

590
00:33:29,398 --> 00:33:30,573
And he couldn't do it.

591
00:33:34,273 --> 00:33:37,754
As a result of this situation,

592
00:33:37,928 --> 00:33:41,845
June sits down and writes,
"Ring of Fire".

593
00:33:42,020 --> 00:33:44,413
Cash hears it and he says,
"That's about me."

594
00:33:44,587 --> 00:33:46,502
And Dad wanted
to record it himself.

595
00:33:50,202 --> 00:33:53,335
♪ Love is a burning thing ♪

596
00:33:56,164 --> 00:33:59,298
♪ And it makes a fiery ring ♪

597
00:33:59,472 --> 00:34:03,128
Now, in addition
to the stability
of "I Walk the Line",

598
00:34:03,302 --> 00:34:05,739
J.R. has got the fire,
the passion,

599
00:34:05,913 --> 00:34:09,003
the raw power
of "Ring of Fire."

600
00:34:09,177 --> 00:34:11,571
And this man is not
just singing about it,

601
00:34:11,788 --> 00:34:14,182
he was living it
every single day.

602
00:34:14,356 --> 00:34:16,793
♪ I fell into
a burning ring of fire ♪

603
00:34:16,967 --> 00:34:21,407
♪ I went down, down, down
and the flames went higher ♪

604
00:34:21,581 --> 00:34:24,497
The conflict
in his head just fueled
that despair he felt.

605
00:34:24,671 --> 00:34:26,760
Less than two months later,

606
00:34:26,977 --> 00:34:29,154
"Ring of Fire" is
the biggest song in the world.

607
00:34:29,328 --> 00:34:31,895
And it cements his place
in country music.

608
00:34:32,113 --> 00:34:37,423
It also tied him for eternity
to June Carter.

609
00:34:37,597 --> 00:34:43,255
She and he
continued careening

610
00:34:43,429 --> 00:34:46,127
through the mid-60s,

611
00:34:46,301 --> 00:34:48,825
while he desperately tried

612
00:34:48,999 --> 00:34:54,396
to hold on to the stability
that Vivian gave him.

613
00:34:56,833 --> 00:34:59,097
In the 1960s,

614
00:34:59,271 --> 00:35:02,012
the insanity of his addiction
put great strains
on his relationship

615
00:35:02,187 --> 00:35:04,145
and kept him away
from his children.

616
00:35:06,321 --> 00:35:08,018
Johnny's family situation

617
00:35:08,193 --> 00:35:10,325
was struggling,
to say the least.

618
00:35:12,066 --> 00:35:14,634
And so, an extremely
difficult time

619
00:35:14,808 --> 00:35:17,027
to come home to that house
in California.

620
00:35:21,510 --> 00:35:24,948
And one day in 1965,
Johnny did not come home.

621
00:35:27,647 --> 00:35:31,346
In 1965, at the end
of a long tour,

622
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:33,696
J.R. was supposed to go home.

623
00:35:33,870 --> 00:35:37,700
Instead, he got off
at the airport
in El Paso, Texas.

624
00:35:40,703 --> 00:35:42,879
Vivian called
and said, "Where's Johnny?

625
00:35:43,053 --> 00:35:45,839
He was supposed
to be home yesterday."

626
00:35:46,013 --> 00:35:49,625
He decided that he was
gonna go across the border
into Mexico.

627
00:35:51,497 --> 00:35:53,847
He went and found
a drug dealer,

628
00:35:54,064 --> 00:35:58,460
and bought
over 1,100 Benzedrine
and Dexedrine pills.

629
00:36:02,725 --> 00:36:05,337
Unbeknownst to him
at the time,

630
00:36:05,511 --> 00:36:07,643
the police were keeping an eye
on this drug dealer.

631
00:36:09,254 --> 00:36:12,648
But when they saw Johnny Cash
in the crosshairs,

632
00:36:12,866 --> 00:36:16,783
they tracked him very carefully
until he got to the airport,

633
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:20,700
opened the guitar case,
and found the pills.

634
00:36:25,835 --> 00:36:28,838
The guard said,
"You can get the pills out

635
00:36:29,012 --> 00:36:31,189
or we'll tear
your guitar apart."

636
00:36:31,363 --> 00:36:35,628
So Johnny got the pills out,
and he was arrested,
and it hurt.

637
00:36:35,802 --> 00:36:39,762
It hurt,
not because it bothered us,

638
00:36:39,936 --> 00:36:42,156
as much as we hurt for him,

639
00:36:42,330 --> 00:36:46,987
because we knew that he was
right in the midst
of his downward spiral.

640
00:36:47,161 --> 00:36:51,557
And we were praying daily
that God wouldn't take him.

641
00:36:51,731 --> 00:36:54,124
The drugs,
the immorality,

642
00:36:54,299 --> 00:36:57,258
the bad decisions
were all catching up.

643
00:36:58,955 --> 00:37:02,829
Johnny Cash was
very self-destructive.

644
00:37:03,003 --> 00:37:06,224
Self-destructive behavior
will either get you through it,

645
00:37:06,398 --> 00:37:09,357
see the light, or kill ya.

646
00:37:14,144 --> 00:37:17,060
We were all young
and wild and crazy.

647
00:37:17,278 --> 00:37:20,107
How crazy were you?
I was crazy as you can get.

648
00:37:20,325 --> 00:37:22,109
I mean crazy-crazy.

649
00:37:26,026 --> 00:37:28,942
There were quite a few
times in his life that he nearly
died,

650
00:37:29,116 --> 00:37:31,858
and would have been
possibly by his own folly.

651
00:37:34,817 --> 00:37:38,125
Car wrecks. He caught
a vehicle on fire in California

652
00:37:38,299 --> 00:37:41,346
and burned down many acres
of a forest there.

653
00:37:44,827 --> 00:37:49,267
He did a lot of bad things
during those drug years.

654
00:37:49,441 --> 00:37:51,878
The Grand Ole Opry
banned you at one time.

655
00:37:52,052 --> 00:37:55,055
Well, I don't know
how bad they wanted me
in the first place,

656
00:37:55,273 --> 00:37:57,927
but the night I broke
all the lights on the stage...

657
00:38:01,061 --> 00:38:03,193
...they said they couldn't
use me anymore, so.

658
00:38:05,413 --> 00:38:08,068
Really tough
on all of us to stand there
and watch it happen,

659
00:38:08,242 --> 00:38:09,983
because you can't help
somebody like that

660
00:38:10,157 --> 00:38:11,767
unless they want the help.

661
00:38:11,941 --> 00:38:13,987
And at that particular time,
he didn't want any help.

662
00:38:14,161 --> 00:38:18,600
If that was gonna be
a subject of conversation,
just forget it.

663
00:38:18,818 --> 00:38:21,821
There's one thing
about, uh...

664
00:38:21,995 --> 00:38:24,867
someone addicted
to pills, alcoholics,
you know,

665
00:38:25,041 --> 00:38:27,130
they're very selfish.

666
00:38:27,305 --> 00:38:29,524
You know, they don't care
about anybody but themselves

667
00:38:29,698 --> 00:38:31,526
and the way they happen
to feel right now.

668
00:38:31,744 --> 00:38:34,486
And that's all I cared about,
all I talked about,

669
00:38:34,703 --> 00:38:37,489
how I feel,
what I want for me, you know?

670
00:38:37,663 --> 00:38:39,360
We saw him at his worst.

671
00:38:39,534 --> 00:38:41,406
We saw him when we didn't know

672
00:38:41,580 --> 00:38:44,322
if he was gonna be able to--
to make the show the next day,

673
00:38:44,496 --> 00:38:46,411
or rather he was gonna
continue his career.

674
00:38:47,890 --> 00:38:50,589
Well, it must've been
just overwhelming for the man.

675
00:38:50,763 --> 00:38:52,678
All these wonderful accolades
comin' at him,

676
00:38:52,852 --> 00:38:54,854
but all this terrible stuff
comin' this way.

677
00:38:55,028 --> 00:38:58,423
I mean, if there's ever
a devil and a god
on each shoulder,

678
00:38:58,597 --> 00:39:00,468
there had to be.

679
00:39:00,642 --> 00:39:02,340
The light and darkness thing
is something that we all have.

680
00:39:02,514 --> 00:39:04,907
There's a mean dog
and a good dog in all of us.

681
00:39:05,081 --> 00:39:07,127
And what you try to do,
and you're always
trying to do is,

682
00:39:07,301 --> 00:39:09,172
feed the good one
as much as you possibly can.

683
00:39:09,347 --> 00:39:11,523
The one that's gonna win
is the one that gets fed
the most, right?

684
00:39:11,697 --> 00:39:14,787
So I think the thing
about Johnny that made that
even more obvious,

685
00:39:14,961 --> 00:39:16,919
he was always trying
to feed the light.

686
00:39:17,093 --> 00:39:20,445
But he wore the darkness
and the light on his sleeve.

687
00:39:20,619 --> 00:39:24,231
He was two people.
And he'd be the first
to tell you that.

688
00:39:24,405 --> 00:39:26,364
He said, "Johnny is a nice guy.

689
00:39:26,538 --> 00:39:28,453
But sometime Cash
gets into trouble."

690
00:39:32,152 --> 00:39:34,284
John R. Cash
came to the end of himself

691
00:39:34,459 --> 00:39:36,809
in October of 1967.

692
00:39:43,119 --> 00:39:45,992
His addiction
had really wore him down.

693
00:39:46,166 --> 00:39:49,125
My mother had told him
that she wouldn't talk to him,

694
00:39:49,299 --> 00:39:50,910
she wouldn't spend
time with him.

695
00:39:51,084 --> 00:39:55,349
He was at a point
where she had no choice,

696
00:39:55,523 --> 00:39:56,872
and she had shut him off.

697
00:39:58,570 --> 00:40:02,225
He is
in Chattanooga, Tennessee
when his lawyer calls

698
00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:06,752
and tells him that his divorce
was finalized.

699
00:40:06,926 --> 00:40:10,973
She remarried just a week later.

700
00:40:11,147 --> 00:40:12,540
He was full of despair.

701
00:40:14,542 --> 00:40:17,023
His life was
seemingly in shambles.

702
00:40:17,197 --> 00:40:20,896
His addictions had taken
their toll on his career,

703
00:40:21,114 --> 00:40:23,638
his body, and his family.

704
00:40:23,856 --> 00:40:25,771
And he was estranged
from his kids.

705
00:40:28,948 --> 00:40:31,385
He had
some land down there,

706
00:40:31,559 --> 00:40:34,519
and on that land
there was a cave
called "Nickajack Cave".

707
00:40:39,219 --> 00:40:42,396
But my dad kept sinking
deeper and deeper
into a depression.

708
00:40:45,181 --> 00:40:49,142
There were
these great conflicts
that seared his soul.

709
00:40:56,410 --> 00:40:59,631
He was really down
at his lowest point,

710
00:40:59,805 --> 00:41:01,284
and he took a flashlight,

711
00:41:01,459 --> 00:41:03,069
and he said he was gonna
crawl back in there

712
00:41:03,243 --> 00:41:05,680
as long as his flashlight
would burn.

713
00:41:09,858 --> 00:41:13,253
And in the darkness,
laid down,

714
00:41:13,427 --> 00:41:16,169
and basically, gave up his life,

715
00:41:16,343 --> 00:41:17,605
gave up everything.

716
00:41:29,617 --> 00:41:33,795
I kept walkin'
and crawlin' and climbin'
'til my light run out,

717
00:41:36,668 --> 00:41:39,845
every fiber of my being
totally exhausted.

718
00:41:42,500 --> 00:41:45,677
And I lay there
in the darkness,

719
00:41:48,462 --> 00:41:49,898
the end of the line.

720
00:41:55,774 --> 00:41:57,515
I lay there to die.

721
00:42:05,131 --> 00:42:07,525
But he woke up
in the darkness of that cave

722
00:42:07,699 --> 00:42:10,789
and felt that loneliness
and the emptiness

723
00:42:10,963 --> 00:42:13,095
and realized
where he'd put himself.

724
00:42:23,497 --> 00:42:26,413
And it was
like this feeling
came over me that, uh...

725
00:42:28,720 --> 00:42:31,157
that He wanted
to speak to my heart.

