Johnny Cash Research Papers

Johnny Cash was a music songwriter, singer, and guitarist. His music covered a variety of country, rock, blues, and gospel. The movie Walk the Line is based off Johnny’s music career. He was born on February 26, 1932 in Kingsland, Arkansas to Ray and Carrie Cash with the name J.R. Cash because his parents couldn’t decide on a name; he later had to change his name to John R. Cash to enlist in the United States Air Force. He grew up on a twenty-acre farm since the age of three when his father took advantage of the New Deal, and became a sharecropper. His family farmed cotton and a variety of seasonal crops. His mother was an influence on his interest in music, when she would sing folk and hymn ballads while working in the fields with her children.

Where he and Vivian eventually had four daughters Tara, Rosanne, Cindy and Kathy. During his marriage to Vivian is when his career really took off. He had several number one hits, the most famous, “I Walk the Line” and “Folsom Prison Blues”. Johnny and Vivian’s marriage began to fail when he was on tour almost three hundred nights a year, and she became tired of being home alone with the responsibility of raising four daughters by herself. Being on tour with June Carter, he began to fall in love with her while still married to Vivian, which was a factor to ending their marriage along with his drug addiction to pills. He became dependent on narcotics to help keep up with the pace. By the mid 60’s he was extremely addicted and it impacted his career. The move goes into detail of his drug addiction, and how it really affected him and everyone around him. Johnny was arrested for smuggling amphetamines across the United States border from Mexico. A year later he was found by a police officer after a serious drug binge near death, in Georgia. June Carter stepped in to help him refocus on his Christian lifestyle and overcome his drug

host. Johnny and June got married on March 1, 1968. Marring June was a turnaround for his career, he even hosted his own television show The Johnny Cash Show, that showcased contemporary musicians. That same year he won two Grammy Awards for his album Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. Then in 1970 June gave birth to their son John Carter Cash. Ten years later in 1980, he was elected into the Country Hall of Fame, being the youngest living person to do so. He joined Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson to form the group The Highwaymen from 1985 to 1995, with a number one hit “Highwayman”.

Johnny Cash continued his career in music up until his death in 2003, even through many health problems. With abdominal surgery in 1983, the in 1988 he had a double-bypass heart surgery. He carried on until 1998 he was hospitalized with pneumonia, once again he recovered and continued to produce more music. In 2002, his health continued to decline. Then May 2003 June Carter Cash passed away, yet devastated he continued with his career. He recorded his last album American V: A Hundred Highways just a week before he passed away on September 12,