Man In Black looks back
* 02/19/99
Belfast News Letter
(Copyright 1999)
* JOHNNY CASH - country music's Man in Black - lived on the wild
side of life over a large part of his singing career, and his
reputation as a drug addict and acknowledged 'Outlaw' is part of
American folklore. The Cash personal recollections on amercurial
lifestyle and thoughts on his more famous contemporaries are related
in an autobiography to be published on March 1. BILLY KENNEDY reports
JOHNNY CASH was part of the "Millionaire Quartet" who recorded on
the Sun label in Memphis during the 1950s. The other three were up-
and-coming rockabilly guys who were all the rage at the time - Elvis
Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.
The four, according to Johnny, got along well while appearing at
shows but only once did they come together for a recording session.
That was with Elvis seated at the piano leading the other three in
* renditions of bluegrass and gospel standards. All
had come from a Southern gospel background, but each had to some
degree strayed off the righteous path.
Presley in the 1950s, says Cash, was a highly sensitive young man.
"He was easily hurt by the stories people told about him being on
dope and so on. I myself couldn't understand why people wanted to
say that back in the fifties because in those days Elvis was the last
person on earth who needed dope.
"He had such a high energy level that it seemed he never stopped -
though maybe that's why they said he was on dope. Either way, he
wasn't, or at least I never saw any evidence of it. I never saw him
use any kind of drugs, or even alcohol; he was alwaysclear-headed
around me, and very pleasant.
"Elvis was such a good guy, and so talented and charismatic - he
had it all - that some people couldn't handle it and reacted with
jealousy. It's just human, I suppose, but it's sad."
The Cash-Presley relationship was cordial, but not that tight.
"I was older than he was, for one thing and married for another.
I took the hint that when he closed his world around him. I didn't
try to invade his privacy. I'm so glad I didn't because so many of
his friends were embarrassed so badly when they wereturned away at
Graceland.
"In the 1960s and 1970s he and I chatted on the phone a couple of
times and swapped notes now and again. If he was closing at the Las
Vegas Hilton as I was getting ready to open, he'd wish me luck, but
that was the extent of it," recalls Johnny.
"The Elvis I knew was the Elvis of the 1950s. He was kind when I
worked with him; a 19-year-old who loved cheeseburgers, girls and his
mother, not necessarily in that order (it was more like his mother,
then girls, then cheeseburgers!).
"Personally I liked cheeseburgers and I had nothing against his
mother, but the girls were the thing. He had so many girls after him
that whenever he was working with us, there were always plenty left
over.
"As an entertainer Elvis was so good. Every show I did with him I
never missed the chance to stand in the wings and watch. We all did,
he was that charismatic."
The late Carl Perkins, whose big hit was Blue Suede Shoes, was
very special to Johnny Cash, very close.
"We'd been raised on the same music, the same work, the same
fundamentalist Christian religion; we were in tune with each other.
Carl was countrified and country-fried from south-west Tennessee,
while I was a country boy from Arkansas.
"We shared a lot in the Christian values area. Neither of us was
walking the line as Christians, but both of us clung to our beliefs.
Carl had great faith and at his depths, when he was drunkest, what
he'd talk about was God and guilt - the samesubjects I would bring up
when I was in my worst shape.
"Whenever Carl drank, he's get drunk, and he drank often. It
seemed like the Perkins car couldn't keep enough whiskey in it. And
when he was drunk he would cry.
"But he was man of his word. If you asked him for help and he
agreed, he'd be there without fail. If he borrowed money from you
and told you he'd pay it back Monday, that's when you got it," said
Johnny.
Jerry Lee Lewis, a performer with a wild reputation, was, as Cash
recalls, one who took things seriously.
"He'd just left Bible College when he first go to Sun Records, so
we all had to listen to a few sermons in the dressing room. Mostly
they were about rock 'n' roll leading us and our audiences to sin and
damnation, which Jerry Lee was convinced washappening to him every
time he sang a song like 'Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On'.
"I'm out here doing what God don't want me to do, and I'm leading
people to hell," Jerry Lee would declare fervently. "That's exactly
where I'm going so long as I keep singin' this kind of stuff and I
know it."
Then he would tell them they were all going to hell with him.
Johnny Cash, the Autobiography. Assisted by Patrick Carr.
Published by HarperCollins (UK) pounds 20 (hardback).