726
00:42:31,374 --> 00:42:33,768
"You do not control
your destiny,"

727
00:42:33,986 --> 00:42:38,251
that "It's My will
that you do not die now."

728
00:42:38,425 --> 00:42:42,647
God said,
"I'm not through with you,
by any means."

729
00:42:42,821 --> 00:42:45,911
He said, "I'll show you
the way out. Come on."

730
00:42:46,128 --> 00:42:50,829
Then the urging
came over me to get up
and start crawling.

731
00:42:52,961 --> 00:42:55,398
I don't have any idea
how long I crawled.

732
00:42:57,183 --> 00:43:00,012
Johnny said
there was some sort of light

733
00:43:00,186 --> 00:43:02,884
that guided him
to the entrance of the cave.

734
00:43:04,407 --> 00:43:06,845
For hours he crawled
on the ground.

735
00:43:07,019 --> 00:43:09,108
He didn't have a flashlight.
He didn't have anything.

736
00:43:10,936 --> 00:43:13,808
But then finally
I felt the wind.

737
00:43:13,982 --> 00:43:17,943
Before long I saw light,
the entrance to the cave.

738
00:43:20,119 --> 00:43:22,338
The hand of God had led me.

739
00:43:27,256 --> 00:43:29,650
He faced himself,
he faced his temptations,

740
00:43:29,824 --> 00:43:32,000
he faced his worldliness.

741
00:43:32,174 --> 00:43:36,526
And God's love
brought him back.

742
00:43:36,701 --> 00:43:40,182
He crawled out
of Nickajack Cave alive.

743
00:43:43,533 --> 00:43:45,318
He saw the light.

744
00:43:45,535 --> 00:43:48,582
He was given God's grace.

745
00:43:48,756 --> 00:43:52,325
He came out wanting
to be right with God.

746
00:43:52,499 --> 00:43:54,327
Doesn't mean he was
perfect with God,

747
00:43:54,501 --> 00:43:56,895
but he wanted to be
right with God.

748
00:43:57,069 --> 00:43:58,984
I was losing my voice.

749
00:43:59,201 --> 00:44:00,942
I had stopped composing.

750
00:44:01,116 --> 00:44:03,597
I didn't have any heart
for what I was doing.

751
00:44:03,815 --> 00:44:06,469
And I realized that, uh,

752
00:44:06,687 --> 00:44:09,995
that God didn't want me
to live that kind of life.

753
00:44:10,169 --> 00:44:12,127
He had to put himself
into that darkness

754
00:44:12,301 --> 00:44:14,303
before he would
appreciate the light.

755
00:44:14,521 --> 00:44:18,220
And that's what happened,
is that he came out
a different man.

756
00:44:18,394 --> 00:44:22,137
And when he finally
did give up those things
that were weighting him down,

757
00:44:22,311 --> 00:44:23,878
the thing
that helped him do that

758
00:44:24,052 --> 00:44:26,359
was his faith in God Almighty.

759
00:44:27,839 --> 00:44:29,492
And in that cave,
he hears the Lord say,

760
00:44:29,667 --> 00:44:31,146
"What are you doing here?"

761
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:33,322
This reminds me of a story
from The Bible,

762
00:44:33,496 --> 00:44:36,586
a similar experience
that involved
the prophet Elijah.

763
00:44:36,761 --> 00:44:38,023
Here is this prophet
of the Lord,

764
00:44:38,197 --> 00:44:40,373
who's depressed and discouraged

765
00:44:40,547 --> 00:44:43,115
and he goes into a cave
and while he's in that cave,

766
00:44:43,289 --> 00:44:46,031
God said,
"What are you doing here?"

767
00:44:46,205 --> 00:44:48,598
Johnny came out of that cave
a different man.

768
00:44:48,773 --> 00:44:51,427
Now he was a man on a mission.

769
00:44:52,559 --> 00:44:54,474
All that success,
all the partying,

770
00:44:54,648 --> 00:44:58,043
all the money, all the fame,
it's not real anymore.

771
00:44:58,217 --> 00:45:02,003
And you start realizing
what is real.

772
00:45:02,177 --> 00:45:04,179
We saw him at his lowest.

773
00:45:04,353 --> 00:45:08,706
But, that is where he remembered
that God was on his side.

774
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:10,316
You know,
Jesus doesn't say,

775
00:45:10,490 --> 00:45:12,057
"Clean up your life
and come to me."

776
00:45:12,231 --> 00:45:13,623
He effectively says,

777
00:45:13,972 --> 00:45:16,148
"Come to me and I
will clean your life up."

778
00:45:17,671 --> 00:45:19,020
At that moment
of despair,

779
00:45:19,194 --> 00:45:20,674
he chose to get back up.

780
00:45:21,893 --> 00:45:23,503
There is a light.

781
00:45:23,677 --> 00:45:25,244
And if you'll hang in there
long enough,

782
00:45:25,418 --> 00:45:27,855
you will get through the tunnel.

783
00:45:28,029 --> 00:45:30,728
And that's exactly
what Johnny Cash did.

784
00:45:30,945 --> 00:45:33,034
I came back
from Nickajack Cave

785
00:45:33,252 --> 00:45:35,645
and June, she said,
"You're dying, you know?

786
00:45:35,863 --> 00:45:41,521
You'll die if you don't get off
of the amphetamines
and the sleeping pills."

787
00:45:41,739 --> 00:45:43,349
And I said,
"I know it. I will."

788
00:45:43,523 --> 00:45:44,829
And she said,
"I'll tell ya what I'll do.

789
00:45:45,046 --> 00:45:47,745
I... I wanna save your life.

790
00:45:47,962 --> 00:45:50,356
And I'll be here at this house
every afternoon.

791
00:45:50,530 --> 00:45:54,055
And that way you can
stay straight
and look forward to seeing me.

792
00:45:54,273 --> 00:45:55,578
And we'll get
this thing whipped."

793
00:46:00,932 --> 00:46:03,325
When he reached out
to people that could help him,

794
00:46:03,499 --> 00:46:05,284
my mother was there.

795
00:46:05,458 --> 00:46:07,112
I was on self-destruct

796
00:46:07,286 --> 00:46:09,244
and she saw
what I was doing to myself

797
00:46:09,418 --> 00:46:11,856
and she helped bring me
back up out of it.

798
00:46:12,073 --> 00:46:14,119
I thought
he was gonna die.

799
00:46:14,293 --> 00:46:17,905
He was just skin and bones.
I worked with him.

800
00:46:18,079 --> 00:46:22,040
There was something
that just wouldn't
let me give up.

801
00:46:22,214 --> 00:46:24,651
He's detoxing
and there's June.

802
00:46:24,825 --> 00:46:26,131
I can just see her, like,

803
00:46:26,305 --> 00:46:28,394
"You'll have to come
through me."

804
00:46:28,568 --> 00:46:29,438
Call it old-fashioned.

805
00:46:29,612 --> 00:46:31,789
Call it tough love.

806
00:46:31,963 --> 00:46:33,312
That's what you do.

807
00:46:35,140 --> 00:46:38,796
Without question,
June Carter saved
the life of Johnny Cash.

808
00:46:38,970 --> 00:46:42,190
She helped him
to get off the pills,
and she stood by his side.

809
00:46:42,364 --> 00:46:44,149
And June,
her mother and daddy,

810
00:46:44,323 --> 00:46:46,629
and all my family and friends
were downstairs,

811
00:46:46,847 --> 00:46:49,807
sleeping in sleeping bags,
and it kept me going.

812
00:46:49,981 --> 00:46:51,896
They were praying together.

813
00:46:52,070 --> 00:46:53,985
And the Lord brought him
through that.

814
00:46:54,159 --> 00:46:56,726
It was the spirit
of the love of God

815
00:46:56,944 --> 00:47:00,034
that made a survivor
out of me.

816
00:47:00,208 --> 00:47:02,471
And not only a survivor,
but a sustainer.

817
00:47:08,913 --> 00:47:10,392
My father had a moment

818
00:47:10,566 --> 00:47:14,527
where he went back to the cross.

819
00:47:14,701 --> 00:47:17,617
The Lord
was drawing him back to himself.

820
00:47:17,791 --> 00:47:20,315
He was on his road back
to the Lord.

821
00:47:20,489 --> 00:47:23,884
So Joanne invited
her brother, Johnny, to church.

822
00:47:24,058 --> 00:47:27,932
Joanne's life had been changed
by Christ in this church.

823
00:47:28,106 --> 00:47:30,499
She wanted it to happen
for her brother.

824
00:47:32,153 --> 00:47:33,502
I could see him

825
00:47:33,676 --> 00:47:36,636
just drinking in
the pastor preaching.

826
00:47:38,029 --> 00:47:40,031
When I finished my message
that morning,

827
00:47:40,205 --> 00:47:41,859
I gave an altar call
and I said, you know,

828
00:47:42,033 --> 00:47:44,470
"If you want to find Christ,

829
00:47:44,644 --> 00:47:46,994
if you want to do the right
thing with the Lord,

830
00:47:47,168 --> 00:47:49,127
put up your hand."

831
00:47:49,301 --> 00:47:51,259
So his hand went up.

832
00:47:51,433 --> 00:47:54,219
Johnny stood up
and made a public profession,

833
00:47:54,393 --> 00:47:58,571
and walked forward and said,
"I'm gonna follow Jesus Christ."

834
00:47:58,745 --> 00:48:01,182
A public profession means
you're saying,

835
00:48:01,356 --> 00:48:04,055
"I believe,
and I don't care who knows.

836
00:48:04,229 --> 00:48:06,361
In fact, I want others to know."

837
00:48:06,535 --> 00:48:09,887
And then a person coming
to Christ may pray

838
00:48:10,061 --> 00:48:12,063
what we sometimes call
"a sinner's prayer",

839
00:48:12,237 --> 00:48:13,673
and it goes along these lines.

840
00:48:13,847 --> 00:48:17,024
"Lord Jesus,
I know that I'm a sinner,

841
00:48:17,198 --> 00:48:18,417
but I know
that you're the Savior

842
00:48:18,591 --> 00:48:20,462
Who died on the cross for my sin

843
00:48:20,636 --> 00:48:23,901
and rose again from the dead.
I'm sorry for my sin.

844
00:48:24,075 --> 00:48:25,815
I turn from that sin,

845
00:48:25,990 --> 00:48:29,254
and I choose to follow You
from this moment forward."

846
00:48:29,428 --> 00:48:31,473
Johnny prayed
a prayer like that,

847
00:48:31,647 --> 00:48:35,477
and his life was changed
for time and eternity.

848
00:48:35,651 --> 00:48:38,916
And the good news is,
anybody can pray that prayer,

849
00:48:39,090 --> 00:48:42,876
and they too can have the hope
that Johnny Cash had.

850
00:48:46,358 --> 00:48:49,317
Johnny and June
and all the girls were down
at the altar.

851
00:48:49,491 --> 00:48:51,145
Johnny told me,

852
00:48:51,319 --> 00:48:53,931
"I think it's about time
I led my family back to Jesus."

853
00:49:02,940 --> 00:49:06,291
I watched the man
cry his heart out
down there in that altar,

854
00:49:06,465 --> 00:49:09,859
and all of 'em together,
every one of 'em.

855
00:49:10,034 --> 00:49:12,427
And when they opened up
their hearts to the Lord,

856
00:49:12,601 --> 00:49:14,255
it changed everything.

857
00:49:19,304 --> 00:49:20,653
He came to us
and he said,

858
00:49:21,001 --> 00:49:24,178
"Guys, I know this has been
rough out here."

859
00:49:24,352 --> 00:49:26,572
He said, "I just wanna
tell you all,
I'm gonna clean up."

860
00:49:26,746 --> 00:49:30,576
And from that point on,
he rededicated his life
in many different ways,

861
00:49:30,750 --> 00:49:34,580
and redoubled his efforts
into spreading the word
of Christianity.

862
00:49:43,241 --> 00:49:44,982
It's a scary sight.

863
00:49:45,156 --> 00:49:46,548
It's towering above ya.

864
00:49:46,722 --> 00:49:48,463
And we all walk
in there that morning,

865
00:49:48,637 --> 00:49:51,205
and hear the clang
of the metal doors

866
00:49:51,379 --> 00:49:52,380
closing behind you.

