Johnny Cash

What are you listening to?

Johnny Cash.

At work today I helped take students to the mall and there was this one store that was closing so they had everything in the store on sale. So I ended up buying a used copy of Johnny Cash's final album for about five bucks. Let's see...it's called...(farmboy takes out the CD cover and looks for the title)..."Ain't No Grave."

Sounds great.

Yeah. You know, we're -- I guess I'm talking about Americans, but I wouldn't be surprised if some other countries are like this -- we tend to not listen to older singers. It's so fucked up. We, as a society, we can't wait to see the new 11-year-old genius on YouTube, but we'll ignore these other singers who have all that life experience.

I mean, listen to Johnny Cash. This is his final fuckin' album, and listen to all that emotion in his voice. It's almost overwhelming to me. I regret that I never recorded my father singing, and I actually think that Johnny Cash is the closest I'm going to get.

Wow.

Yeah, and the interesting thing to me is that I only really know Johnny Cash from recordings, yet his singing is so intimate (I don't know if that's really the right word) and you really feel like you know him. You know him so well from his singing! It's extraordinary.

You know, I realize that my life is markedly different because of Johnny Cash, because I would hear my father play that style, you know, that boom-chicka-boom style, the style I would eventually think of as coming from the Carter Family...

...Who Johnny Cash ended up being a part of, marrying June Carter Cash.

And God bless her.

That style I got from my father playing Johnny Cash songs. My father had started playing guitar again when I was, like, fourteen. He had learned how to play the guitar from an American Indian man...Native American. My father didn't know the names of chords and stuff. Anyway, I would hear him trying to teach my brother and I, of course, stole it and was heavily influenced by it.

Did your father teach you?

Not directly. My younger brother was supposed to be the family guitarist. My older brother was supposed to play the pedal steel guitar.

And you?

(laughs) I was supposed to be a fuckin' accountant! Can you believe that?

But I wasn't particularly hurt, because by that time I was pretty much on my musical way. I was a pretty ornery guy.

Were?

Fuckin' motherfuckin' sonovafuckin'bitch! (laughs) That's one of my best features, man.

I'm not arguing, farmboy.

I trust my fuckin' instincts. At least artistically. What can I say?

Hey, the CD is over. I'm gonna get some supper. Want some?

I would, but I have to go somewhere after this.

You ain't missin' much, amigo. Just leftover chicken vegetable soup that I made yesterday.

Boy, but I gotta tell you, I've had a great time discussing Johnny Cash. He's the man, man.

He's the best.

Abso-fuckin'-lutely, pal.