867
00:49:53,468 --> 00:49:55,862
Through the pain,

868
00:49:56,036 --> 00:49:59,474
throbbing melody
draws compassion

869
00:49:59,692 --> 00:50:01,128
and care and concern

870
00:50:01,302 --> 00:50:03,522
for myself
and for my fellow man.

871
00:50:04,740 --> 00:50:07,656
Johnny Cash had found
a new purpose and focus.

872
00:50:07,874 --> 00:50:10,224
He wanted to say and do
something with his music,

873
00:50:10,398 --> 00:50:12,313
and more importantly,
his life.

874
00:50:12,487 --> 00:50:14,489
His pastor, Floyd Gressett,
came to him

875
00:50:14,663 --> 00:50:17,797
and asked if he'd be interested
in a prison outreach program.

876
00:50:18,015 --> 00:50:21,235
He preached up there
every fourth Sunday
of the month,

877
00:50:21,453 --> 00:50:23,803
and he knew all those people,
the officials and--

878
00:50:24,021 --> 00:50:27,372
And he set up
this prison concert.

879
00:50:27,546 --> 00:50:30,201
He didn't wanna
just get up and do
a regular Johnny Cash show

880
00:50:30,375 --> 00:50:31,811
at Folsom Prison.

881
00:50:32,029 --> 00:50:34,205
He wanted to touch
men's hearts

882
00:50:34,422 --> 00:50:36,729
and to capture it on tape.

883
00:50:36,903 --> 00:50:39,384
I knew if I could ever
get a live recording
at a prison,

884
00:50:39,601 --> 00:50:41,821
it was gonna be a great album.

885
00:50:41,995 --> 00:50:43,649
He took June Carter,

886
00:50:43,866 --> 00:50:45,346
The Statler Brothers,
and Carl Perkins,

887
00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:47,609
and they went
into Folsom Prison.

888
00:50:47,783 --> 00:50:50,264
And we would like to continue
with the Johnny Cash Show

889
00:50:50,438 --> 00:50:53,137
and bring to you
the man that you've actually
come to see.

890
00:50:53,311 --> 00:50:55,313
He seems to have a lot of things
in common with you.

891
00:50:55,487 --> 00:50:58,446
Mr. Johnny Cash!

892
00:51:01,101 --> 00:51:02,798
♪ I hear the train a-comin' ♪

893
00:51:03,016 --> 00:51:04,757
♪ It's rolling
'round the bend ♪

894
00:51:04,974 --> 00:51:06,628
♪ And I ain't seen the sunshine

895
00:51:06,802 --> 00:51:08,326
♪ Since I don't know when ♪

896
00:51:08,543 --> 00:51:10,937
♪ I'm stuck in Folsom prison ♪

897
00:51:11,111 --> 00:51:13,026
♪ And time keeps draggin' on ♪

898
00:51:13,200 --> 00:51:14,767
J.R.
was very sensitive

899
00:51:14,941 --> 00:51:16,290
to those who were down
on their luck.

900
00:51:17,770 --> 00:51:20,773
He knew that he had faced
the same kinds of troubles
and situations

901
00:51:20,947 --> 00:51:23,210
that had led many of them
there.

902
00:51:23,384 --> 00:51:26,126
He wanted to get the feelings
of the men on tape

903
00:51:26,300 --> 00:51:27,997
and let them know
that somebody cared.

904
00:51:28,172 --> 00:51:29,651
♪ ...don't ever play
with guns" ♪

905
00:51:29,825 --> 00:51:31,088
♪ But I shot a man in Reno ♪

906
00:51:31,262 --> 00:51:32,828
There was
a hopelessness,

907
00:51:33,002 --> 00:51:35,004
a nobleness,
and there was a dark side.

908
00:51:35,179 --> 00:51:37,311
And you could feel
all of those things,
and you could feel

909
00:51:37,485 --> 00:51:40,314
all those emotions
toward the character
that he was singing about.

910
00:51:40,488 --> 00:51:42,403
A lot of people
throw money at the forgotten.

911
00:51:42,577 --> 00:51:45,493
They feel good from their safe,
gated-off world.

912
00:51:45,667 --> 00:51:49,889
What made Johnny special was,
he actually spent time
kickin' it with these people.

913
00:51:50,063 --> 00:51:51,325
Johnny didn't discriminate.

914
00:51:52,413 --> 00:51:55,199
That's Johnny Cash in a prison
singing to the inmates,

915
00:51:55,373 --> 00:51:58,637
and I think that's probably
where he felt most comfortable.

916
00:52:00,726 --> 00:52:03,120
The reaction I got,
it was far and above anything

917
00:52:03,337 --> 00:52:05,034
I had ever had in my life.

918
00:52:05,252 --> 00:52:08,473
The complete explosion
of noise and reaction

919
00:52:08,690 --> 00:52:11,911
that they gave me
with every song.

920
00:52:12,129 --> 00:52:15,958
But they felt like they could
identify with me, I suppose.

921
00:52:16,133 --> 00:52:17,525
Those guys in prison went,

922
00:52:17,699 --> 00:52:19,701
"It's Johnny Cash.
We can trust him."

923
00:52:19,875 --> 00:52:23,314
You see these people
hanging on every word,

924
00:52:23,488 --> 00:52:25,490
and you can see the hope
in their eyes

925
00:52:25,664 --> 00:52:28,536
and the vulnerability
in their eyes.

926
00:52:28,710 --> 00:52:30,843
I think they felt
he was one of them.

927
00:52:31,017 --> 00:52:33,498
And in many ways, he was.

928
00:52:33,672 --> 00:52:35,456
He had had his struggles

929
00:52:35,717 --> 00:52:38,111
with a lot of the same issues
those prisoners struggled with.

930
00:52:38,285 --> 00:52:40,069
They saw his humanity.

931
00:52:40,244 --> 00:52:42,071
They saw his authenticity.

932
00:52:42,246 --> 00:52:45,858
And really,
they were seeing his faith.

933
00:52:46,032 --> 00:52:47,729
He could relate to them

934
00:52:47,903 --> 00:52:49,949
by who he had been
and how he had struggled,

935
00:52:50,123 --> 00:52:51,864
and how he always kept
coming back to Christ,

936
00:52:52,038 --> 00:52:54,345
and how there was hope
in that for him.

937
00:52:54,519 --> 00:52:55,781
And he found, I think,

938
00:52:55,955 --> 00:52:58,784
almost like his own ministry
in that.

939
00:52:58,958 --> 00:53:00,916
There's no filter.

940
00:53:01,090 --> 00:53:02,440
There's just Johnny,

941
00:53:02,614 --> 00:53:04,920
giving you his guts
and his glory.

942
00:53:08,881 --> 00:53:13,277
Folsomis recorded in January
and again, you know, a little...
some ambivalence--

943
00:53:13,451 --> 00:53:17,150
Is this gonna be commercial?
Is it gonna-- is it gonna sell?

944
00:53:17,324 --> 00:53:20,675
Well, in March, he marries June.

945
00:53:25,463 --> 00:53:27,595
The love that they developed
for each other

946
00:53:27,769 --> 00:53:30,468
was one of the greatest
saving graces for each of them
in their lives.

947
00:53:30,642 --> 00:53:33,819
My mother saw
my father's kindness.

948
00:53:33,993 --> 00:53:37,039
She saw who he was
on the inside.

949
00:53:37,214 --> 00:53:39,216
She knew him, I think,
better than he did

950
00:53:39,390 --> 00:53:42,741
'cause she saw him
through it all.

951
00:53:42,915 --> 00:53:45,134
They finished up
some dates on the road,

952
00:53:45,309 --> 00:53:47,485
and then, in May,

953
00:53:47,659 --> 00:53:51,750
they went on a honeymoon
to the Holy Land.

954
00:53:53,142 --> 00:53:54,883
And he tells the people
at Columbia Records

955
00:53:55,057 --> 00:53:58,147
that he wants to make an album
in the Holy Land.

956
00:53:58,322 --> 00:54:02,500
"We're not doing that,"
they said. He said, "Fine."

957
00:54:02,674 --> 00:54:04,806
He took a little handheld
microphone,

958
00:54:04,980 --> 00:54:09,376
and he and June went
and they visited the sites.

959
00:54:11,552 --> 00:54:13,641
And he comes back home,

960
00:54:13,815 --> 00:54:15,991
and Folsom Prisonis
the number one album
in the country.

961
00:54:16,165 --> 00:54:17,645
And he's king.

962
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:25,958
Johnny Cash sold
more than six million records
in 1969 alone,

963
00:54:26,132 --> 00:54:28,439
besting The Beatles,
Elvis Presley,

964
00:54:28,613 --> 00:54:31,442
The Rolling Stones,
Jimi Hendrix,

965
00:54:31,616 --> 00:54:33,748
Janice Joplin, Led Zeppelin,

966
00:54:33,922 --> 00:54:36,969
and every other musical act
in the world.

967
00:54:37,143 --> 00:54:39,145
It wasn't even close.

968
00:54:39,319 --> 00:54:41,713
He said, "I'm gonna be
the biggest thing
in the business."

969
00:54:41,887 --> 00:54:44,846
And with that statement, he was.

970
00:54:45,064 --> 00:54:48,067
The album of the year,
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison.

971
00:54:50,722 --> 00:54:54,073
After he got back, you can bet
your butt that they put out
his next record,

972
00:54:54,247 --> 00:54:55,640
whatever it was that he wanted.

973
00:54:55,857 --> 00:54:58,251
And that was The Holy Land.

974
00:54:58,425 --> 00:55:00,862
And he got a Top-10 record,

975
00:55:01,036 --> 00:55:06,041
and a number one single
from a gospel album.

976
00:55:06,215 --> 00:55:08,522
That had never happened!

977
00:55:08,696 --> 00:55:11,046
Johnny's gotten
his priorities back in order.

978
00:55:11,220 --> 00:55:15,007
He's returned to the faith
of his brother, Jack.

979
00:55:15,181 --> 00:55:17,575
And Johnny is putting
Jesus Christ

980
00:55:17,749 --> 00:55:20,404
first in his life again.

981
00:55:20,578 --> 00:55:22,493
AfterFolsom Prison,

982
00:55:22,710 --> 00:55:25,583
ABC came calling to do
a summer television show.

983
00:55:28,847 --> 00:55:30,631
Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.

984
00:55:30,805 --> 00:55:32,677
And I'm glad to see ya, David.

985
00:55:34,592 --> 00:55:37,377
Just as he did
with everything else
in his career,

986
00:55:37,551 --> 00:55:42,991
Johnny Cash turned the concept
of variety shows upside-down.

987
00:55:43,165 --> 00:55:45,037
Glad to have ya.

988
00:55:45,254 --> 00:55:46,821
He wanted the show
to be filmed at the Ryman,

989
00:55:47,039 --> 00:55:48,780
the mother church
of country music,

990
00:55:48,954 --> 00:55:51,130
and the home
of The Grand Ole Opry,

991
00:55:51,304 --> 00:55:54,133
the same stage
he first met June Carter.

992
00:55:57,136 --> 00:55:59,747
The impact
of the show itself,
it was a catapult,

993
00:55:59,921 --> 00:56:02,750
not only for John and his show,

994
00:56:02,924 --> 00:56:05,971
but for a lot of other artists.

995
00:56:06,145 --> 00:56:09,104
Joni Mitchell,
and Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton,

996
00:56:09,278 --> 00:56:11,716
as well as luminaries
from country music

997
00:56:11,890 --> 00:56:13,195
and the gospel world.

998
00:56:14,675 --> 00:56:18,984
In fact,
there are over 70 people

999
00:56:19,201 --> 00:56:22,030
who were on The Johnny Cash Show

1000
00:56:22,204 --> 00:56:25,164
who are currently in either
the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame,

1001
00:56:25,338 --> 00:56:28,036
or the Country Music
Hall of Fame.

1002
00:56:28,210 --> 00:56:32,214
But one of the things
that really drove
ABC executives crazy

1003
00:56:32,389 --> 00:56:34,869
was the fact that John R. Cash
rebelled

1004
00:56:35,043 --> 00:56:37,437
against the tightly-scripted
corporate TV show concept.

1005
00:56:37,611 --> 00:56:39,308
At the beginning of the show,

1006
00:56:39,526 --> 00:56:41,615
you see a more tentative
Johnny Cash.

1007
00:56:41,833 --> 00:56:43,878
They told him how
and where to stand,

1008
00:56:44,096 --> 00:56:45,140
what to sing and say.

1009
00:56:46,185 --> 00:56:47,578
So they were always
on his back,

1010
00:56:47,752 --> 00:56:49,275
and sometimes he was told,

1011
00:56:49,449 --> 00:56:51,582
"Don't do this"
or "Don't sing that song"

1012
00:56:51,756 --> 00:56:53,714
or "Don't say that word."

1013
00:56:53,888 --> 00:56:55,455
You knew he was gonna
do it, then.

1014
00:56:55,629 --> 00:56:57,892
All you had to do
was tell him not to do it.

1015
00:56:58,066 --> 00:57:00,199
I was 17 years old.

1016
00:57:00,373 --> 00:57:03,115
I came in the back door
of the house singing,

1017
00:57:03,332 --> 00:57:06,945
♪ Everybody gonna have
religion and glory ♪

1018
00:57:07,119 --> 00:57:10,209
Well, you see, I'd been
a real high tenor up to then.

1019
00:57:10,383 --> 00:57:11,950
And I didn't know
that my voice had dropped.

1020
00:57:12,124 --> 00:57:14,082
And my mother turned around.

1021
00:57:14,256 --> 00:57:16,694
She said,
"Who was that singing?"
I said, "That was me."

1022
00:57:16,868 --> 00:57:20,175
And she said, "Keep it up."
So I did.

1023
00:57:20,349 --> 00:57:22,787
♪ Everybody gonna have
religion and glory... ♪

1024
00:57:22,961 --> 00:57:27,008
John's faith showed up
on the television show

1025
00:57:27,182 --> 00:57:29,924
because that was his roots.

1026
00:57:30,098 --> 00:57:32,971
He even did a gospel special!

1027
00:57:34,233 --> 00:57:37,105
He wanted to do
and say something more
with his life.

1028
00:57:37,279 --> 00:57:40,282
He had messages
that he wanted to share.

1029
00:57:40,457 --> 00:57:44,635
And that was when his faith
stepped out into the light.

1030
00:57:44,809 --> 00:57:46,811
So as Johnny
is performing this song,

1031
00:57:46,985 --> 00:57:49,727
right here on this stage
at the Ryman Auditorium,

1032
00:57:49,901 --> 00:57:52,860
he has Billy Graham
read a scripture.

1033
00:57:53,034 --> 00:57:54,906
Who does that?

1034
00:57:55,080 --> 00:57:56,908
♪ Everybody gonna have
religion and glory ♪

1035
00:57:57,125 --> 00:57:59,606
♪ Everybody gonna be
a-singin' that story ♪

1036
00:57:59,824 --> 00:58:01,869
♪ Everybody gonna have
a wonderful time up there ♪

1037
00:58:02,043 --> 00:58:05,090
And Johnny made
a statement one time
to the network,

1038
00:58:05,264 --> 00:58:10,574
that if you don't want
God, country, faith, and family,

1039
00:58:10,748 --> 00:58:13,794
you don't want me,
because that's not what I do,

1040
00:58:13,968 --> 00:58:15,840
it's who I am.

1041
00:58:16,057 --> 00:58:18,407
- ♪ A wonderful time
up there. ♪
- Yeah!

1042
00:58:20,409 --> 00:58:23,587
The people at ABC were aghast.

1043
00:58:23,761 --> 00:58:26,285
"What in the-- is he doing?

1044
00:58:27,634 --> 00:58:29,941
People don't watch these shows."

1045
00:58:30,115 --> 00:58:32,465
For him to say, "Hey,
I wanna close the show
with a gospel song."

1046
00:58:32,639 --> 00:58:34,728
And that was kind of,
"Well, are you sure
you wanna do that?"

1047
00:58:34,902 --> 00:58:37,035
And he held out,
"Yeah, I'm gonna do that."

1048
00:58:37,209 --> 00:58:38,253
Now he would do that.

1049
00:58:38,427 --> 00:58:40,038
Boy, he'd put his foot down.

1050
00:58:41,474 --> 00:58:43,868
The one show
that I remember specifically is,

1051
00:58:44,042 --> 00:58:46,871
I wanted to sing
"I'd Rather Have Jesus."

1052
00:58:47,045 --> 00:58:49,134
And they said,
"We don't want that."

1053
00:58:49,308 --> 00:58:51,397
But Johnny says,
"Then if you don't want Jessi
singing that song,

1054
00:58:51,571 --> 00:58:53,268
that we won't do the show."

1055
00:58:53,442 --> 00:58:55,488
You know, he didn't like
somebody to tell him

1056
00:58:55,662 --> 00:58:59,100
he couldn't do something,
or "this is not gonna work."

1057
00:58:59,274 --> 00:59:01,886
Then he would prove,
"Yes, it will work. Watch this."

1058
00:59:02,060 --> 00:59:03,452
And he would do it.

1059
00:59:03,627 --> 00:59:05,019
Well, here lately,

1060
00:59:05,280 --> 00:59:07,282
I think we probably made
the devil pretty mad

1061
00:59:07,456 --> 00:59:10,808
because on our show
we've been mentioning
God's name,

1062
00:59:10,982 --> 00:59:12,418
we've been talking about Jesus.

1063
00:59:12,592 --> 00:59:15,247
But, I'll be ready for him.

1064
00:59:15,421 --> 00:59:17,205
In the meantime,
while he's coming,

1065
00:59:17,379 --> 00:59:21,949
I'd like to get in
one more good lick
for Number One.

1066
00:59:22,123 --> 00:59:25,300
The TV show is where we see him
introduce "Man In Black."

1067
00:59:25,474 --> 00:59:29,957
♪ Well, you wonder why
I always dress in black ♪

1068
00:59:30,175 --> 00:59:33,482
A journalist once asked,
"Tell me about your closet."

1069
00:59:33,700 --> 00:59:36,964
J.R. replied,
"It's dark in there."

1070
00:59:37,138 --> 00:59:40,577
Black was so much more than
the clothing that he wore.

1071
00:59:40,794 --> 00:59:43,884
It represented something
for him. It told a story.

1072
00:59:44,102 --> 00:59:46,321
♪ ...that I have owned ♪

1073
00:59:47,453 --> 00:59:50,761
♪ I wear the black for the poor
and the beaten-down ♪

1074
00:59:52,545 --> 00:59:56,854
♪ Livin' in the hopeless,
hungry side of town ♪

1075
00:59:57,028 --> 00:59:58,943
I remember the first time
I heard it, I went,

1076
00:59:59,117 --> 01:00:00,640
"He sealed the deal right there,

1077
01:00:00,814 --> 01:00:03,208
for he will forever be
'The Man in Black'."

1078
01:00:03,382 --> 01:00:07,429
♪ But still is there
because he's a victim
of the times ♪

1079
01:00:07,604 --> 01:00:13,479
This was Johnny Cash
speaking to college students
from Tennessee.

1080
01:00:13,697 --> 01:00:16,743
♪ Or listened to the words
that Jesus said ♪

1081
01:00:16,917 --> 01:00:19,746
"This is
what I want people
to know of me."

1082
01:00:19,964 --> 01:00:23,141
♪ About the road to happiness
through love and charity ♪

1083
01:00:23,315 --> 01:00:25,534
I wear all black because of him.

1084
01:00:25,709 --> 01:00:28,189
Because I just was enamored,
he has a presence.

1085
01:00:28,363 --> 01:00:32,585
Some people just have
that "it" thing, and he has it.

1086
01:00:32,759 --> 01:00:35,153
When you mention
Johnny Cash,

1087
01:00:35,327 --> 01:00:39,070
people will immediately think
of a guy that helped people
who had no voice.

1088
01:00:39,244 --> 01:00:43,161
He stood for things
that nobody else
seemed to care about

1089
01:00:43,335 --> 01:00:47,644
or had the authority
to stand on and talk about.

1090
01:00:47,818 --> 01:00:49,471
When Johnny Cash wrote
"Man In Black"

1091
01:00:49,646 --> 01:00:53,127
and made the decision
to put that suit on

1092
01:00:53,301 --> 01:00:55,086
and wear it
for the rest of his career,

1093
01:00:55,260 --> 01:00:57,697
he looked darkness
in the eye and said,

1094
01:00:57,871 --> 01:01:00,308
"Not only will I take you on,
but I will wear you.

1095
01:01:00,482 --> 01:01:01,919
And I will win."

1096
01:01:02,136 --> 01:01:03,877
♪ ... everywhere you go... ♪

1097
01:01:04,095 --> 01:01:05,966
That was the image
that people remembered.

1098
01:01:06,140 --> 01:01:08,795
They remembered him standing up
on stage with his manifesto,

1099
01:01:09,013 --> 01:01:12,799
speaking of the Lord,
and speaking
of the downtrodden.

1100
01:01:14,975 --> 01:01:17,151
Johnny wanted people to know
what he believed,

1101
01:01:17,325 --> 01:01:19,414
and why he believed it.

1102
01:01:19,588 --> 01:01:24,419
He had no embarrassment
whatsoever about his faith
in Jesus Christ

1103
01:01:24,593 --> 01:01:26,204
and wanted others
to share it, as well.

1104
01:01:26,378 --> 01:01:29,903
Television series probably
would've lasted longer

1105
01:01:30,077 --> 01:01:32,427
if he hadn't a fought ABC
so hard.

1106
01:01:32,601 --> 01:01:35,822
The Johnny Cash Show
was on fire.

1107
01:01:36,040 --> 01:01:38,520
He had big plans to take
his show to the Holy Land,

1108
01:01:38,738 --> 01:01:40,827
but ABC had other plans,

1109
01:01:41,045 --> 01:01:43,874
and cancelled his show
before he had that opportunity.

1110
01:01:45,614 --> 01:01:49,270
When I professed
my faith in Jesus Christ

1111
01:01:49,444 --> 01:01:51,838
on network television,
and in my concerts,

1112
01:01:52,056 --> 01:01:54,667
it turned a lot of people off.

1113
01:01:54,841 --> 01:01:58,236
You see, the whole thing
about being a Christian

1114
01:01:58,410 --> 01:02:02,675
is being willing
to give up the world.

1115
01:02:02,893 --> 01:02:04,590
And that's what I was doing.

1116
01:02:06,113 --> 01:02:07,767
So he said, "All right.

1117
01:02:07,941 --> 01:02:10,030
I'm gonna put my money
where my soul is."

1118
01:02:10,204 --> 01:02:11,771
And he went
and did it himself.

1119
01:02:11,945 --> 01:02:14,252
He put a half a million dollars
of his own money

1120
01:02:14,426 --> 01:02:17,690
to create his film,
theGospel Road.

1121
01:02:17,864 --> 01:02:21,520
Now come along with me
in the footsteps of Jesus.

1122
01:02:21,694 --> 01:02:23,696
Johnny was no stranger
to the silver screen.

1123
01:02:23,870 --> 01:02:25,176
In fact, throughout his career,

1124
01:02:25,480 --> 01:02:27,787
he was in dozens of shows
and movies,

1125
01:02:27,961 --> 01:02:32,096
but Johnny wanted to make
a film about Jesus Christ.

1126
01:02:32,270 --> 01:02:35,577
Jesus was to suffer
much criticism

1127
01:02:35,752 --> 01:02:40,800
for his association with people
of questionable character.

1128
01:02:42,802 --> 01:02:47,111
"He dines with publicans
and sinners," they said.

1129
01:02:47,285 --> 01:02:49,287
And to that Jesus replied,

1130
01:02:49,461 --> 01:02:52,551
"It's the sick
that need a physician,

1131
01:02:52,725 --> 01:02:53,900
not the healthy."

1132
01:02:55,641 --> 01:02:57,861
John walked up to me
one morning, early,

1133
01:02:58,035 --> 01:03:00,428
'cause we always had to be
out there for sunrises,

1134
01:03:00,602 --> 01:03:03,780
and he said,
"I wanna get baptized."

1135
01:03:05,085 --> 01:03:09,786
And I baptized Johnny Cash
and June Carter Cash
in the Jordan River.

1136
01:03:09,960 --> 01:03:13,093
That was one of the highlights
of my life.

1137
01:03:13,311 --> 01:03:16,618
The Bible
likens baptism
to a burial service.

1138
01:03:16,793 --> 01:03:18,620
Think of a happy funeral.

1139
01:03:18,795 --> 01:03:20,753
The old you is going
into the water.

1140
01:03:20,927 --> 01:03:23,408
The new you is coming out.

1141
01:03:23,582 --> 01:03:27,368
Baptism is an outward showing
of an inward doing.

1142
01:03:27,542 --> 01:03:29,675
The old Johnny Cash
was immersed,

1143
01:03:29,849 --> 01:03:32,547
a new Johnny Cash was emerging,

1144
01:03:32,721 --> 01:03:34,767
one committed to his faith,

1145
01:03:34,941 --> 01:03:37,030
one committed
to scripture study,

1146
01:03:37,204 --> 01:03:40,338
one committed to telling others
about Jesus.

1147
01:03:40,512 --> 01:03:44,995
He made a great effort
to show his faith to the world.

1148
01:03:45,169 --> 01:03:47,214
And that was his dedication,

1149
01:03:47,562 --> 01:03:51,305
that was his reaching out
with his faith and doing
what he believed in.

1150
01:03:55,614 --> 01:03:58,051
J.R. was quoted
as saying,

1151
01:03:58,225 --> 01:04:01,707
"My record company would rather
I be in prison than in church"

1152
01:04:01,925 --> 01:04:03,840
In many ways, that's true.

1153
01:04:04,057 --> 01:04:06,059
His rebel persona
was easier to sell.

1154
01:04:06,233 --> 01:04:09,019
People found
his constant struggles

1155
01:04:09,236 --> 01:04:12,370
and his willingness to bare
his humanity intoxicating,

1156
01:04:12,587 --> 01:04:15,329
but Johnny Cash
was always a rebel.

1157
01:04:16,853 --> 01:04:19,333
In his early years,

1158
01:04:19,507 --> 01:04:22,206
his rebellion took him
on a journey away
from his family and faith.

1159
01:04:22,380 --> 01:04:24,643
But now, his rebellious spirit

1160
01:04:24,861 --> 01:04:27,385
was bringing him
back to his faith.

1161
01:04:29,082 --> 01:04:30,997
The Gospel Road
was not well-received.

1162
01:04:31,171 --> 01:04:34,044
In fact, it was
a financial disaster,

1163
01:04:34,218 --> 01:04:37,221
and almost bankrupted
Johnny Cash.

1164
01:04:37,395 --> 01:04:39,397
But his good friend,
Billy Graham, stepped in

1165
01:04:39,571 --> 01:04:42,704
and used his platform
to take it to the world.

1166
01:04:44,228 --> 01:04:47,622
The Gospel Roadwas made
by my friend Johnny Cash

1167
01:04:47,796 --> 01:04:50,712
and his lovely wife June
as a labor of love,

1168
01:04:50,887 --> 01:04:52,323
so that they, too,

1169
01:04:52,497 --> 01:04:55,065
could share with the world
the Gospel.

1170
01:04:55,239 --> 01:04:57,458
Without your prayers
and without your support,

1171
01:04:57,632 --> 01:04:59,112
we could not continue.

1172
01:04:59,286 --> 01:05:01,027
...in their lives.
We need your...

1173
01:05:01,201 --> 01:05:03,682
...importantly,
to remind the church

1174
01:05:03,856 --> 01:05:08,382
that the old-time Gospel
is relevant to this generation!

1175
01:05:10,732 --> 01:05:12,343
Billy Graham,
though he was

1176
01:05:12,517 --> 01:05:14,954
the most famous evangelist
in all of the world,

1177
01:05:15,128 --> 01:05:17,000
had his own prodigal son,
Franklin.

1178
01:05:17,174 --> 01:05:20,481
And Franklin was rough
around the edges.

1179
01:05:20,655 --> 01:05:23,528
And Billy was not
connecting to his son.

1180
01:05:23,702 --> 01:05:25,878
And then one day,

1181
01:05:26,052 --> 01:05:28,750
Billy noticed that Franklin
was listening
to Johnny Cash music.

1182
01:05:28,925 --> 01:05:31,188
I think
my father was trying
to find a way

1183
01:05:31,362 --> 01:05:34,452
to connect with me
in a different way,

1184
01:05:34,626 --> 01:05:36,497
and he thought,
"Well, if I could meet
Johnny Cash,

1185
01:05:36,671 --> 01:05:38,064
that would impress Franklin."

1186
01:05:38,238 --> 01:05:40,675
And so, I think
it was '69 they met,

1187
01:05:40,849 --> 01:05:43,287
and had a dinner
at Johnny Cash's home.

1188
01:05:43,461 --> 01:05:46,159
And I was impressed.

1189
01:05:46,333 --> 01:05:51,860
So what started
as an attempt by Billy
to help reach his son,

1190
01:05:52,035 --> 01:05:55,864
ended up in a deep
and lasting friendship
between Billy and Johnny.

1191
01:05:58,737 --> 01:06:02,175
Johnny was at a place
where he needed a person
in his life

1192
01:06:02,349 --> 01:06:05,396
that would be like
a mentor to him, spiritually.

1193
01:06:05,570 --> 01:06:07,702
My father felt very comfortable
in Johnny's presence,

1194
01:06:07,876 --> 01:06:10,357
and Johnny felt very comfortable
in my father's presence,

1195
01:06:10,531 --> 01:06:12,446
because both grew up on farms,

1196
01:06:13,491 --> 01:06:15,449
they both grew up poor.

1197
01:06:15,623 --> 01:06:18,713
And so, there was
a lot in common.

1198
01:06:18,887 --> 01:06:23,501
They were both southern boys
who grew up with respect
for their elders

1199
01:06:23,675 --> 01:06:25,155
and listening to the same music.

1200
01:06:26,504 --> 01:06:27,984
They called
each other often,

1201
01:06:28,158 --> 01:06:30,160
they vacationed together,

1202
01:06:30,334 --> 01:06:31,813
studied scripture together.

1203
01:06:33,424 --> 01:06:37,384
They were very, very clo--
I mean, absolutely best friends,

1204
01:06:37,558 --> 01:06:42,085
because they found
that they could really be real,

1205
01:06:42,259 --> 01:06:44,435
you know, where John
didn't have to sing

1206
01:06:44,609 --> 01:06:46,306
and Billy didn't have to preach.

1207
01:06:48,178 --> 01:06:50,180
Does he ever preach to you?

1208
01:06:50,354 --> 01:06:53,618
To me? No.
We talk about life.

1209
01:06:53,792 --> 01:06:56,316
We talk about everything,
whatever's happening.

1210
01:06:56,490 --> 01:06:59,798
He's always anxious to give me

1211
01:07:00,016 --> 01:07:01,887
any spiritual advice
when I ask him.

1212
01:07:02,061 --> 01:07:06,587
But, no, he's not
that kind of person.

1213
01:07:06,761 --> 01:07:10,287
A very human person,
very humble.

1214
01:07:10,461 --> 01:07:12,898
Billy has been
a great inspiration to me.

1215
01:07:13,116 --> 01:07:15,118
And his friendship
has been something
I've leaned on

1216
01:07:15,292 --> 01:07:17,946
from time to time
over the years.

1217
01:07:18,121 --> 01:07:19,861
And in some ways,

1218
01:07:20,036 --> 01:07:24,257
Billy Graham was that brother
that Johnny had lost.

1219
01:07:24,431 --> 01:07:26,259
Johnny could bare
his heart to Billy,

1220
01:07:26,433 --> 01:07:28,435
he could ask questions of Billy.

1221
01:07:28,609 --> 01:07:31,438
Billy loved Johnny,
was not judgmental of him,

1222
01:07:31,612 --> 01:07:34,311
and helped give him
the spiritual guidance

1223
01:07:34,485 --> 01:07:37,662
that, had he lived, Jack
might've given him.

1224
01:07:39,620 --> 01:07:41,927
Their friendship
was very precious,

1225
01:07:42,101 --> 01:07:45,452
and it brought Johnny
closer to the Lord.

1226
01:07:49,587 --> 01:07:51,676
Johnny
once said to Billy,

1227
01:07:51,850 --> 01:07:54,026
"If there's anything
I can ever do for you,
just let me know."

1228
01:07:54,200 --> 01:07:57,247
Billy said, "Well, as a matter
of fact, I have a Crusade
coming up

1229
01:07:57,421 --> 01:08:00,032
and I was wondering
if you would come and sing."

1230
01:08:00,206 --> 01:08:02,469
Johnny quickly agreed.

1231
01:08:02,643 --> 01:08:04,341
That's just
the way John was.

1232
01:08:04,515 --> 01:08:08,214
If he's your friend,
he's your friend at all times.

1233
01:08:08,388 --> 01:08:10,956
He doesn't think about
his career or anything else.

1234
01:08:11,130 --> 01:08:12,566
He just, "Oh, that's my friend.

1235
01:08:12,740 --> 01:08:15,221
He wants me to do this.
I'm gonna do it."

1236
01:08:15,395 --> 01:08:17,441
It didn't matter to him
what the music industry

1237
01:08:17,615 --> 01:08:20,096
thought about him
being with Billy Graham,

1238
01:08:20,270 --> 01:08:23,360
because that was where
Johnny's heart was,
with the Gospel.

1239
01:08:23,534 --> 01:08:25,318
And I'm proud and honored

1240
01:08:25,492 --> 01:08:28,582
and thrilled and flattered
to present tonight

1241
01:08:28,756 --> 01:08:31,716
my very good
and warm friend in Christ,

1242
01:08:31,890 --> 01:08:33,152
Johnny Cash.

1243
01:08:35,328 --> 01:08:36,982
I spend a lot of my time

1244
01:08:37,156 --> 01:08:39,463
working with drug addicts
and alcoholics.

1245
01:08:41,160 --> 01:08:44,294
And only someone
who has had such a problem

1246
01:08:44,511 --> 01:08:46,470
can have complete love
and compassion

1247
01:08:46,687 --> 01:08:48,428
and understanding
for such people.

1248
01:08:48,646 --> 01:08:52,824
I love drug addicts.
And I love alcoholics.

1249
01:08:53,041 --> 01:08:55,827
If some lost, lonely person
somewhere out there

1250
01:08:56,001 --> 01:08:58,917
in a dirty bed and a dark room

1251
01:08:59,918 --> 01:09:02,921
can see the light
of Jesus Christ in me,

1252
01:09:03,139 --> 01:09:04,488
then that is my reward.

1253
01:09:05,706 --> 01:09:08,056
Johnny was there
to help my father evangelize.

1254
01:09:08,231 --> 01:09:09,710
People came to hear my father,

1255
01:09:09,884 --> 01:09:11,930
but when they heard
Johnny Cash was coming,

1256
01:09:12,104 --> 01:09:14,498
it gave them an opportunity
to bring certain friends

1257
01:09:14,672 --> 01:09:16,891
that probably wouldn't come.

1258
01:09:17,065 --> 01:09:18,415
And it's the kind of people

1259
01:09:18,589 --> 01:09:20,721
that my father wanted
to preach to.

1260
01:09:20,895 --> 01:09:22,680
It was almost eight years ago

1261
01:09:22,854 --> 01:09:26,379
that we renewed our total
commitment to Jesus Christ.

1262
01:09:26,553 --> 01:09:28,686
And I just wanted to say,
in case anybody had any doubt,

1263
01:09:28,860 --> 01:09:31,689
that I'm a Christian,
and I'm awfully proud to say so.

1264
01:09:34,735 --> 01:09:38,783
Johnny came to 30
of my father's Crusades.

1265
01:09:43,048 --> 01:09:45,442
I went to Billy,
and I wanted to know more

1266
01:09:45,616 --> 01:09:47,966
about his friendship with Dad,
what made it so special.

1267
01:09:48,140 --> 01:09:50,795
And he just said,
"We were brothers in Christ.

1268
01:09:50,969 --> 01:09:52,971
We found something
we believed in together."

1269
01:09:53,145 --> 01:09:56,235
And I will never forget that.
It was such a simple summation.

1270
01:09:56,409 --> 01:09:58,498
But it really told the truth
of their relationship.

1271
01:10:03,938 --> 01:10:07,464
J.R. didn't say,
"I'm forsaking everything
in the secular world."

1272
01:10:07,681 --> 01:10:11,555
The great evangelist
Billy Graham told him
not to do that.

1273
01:10:11,772 --> 01:10:16,168
Billy Graham said,
"No. This is exactly
where you need to be.

1274
01:10:16,342 --> 01:10:18,518
You need to speak
to the world."

1275
01:10:20,694 --> 01:10:24,220
He was
just on fire for Jesus.

1276
01:10:24,394 --> 01:10:27,701
He wanted to do something
for God that would last.

1277
01:10:27,875 --> 01:10:30,878
And you have to understand John,
he wanted to do it right now.

1278
01:10:31,052 --> 01:10:32,576
That's just the way he was.

1279
01:10:33,664 --> 01:10:36,493
In 1977,
John was ordained a minister.

1280
01:10:36,667 --> 01:10:38,582
And privileges
appertaining thereto.

1281
01:10:38,756 --> 01:10:41,237
Thank you, Dr. Hamon.
Thank you very much.

1282
01:10:41,411 --> 01:10:44,414
Think about this.
The Reverend Johnny Cash.

1283
01:10:44,588 --> 01:10:46,111
That's what he was now.

1284
01:10:46,285 --> 01:10:49,636
He was an ordained minister
of the Gospel.

1285
01:10:49,810 --> 01:10:53,249
That doesn't go with the image
many people have of Cash.

1286
01:10:53,423 --> 01:10:56,339
And it's my privilege,
as a Christian,
to study the Word of God.

1287
01:10:56,513 --> 01:10:58,906
But I accept the degree
as recognition of the fact

1288
01:10:59,080 --> 01:11:02,867
that I am in the Word of God
and trying to grow in it.

1289
01:11:03,041 --> 01:11:04,782
You know,
it's an interesting thing.

1290
01:11:04,956 --> 01:11:07,828
Johnny's brother, Jack,
wanted to be a pastor,

1291
01:11:08,002 --> 01:11:09,613
and Johnny wanted
to be a singer.

1292
01:11:09,787 --> 01:11:14,313
But now, Johnny Cash was
realizing Jack's dream,

1293
01:11:14,487 --> 01:11:17,273
and he was both a preacher
and a singer.

1294
01:11:17,447 --> 01:11:21,102
It was not a renunciation
of his career,

1295
01:11:21,277 --> 01:11:26,717
but certainly,
the focus distracted him
from his commercial career.

1296
01:11:26,891 --> 01:11:28,545
It was a price that
he was willing to pay.

1297
01:11:28,719 --> 01:11:31,112
I am a professional entertainer.
That's what I am.

1298
01:11:31,287 --> 01:11:33,680
If I have a calling,
that's what it is.

1299
01:11:33,854 --> 01:11:35,856
But I'm called to be
a Christian entertainer,

1300
01:11:36,030 --> 01:11:37,510
to be a Christian
before the world.

1301
01:11:37,684 --> 01:11:40,208
You see, entertaining
is communicating,

1302
01:11:40,383 --> 01:11:43,299
just like a preacher's job
is to communicate.

1303
01:11:43,473 --> 01:11:46,040
But I communicate through
the spirit of the song,

1304
01:11:46,214 --> 01:11:49,261
the meaning of the songs,
the words.

1305
01:11:49,435 --> 01:11:51,437
In the late '70s
and the '80s,

1306
01:11:51,611 --> 01:11:53,918
you would think John R. Cash
is at the top of the world.

1307
01:11:54,092 --> 01:11:55,746
He should've been.

1308
01:11:56,050 --> 01:11:58,052
He gets inducted into
the Country Music Hall of Fame.

1309
01:11:58,226 --> 01:12:00,446
Ladies and gentlemen,
the Country Music Hall of Fame

1310
01:12:00,620 --> 01:12:02,666
welcomes Mr. Johnny Cash.

1311
01:12:07,497 --> 01:12:09,890
I'd like to say to
all the new entertainers

1312
01:12:10,108 --> 01:12:12,197
that are coming on the scene,
to the young artists,
the singers,

1313
01:12:12,415 --> 01:12:14,547
do it your way.

1314
01:12:14,765 --> 01:12:16,593
Don't let yourself
get caught in a bag.

1315
01:12:16,810 --> 01:12:19,422
And I'd like to also say this
to all the new artists,

1316
01:12:19,639 --> 01:12:22,686
that, if you're concerned
about competition,

1317
01:12:22,903 --> 01:12:24,644
don't write me off yet,

1318
01:12:24,862 --> 01:12:26,864
because my dad, Ray Cash,
is sitting here tonight.

1319
01:12:27,038 --> 01:12:30,346
He's 83 years old,
and if God lets me live
that long,

1320
01:12:30,563 --> 01:12:33,697
that's 35 more years
that I'm gonna be out there
singing country songs.

1321
01:12:39,311 --> 01:12:43,315
During that time,
Ray is getting sick.

1322
01:12:43,489 --> 01:12:46,536
He is having to come to terms

1323
01:12:46,710 --> 01:12:48,146
with that relationship.

1324
01:12:49,626 --> 01:12:53,151
Johnny always
wanted the approval
of his father, Ray.

1325
01:12:53,325 --> 01:12:55,719
So when Johnny began
to be successful,

1326
01:12:55,893 --> 01:12:58,374
he took his mom and his dad.

1327
01:12:58,548 --> 01:13:02,639
He took them to the White House
when he was invited
by President Nixon.

1328
01:13:02,813 --> 01:13:06,382
Johnny was always trying
to impress his father.

1329
01:13:06,556 --> 01:13:10,124
And he said, "My father never
told me he loved me."

1330
01:13:10,298 --> 01:13:12,388
There. You gonna find--

1331
01:13:12,562 --> 01:13:14,520
During the time
that Ray was dying,

1332
01:13:14,694 --> 01:13:17,784
that was a very difficult time.

1333
01:13:18,002 --> 01:13:22,659
And you listen to Rainbow,
the last Columbia Record,

1334
01:13:22,833 --> 01:13:24,922
he sounds tired.

1335
01:13:25,096 --> 01:13:27,707
There's no other word to say
that he was tired.

1336
01:13:29,274 --> 01:13:31,319
He's gone from constant
chart-topping hits

1337
01:13:31,494 --> 01:13:34,279
to nothing on the charts
in just a few short years.

1338
01:13:34,453 --> 01:13:36,499
That's a strange place

1339
01:13:36,673 --> 01:13:39,632
for one of the biggest-selling
artists in the world to be.

1340
01:13:39,806 --> 01:13:42,548
Johnny was on top
for such a long time.

1341
01:13:42,722 --> 01:13:45,595
And then, one day,

1342
01:13:45,769 --> 01:13:47,945
Columbia Records dropped him.

1343
01:13:50,817 --> 01:13:52,776
It was devastating.

1344
01:13:52,950 --> 01:13:56,170
He felt betrayed and lost.

1345
01:13:57,476 --> 01:14:00,653
You're like a train
going forward, you know,

1346
01:14:00,827 --> 01:14:02,742
and now you have no track?

1347
01:14:02,960 --> 01:14:06,137
The label
he had been with for 28 years,

1348
01:14:06,311 --> 01:14:08,835
and whose doors
he kept open, was saying,

1349
01:14:09,053 --> 01:14:12,535
"We don't want you anymore.
You're not needed."

1350
01:14:12,752 --> 01:14:16,234
He suffered for his faith.
He didn't have to.

1351
01:14:16,452 --> 01:14:18,671
He could've kept that
to himself.

1352
01:14:18,889 --> 01:14:21,935
He did it because he thought
that that's what people needed,

1353
01:14:22,109 --> 01:14:25,286
to hear from somebody
who had lived a life
like he had,

1354
01:14:25,461 --> 01:14:28,638
a life of confusion,
a life of trouble.

1355
01:14:28,812 --> 01:14:31,989
He was
very disappointed
and lost for a while there.

1356
01:14:32,163 --> 01:14:34,731
The critics had
kind of turned away from him.

1357
01:14:34,905 --> 01:14:37,298
He was not happy
with that position.

1358
01:14:38,648 --> 01:14:41,041
The crowds at his shows
are shrinking.

1359
01:14:41,215 --> 01:14:44,218
Radio air play is
virtually non-existent.

1360
01:14:44,392 --> 01:14:50,529
It was
a humiliating experience
auditioning for 25 year olds

1361
01:14:50,703 --> 01:14:53,706
when he had already been

1362
01:14:53,880 --> 01:14:56,927
in the Country Music
Hall of Fame for six years.

1363
01:14:58,537 --> 01:15:03,455
And that left John
kind of back to where he was
with those producers

1364
01:15:03,629 --> 01:15:07,633
who didn't know him
and didn't get him
and didn't want to.

1365
01:15:07,807 --> 01:15:09,592
And just wanted product

1366
01:15:09,766 --> 01:15:13,421
and "let's just get the next
Johnny Cash record out."

1367
01:15:13,596 --> 01:15:17,600
And he stopped caring
and going into the studio,

1368
01:15:17,774 --> 01:15:19,863
and he had nothing
to say anymore.

1369
01:15:20,211 --> 01:15:23,562
They didn't wanna listen to him,
and he didn't wanna
tell them anything.

1370
01:15:23,736 --> 01:15:25,695
He thought
his career was over.

1371
01:15:29,829 --> 01:15:33,441
While he was doing
one of his regular shows
in Southern California,

1372
01:15:33,616 --> 01:15:37,010
this character
with a big beard
came backstage,

1373
01:15:37,228 --> 01:15:39,230
and the man's name
was Rick Rubin.

1374
01:15:39,404 --> 01:15:42,189
And that was the beginning.

1375
01:15:43,277 --> 01:15:45,584
I got hungry
to be back in the studio,

1376
01:15:45,802 --> 01:15:49,196
to be creative,
to put something down
for the fans to hear.

1377
01:15:49,414 --> 01:15:51,895
And about that time
that I got to feeling
that way,

1378
01:15:52,069 --> 01:15:55,942
my manager came to me
and talked to me about a man
called Rick Rubin.

1379
01:15:56,116 --> 01:15:59,380
Rick came back
after the show and said
basically to my father,

1380
01:15:59,555 --> 01:16:03,167
"I wanna make the music with you
that you've always
dreamed of making.

1381
01:16:03,341 --> 01:16:05,256
Let's focus on you.

1382
01:16:05,604 --> 01:16:08,215
Let's make this album
the most beautiful music
you've ever made."

1383
01:16:08,389 --> 01:16:10,348
When I said,
"What're you gonna do with me

1384
01:16:10,522 --> 01:16:13,786
that nobody else has been able
to do to sell records with me?"

1385
01:16:13,960 --> 01:16:16,441
And he said,
"Well, I don't know
that we will sell records."

1386
01:16:16,615 --> 01:16:19,313
He said, "I would like you
to go with me

1387
01:16:19,487 --> 01:16:24,928
and sit in my living room
with a guitar
and two microphones,

1388
01:16:25,102 --> 01:16:26,712
and just sing
to your heart's content

1389
01:16:26,930 --> 01:16:29,106
everything you ever
wanted to record."

1390
01:16:30,847 --> 01:16:33,197
I said,
"That sounds good to me."

1391
01:16:33,371 --> 01:16:37,418
The next ten years,
from 1993 to 2003,

1392
01:16:37,593 --> 01:16:41,553
by some, was claimed
the Second Coming,
some, the Third Coming,

1393
01:16:41,727 --> 01:16:45,209
some said it was
the Fourth Coming
with Johnny Cash.

1394
01:16:45,383 --> 01:16:47,428
He went into the studio
with Rick Rubin

1395
01:16:47,603 --> 01:16:49,126
and the first
American Recordingsalbum

1396
01:16:49,300 --> 01:16:50,780
was just my father
with his guitar.

1397
01:16:50,954 --> 01:16:52,477
Johnny Cash was that good.

1398
01:16:52,651 --> 01:16:54,479
He could just sit down
with a guitar and sing,

1399
01:16:54,653 --> 01:16:56,829
and it was powerful.

1400
01:16:57,003 --> 01:17:00,485
You can hear
the intimate story of the song.

1401
01:17:00,659 --> 01:17:03,140
You can hear the beauty
of my father's voice.

1402
01:17:05,011 --> 01:17:07,448
And if I didn't like
the performance on that song,

1403
01:17:07,623 --> 01:17:10,713
I would keep trying it
until it felt...

1404
01:17:10,887 --> 01:17:13,759
that it was coming out of me
and my guitar
and my voice as one,

1405
01:17:13,977 --> 01:17:16,283
that it was right for my soul.

1406
01:17:18,024 --> 01:17:20,810
Under the guidance
of Rick Rubin,

1407
01:17:21,027 --> 01:17:24,030
Johnny Cash took it
all the way back to the sound
that he had in the beginning.

1408
01:17:24,204 --> 01:17:27,686
Just the man and song
and guitar. Authentic.

1409
01:17:27,860 --> 01:17:31,559
That authenticity spoke
to an entirely different
generation of people

1410
01:17:31,777 --> 01:17:34,171
who had never heard
of Johnny Cash before.

1411
01:17:34,388 --> 01:17:37,827
It also spoke to a generation
of Johnny Cash followers

1412
01:17:38,001 --> 01:17:42,614
who longed to see him ride
the top of the sunrise
one more time.

1413
01:17:47,445 --> 01:17:51,405
But while everyone was
looking at John,
June slipped away.

1414
01:17:54,104 --> 01:17:57,498
June went
through a heart valve
replacement surgery,

1415
01:17:57,673 --> 01:18:02,939
but the next night,
it, uh, it fails.

1416
01:18:04,984 --> 01:18:07,204
It was hard.
It was real hard for John.

1417
01:18:10,642 --> 01:18:14,907
As you get older,
you lose so many friends.

1418
01:18:16,430 --> 01:18:18,215
And every time
you lose a friend,

1419
01:18:18,389 --> 01:18:22,828
you feel a little piece
of your own life has been lost.

1420
01:18:23,002 --> 01:18:25,788
And when my mother
passed away, Dad came to me
and he said,

1421
01:18:25,962 --> 01:18:30,531
"You know, I was more in love
with your mom
than I ever had been."

1422
01:18:30,749 --> 01:18:33,099
When people
would come in to try
to comfort him,

1423
01:18:33,317 --> 01:18:37,190
he was comforting
them even more.

1424
01:18:37,364 --> 01:18:39,715
He understood the race
had been run well,

1425
01:18:39,932 --> 01:18:42,239
and that she was
in a better place.

1426
01:18:42,413 --> 01:18:44,241
He was still teaching us
about life

1427
01:18:44,415 --> 01:18:47,157
up until the very last day
he was on this Earth.

1428
01:18:50,464 --> 01:18:52,858
- Are you bitter?
- Bitter?

1429
01:18:53,032 --> 01:18:54,555
- Yeah. Angry?
- No.

1430
01:18:54,730 --> 01:18:56,470
You know, you're a young guy.
You're only 70.

1431
01:18:56,644 --> 01:18:59,125
No, I'm not bitter.
Why should I be bitter?

1432
01:18:59,299 --> 01:19:01,432
I'm thrilled to death with life.

1433
01:19:01,606 --> 01:19:03,390
- So you have no regrets?
- No regrets.

1434
01:19:03,564 --> 01:19:05,828
And no anger at,
"Why did God do this to me?"

1435
01:19:06,002 --> 01:19:07,873
Oh, no. No.

1436
01:19:08,047 --> 01:19:11,007
I'm the last one
that would be angry at God.

1437
01:19:11,181 --> 01:19:13,400
He was steadfast in that.

1438
01:19:13,574 --> 01:19:15,228
He did not waver in that.

1439
01:19:15,402 --> 01:19:20,364
He took what God wanted him
to bear, and he did.

1440
01:19:20,538 --> 01:19:24,150
I have unshakable faith.
I've never been angry with God.

1441
01:19:24,324 --> 01:19:26,979
I've never turned my back
on God, so to speak.

1442
01:19:27,153 --> 01:19:29,547
I never thought
that God wasn't there.

1443
01:19:29,765 --> 01:19:33,377
See, He's my counselor.
He's my wisdom.

1444
01:19:33,551 --> 01:19:36,162
Only good things in my life
come from Him.

1445
01:19:36,336 --> 01:19:38,034
- Looking back
at all that you've done...
- Ahem.

1446
01:19:38,208 --> 01:19:40,079
...do you have any regrets
about what you've done?

1447
01:19:40,253 --> 01:19:42,952
I used to,
but I forgave myself.

1448
01:19:43,126 --> 01:19:45,215
When God forgave me,
I figured I'd better do it, too.

1449
01:19:45,389 --> 01:19:47,739
Where do you think
we go, afterwards?

1450
01:19:47,913 --> 01:19:49,915
Where do we go?

1451
01:19:50,089 --> 01:19:51,830
- When we die, you mean?
- Yeah.

1452
01:19:52,004 --> 01:19:53,919
Oh.

1453
01:19:54,093 --> 01:19:56,095
Well, we all hope
to go to Heaven.

1454
01:19:58,271 --> 01:20:00,665
I ask him, I said,
"You mad at anybody?"

1455
01:20:00,839 --> 01:20:03,146
He said, "I'm not mad
at anybody."

1456
01:20:03,320 --> 01:20:05,235
And I said, "Do you got
any forgiveness

1457
01:20:05,409 --> 01:20:07,193
you've not yet been able
to do with anybody?"

1458
01:20:07,367 --> 01:20:10,457
He says, "No.
I've forgiven everybody

1459
01:20:10,631 --> 01:20:13,896
and I hope everybody's
forgiven me that thought
that I should."

1460
01:20:14,070 --> 01:20:16,550
Everything inside me
felt peaceful

1461
01:20:16,724 --> 01:20:20,380
after that conversation,
that he settled up.

1462
01:20:20,554 --> 01:20:22,034
He was in good standing.

1463
01:20:24,341 --> 01:20:28,171
The final triumph
for him was the masterpiece
called "Hurt".

1464
01:20:31,652 --> 01:20:33,741
That was a big moment.

1465
01:20:34,090 --> 01:20:36,048
I think what was shocking
for a lot of people was
how frail Johnny was,

1466
01:20:36,222 --> 01:20:40,139
but at the same time,
how he still maintained

1467
01:20:40,313 --> 01:20:44,013
that strength
that we knew him for.

1468
01:20:44,187 --> 01:20:46,145
But more than that,
what struck me

1469
01:20:46,319 --> 01:20:50,628
was the bravery
that he was willing
to let it all hang out.

1470
01:20:57,678 --> 01:21:02,118
♪ I hurt myself today ♪

1471
01:21:03,206 --> 01:21:07,340
♪ To see if I still feel ♪

1472
01:21:09,125 --> 01:21:11,431
When he was recording,
I say, "You sure
you wanna do this?"

1473
01:21:11,605 --> 01:21:13,651
I said, "It's heavy. It's dark."

1474
01:21:13,825 --> 01:21:16,262
You know? He said, "It's real."

1475
01:21:16,436 --> 01:21:19,483
It just was true. It was true.

1476
01:21:20,701 --> 01:21:23,008
He was wearing his humanity
on his sleeve

1477
01:21:23,182 --> 01:21:24,314
for everyone to see.

1478
01:21:25,663 --> 01:21:28,318
That's where art is
at its most impactful,

1479
01:21:28,492 --> 01:21:30,407
is when it strikes someone

1480
01:21:30,581 --> 01:21:32,148
and they have to ingest it,

1481
01:21:32,322 --> 01:21:35,673
digest it enough to understand

1482
01:21:35,847 --> 01:21:38,197
"how does this make me feel?"
and "where am I in this"?

1483
01:21:40,417 --> 01:21:42,680
Dad was excited.
He was just like a kid.

1484
01:21:42,854 --> 01:21:45,639
He was just like,
"Man, this is great! It's gonna
be a big hit!

1485
01:21:45,813 --> 01:21:47,119
Everybody's gonna love it!"

1486
01:21:48,425 --> 01:21:52,255
The guy was as willing
to show up real as it gets.

1487
01:21:52,429 --> 01:21:54,692
To expose himself
that way,

1488
01:21:54,866 --> 01:21:57,260
at the age that he was,
and after the career
that he's had,

1489
01:21:57,434 --> 01:22:00,132
it was just all things at once.

1490
01:22:01,525 --> 01:22:04,310
♪ And you could have it all ♪

1491
01:22:06,486 --> 01:22:10,447
♪ My empire of dirt ♪

1492
01:22:12,275 --> 01:22:16,105
This is so honest that it's
devastatingly beautiful.

1493
01:22:16,279 --> 01:22:18,759
I mean,
it makes you emotional
just thinking about it.

1494
01:22:18,934 --> 01:22:20,587
Every artist wish
they could have

1495
01:22:20,761 --> 01:22:22,459
sort of a swan song like that.

1496
01:22:22,633 --> 01:22:24,809
But we have
to realize something.

1497
01:22:24,983 --> 01:22:27,420
He didn't necessarily
see it as a swan song.

1498
01:22:27,594 --> 01:22:31,120
He saw it as just an accurate
statement about his life

1499
01:22:31,294 --> 01:22:32,817
and who he was
and where he'd been.

1500
01:22:33,035 --> 01:22:35,733
♪ I would keep myself ♪

1501
01:22:38,301 --> 01:22:42,609
♪ I would find a way. ♪

1502
01:22:50,269 --> 01:22:52,184
He was
always the realist.
He was always the artist.

1503
01:22:52,358 --> 01:22:56,319
He always wanted truth,
all the way until the end.

1504
01:22:59,148 --> 01:23:01,367
Johnny asked me
what I thought about the song.

1505
01:23:01,541 --> 01:23:04,501
I said, "I think
it's the greatest song
in your whole career,

1506
01:23:04,675 --> 01:23:06,633
because you poured out
your life.

1507
01:23:06,807 --> 01:23:10,333
The good, the bad,
and the ugly."

1508
01:23:12,291 --> 01:23:16,556
In an unusual way,
"Hurt" was a gospel song, too,

1509
01:23:16,730 --> 01:23:19,559
because it set up
what he wanted to say,

1510
01:23:19,733 --> 01:23:21,779
the way he looked at things.

1511
01:23:22,910 --> 01:23:26,001
I think
there was something
in Johnny's mind that said,

1512
01:23:26,175 --> 01:23:29,526
"I have to leave people
with a thought."

1513
01:23:29,700 --> 01:23:31,397
It makes perfect sense

1514
01:23:31,571 --> 01:23:35,358
that that was the last song
we remember Johnny for.

1515
01:23:37,534 --> 01:23:41,494
He grew old full
of grace and full of strength,
spiritually,

1516
01:23:41,668 --> 01:23:44,976
which kept him as long
as it did physically.

1517
01:23:49,198 --> 01:23:52,940
But "Hurt"
was kind of, I suppose,
the beginning of the end.

1518
01:23:53,115 --> 01:23:55,073
Didn't wanna admit it,

1519
01:23:55,291 --> 01:23:57,815
but I saw that light fading
in his eyes a little bit.

1520
01:23:58,033 --> 01:23:59,251
He was getting tired.

1521
01:24:00,948 --> 01:24:02,776
Family
would come and visit

1522
01:24:02,950 --> 01:24:07,738
and those visits,
they had an air
of finality to them.

1523
01:24:07,912 --> 01:24:11,176
He does not expect
that he's going to live.

1524
01:24:18,792 --> 01:24:23,014
He called me
over to his house one day,
just close to the end.

1525
01:24:23,188 --> 01:24:25,451
And he said, "Baby, sit down.
I gotta talk to you."

1526
01:24:25,625 --> 01:24:28,019
And when he said that,
I knew it was serious.

1527
01:24:28,193 --> 01:24:30,630
He said, "I wanna
ask you a question."

1528
01:24:30,804 --> 01:24:33,459
He said, "If you walked
on the shores of Galilee

1529
01:24:33,633 --> 01:24:36,941
and you looked up and you saw
Jesus walking toward you,

1530
01:24:37,115 --> 01:24:40,336
and you knew He was gonna say
just one thing to you,

1531
01:24:40,510 --> 01:24:43,295
what do you think He'd say?"

1532
01:24:43,469 --> 01:24:46,994
Well, chills went all over me.
I didn't know how to answer it.

1533
01:24:47,169 --> 01:24:48,648
I said, "Well,
I would hope He'd say

1534
01:24:48,822 --> 01:24:50,476
I'm doing
what He called me to do,

1535
01:24:50,650 --> 01:24:52,435
and that He's pleased
with that."

1536
01:24:52,609 --> 01:24:55,046
And Johnny looked at me
and he said,

1537
01:24:55,220 --> 01:24:58,267
"He would say to you,
'Feed my sheep.'"

1538
01:24:58,441 --> 01:25:00,225
I said, "Yeah, He would.

1539
01:25:00,399 --> 01:25:02,619
What do you think
He would say to you?"

1540
01:25:02,793 --> 01:25:06,013
And he said, "Oh baby,
that's easy."

1541
01:25:06,188 --> 01:25:09,234
He had tears
rolling down his face
and he said,

1542
01:25:09,408 --> 01:25:12,107
"Come unto me all you that labor
and are heavy-laden

1543
01:25:12,281 --> 01:25:15,545
and I'll give you rest,
for my yoke is easy

1544
01:25:15,719 --> 01:25:17,242
and my burden is light."

1545
01:25:19,244 --> 01:25:22,508
Johnny had many burdens
that he carried
throughout his life.

1546
01:25:22,682 --> 01:25:27,644
There's the burden
of losing his brother Jack
in a tragic accident,

1547
01:25:27,818 --> 01:25:31,126
the burden of the failure
of his first marriage,

1548
01:25:31,300 --> 01:25:35,260
the burden of the bad decisions
he had made throughout
his life and his career,

1549
01:25:35,434 --> 01:25:36,870
and the people that he had hurt.

1550
01:25:37,044 --> 01:25:39,743
But here's Jesus saying,
"Come to me,"

1551
01:25:39,917 --> 01:25:41,527
and as another translation
puts it,

1552
01:25:41,701 --> 01:25:44,400
"I will refresh you with rest."

1553
01:25:44,574 --> 01:25:47,098
Johnny was telling me,
"I'm going home.

1554
01:25:47,272 --> 01:25:49,492
You do what God calls you to do.

1555
01:25:49,666 --> 01:25:52,364
I'm going home. It's okay."

1556
01:25:54,671 --> 01:25:56,673
I went
over to his house

1557
01:25:56,847 --> 01:25:59,284
and I was about to go
on the road,

1558
01:25:59,458 --> 01:26:02,983
and I just wanted to go
check in on him, hug his neck,
tell him I love him.

1559
01:26:03,158 --> 01:26:06,073
And I had recorded
a song of his called
"The Walls of a Prison"

1560
01:26:06,248 --> 01:26:07,945
that I wanted to play for him.

1561
01:26:08,119 --> 01:26:11,470
And so, I played it for him
and I sat at his feet.

1562
01:26:11,644 --> 01:26:14,343
He put his hand on me and said,
"Excellent, son."

1563
01:26:14,517 --> 01:26:16,910
He said, "You got it."

1564
01:26:17,084 --> 01:26:18,956
I knew he didn't wanna
hang out too long,

1565
01:26:19,130 --> 01:26:20,958
so we talked a minute,
and before I left the room,

1566
01:26:21,132 --> 01:26:22,960
he said, "Is there anything
in this room you want?"

1567
01:26:23,134 --> 01:26:25,963
I said, "Just your love."
He said, "You got that."

1568
01:26:26,137 --> 01:26:27,834
And as I was about to leave,

1569
01:26:28,095 --> 01:26:31,447
he was sitting in his wheelchair
with his back to the window

1570
01:26:31,621 --> 01:26:34,450
and the late afternoon light
was coming in.

1571
01:26:34,624 --> 01:26:36,191
And I had my camera
all in my bag.

1572
01:26:36,365 --> 01:26:40,107
And I said, "J.R.,
let me take your picture."

1573
01:26:40,282 --> 01:26:42,197
And there was, like,
four frames,

1574
01:26:42,632 --> 01:26:45,243
and the first three
he just kinda looked
like this. I said, "J.R."

1575
01:26:45,417 --> 01:26:47,941
He reared up and he looked
like an old president.

1576
01:26:48,115 --> 01:26:50,117
And when I got the negatives
back,

1577
01:26:50,292 --> 01:26:51,641
I went, "There's the picture."

1578
01:26:54,774 --> 01:26:56,950
Before I left the room,
I said, "How's your spirit?"

1579
01:26:57,124 --> 01:26:59,388
He said, "Good." I said,
"You got plenty of rope left?"

1580
01:26:59,562 --> 01:27:01,825
He said, "I got plenty of rope."
I said, "All right.

1581
01:27:01,999 --> 01:27:04,436
I'll be home in 10 days,"
whatever it was.

1582
01:27:04,610 --> 01:27:08,571
I didn't think it would come
while I was gone on that trip.
But it did.

1583
01:27:11,226 --> 01:27:14,011
It's the death of a legend,
our top story this half hour.

1584
01:27:14,229 --> 01:27:15,708
Johnny Cash is gone.

1585
01:27:15,926 --> 01:27:17,232
The country music world
is saying goodbye

1586
01:27:17,406 --> 01:27:19,799
to the legendary Man in Black.

1587
01:27:19,973 --> 01:27:23,194
I was on the way home
from a concert
on the East Coast.

1588
01:27:23,368 --> 01:27:25,283
And at three in the morning,

1589
01:27:25,501 --> 01:27:28,199
somebody pulled the curtain
back in the bus and said,

1590
01:27:28,373 --> 01:27:29,896
"Johnny Cash died."

1591
01:27:32,943 --> 01:27:35,337
I cried and cried and cried,

1592
01:27:35,511 --> 01:27:37,948
I felt the cutting of the pain,

1593
01:27:38,122 --> 01:27:40,994
and then I quietly
said goodbye,

1594
01:27:41,212 --> 01:27:43,083
"so long, in Jesus' name.

1595
01:27:43,301 --> 01:27:47,697
Dark bird, watch you fly

1596
01:27:47,914 --> 01:27:51,657
Dark bird, to another sky

1597
01:27:51,875 --> 01:27:56,706
And I'll bet you were a sight,
when you hit that cloud of love

1598
01:27:56,880 --> 01:27:59,012
And flew out the other side

1599
01:27:59,230 --> 01:28:00,797
In the form of a dove

1600
01:28:02,059 --> 01:28:03,452
Dark bird."

1601
01:28:05,845 --> 01:28:08,195
I know
we'll see him again.
I know we'll see him again.

1602
01:28:08,370 --> 01:28:10,459
And that's my blessed hope.

1603
01:28:10,633 --> 01:28:14,071
That was a hard time. It's hard.

1604
01:28:14,245 --> 01:28:16,116
I can live in a world
without "Johnny Cash,"

1605
01:28:16,291 --> 01:28:17,553
but I miss my brother.

1606
01:28:19,032 --> 01:28:20,425
I sure do miss him.

1607
01:28:23,428 --> 01:28:28,651
On his tombstone,
Johnny Cash had Psalm 19:14
written down,

1608
01:28:28,825 --> 01:28:31,218
which says,
"Let the words of my mouth

1609
01:28:31,393 --> 01:28:33,830
and the meditation of my heart

1610
01:28:34,004 --> 01:28:38,138
be acceptable
in your sight, O Lord."

1611
01:28:38,313 --> 01:28:41,185
You know, David, in his Psalms,
would write about his doubts,

1612
01:28:41,359 --> 01:28:44,493
his struggles,
the challenges that he faced,

1613
01:28:44,667 --> 01:28:46,103
and he would cry out to God.

1614
01:28:46,277 --> 01:28:48,018
Well, Johnny wrote
about those things, too.

1615
01:28:48,192 --> 01:28:51,543
He sang about trains
and murder and betrayal.

1616
01:28:51,717 --> 01:28:55,199
But he also sang about faith,
hope, and redemption.

1617
01:28:56,853 --> 01:29:00,813
To me, Johnny Cash is
the face of Redemption.

1618
01:29:02,206 --> 01:29:05,383
All of us who are believers,
have sinned,

1619
01:29:05,557 --> 01:29:09,082
we've all needed
that redemption. I know I have.

1620
01:29:09,256 --> 01:29:11,084
He showed us the way to go.

1621
01:29:11,258 --> 01:29:12,869
He gave us an example.

1622
01:29:13,913 --> 01:29:15,698
Even though my father
didn't necessarily

1623
01:29:15,872 --> 01:29:20,050
always live every step
correctly and true,

1624
01:29:20,224 --> 01:29:23,532
he knew the truth,
he believed the truth,

1625
01:29:23,706 --> 01:29:25,534
and he could speak the truth.

1626
01:29:25,708 --> 01:29:27,536
And just
because you have faith

1627
01:29:27,710 --> 01:29:29,581
doesn't mean you always make
the right decision.

1628
01:29:29,755 --> 01:29:33,803
But what it does guarantee is,
you'll have that foundation,

1629
01:29:33,977 --> 01:29:36,980
something that,
when you do fall,
something that will catch you.

1630
01:29:37,154 --> 01:29:39,504
And it's easy to point
to someone like a Johnny Cash,

1631
01:29:39,678 --> 01:29:41,811
and say,
"Oh, that guy took drugs."

1632
01:29:41,985 --> 01:29:44,814
Well, we all screw up,
every last one of us.

1633
01:29:44,988 --> 01:29:48,470
But God gave him the strength,
God gave him the grace,

1634
01:29:48,644 --> 01:29:51,429
and good people around him
to encourage him.

1635
01:29:53,300 --> 01:29:55,259
He tried,
to his last breath

1636
01:29:55,433 --> 01:29:57,435
to live right
and do the right thing.

1637
01:29:57,653 --> 01:29:59,829
But he was a human being
along the way.

1638
01:30:01,613 --> 01:30:05,138
Johnny's story is--
If that's not proof
that there is hope,

1639
01:30:05,312 --> 01:30:08,185
then I don't know
where else we can find it.

1640
01:30:10,883 --> 01:30:13,538
The strength
to get up and keep going,
it took more than energy.

1641
01:30:13,712 --> 01:30:16,367
He didn't have any energy.
It was faith.

1642
01:30:17,977 --> 01:30:21,067
I have had
many people come to me saying,

1643
01:30:21,241 --> 01:30:23,809
"I'm born-again
because of Johnny Cash,

1644
01:30:23,983 --> 01:30:27,596
because of his life
and his stand for Christ."

1645
01:30:27,770 --> 01:30:30,033
He gave them
something to believe in,

1646
01:30:30,207 --> 01:30:33,819
hope that there's a better way.

1647
01:30:33,993 --> 01:30:37,649
I don't think
that you can find a musician
over the last 50 years

1648
01:30:37,823 --> 01:30:42,393
that hasn't been influenced
in some way by Johnny Cash.

1649
01:30:42,611 --> 01:30:45,527
The Bibletells us
that the Christian life
is like a race.

1650
01:30:45,701 --> 01:30:48,094
There were
some stumbles and falls,

1651
01:30:48,268 --> 01:30:51,271
but the key is,
he ran his race to the end,

1652
01:30:51,446 --> 01:30:53,491
and he finished well.

1653
01:30:54,492 --> 01:30:55,885
That's what I love
about Johnny Cash,

1654
01:30:56,059 --> 01:30:58,931
is the fact
that he's willing to say,

1655
01:30:59,105 --> 01:31:01,412
"You know, I'm just a guy."

1656
01:31:04,981 --> 01:31:07,026
I think a lot of people
are realizing

1657
01:31:07,200 --> 01:31:10,029
what a great man he was
and what a good man he was,

1658
01:31:10,203 --> 01:31:12,771
and that he was a Christian
throughout it all.

1659
01:31:14,599 --> 01:31:17,428
He would want people
to see his story

1660
01:31:17,602 --> 01:31:19,430
and find a way to strengthen
their own life,

1661
01:31:19,604 --> 01:31:21,519
to show love.

1662
01:31:39,189 --> 01:31:41,104
He was a man
after God's heart,

1663
01:31:41,278 --> 01:31:45,456
and that's who John R. Cash
from Arkansas was.