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Johnny Cash: Pills & Playing With Fire · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of double Elvis.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Stories about country singer Johnny Cash are insane. He was
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: busted for drug smuggling, burned down a national forest, crashed cadillacs,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: fueled himself daily with speed, tranquilizers, and beer, and was
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: rebellious to his core. He took little to no lip
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: from anyone, fought relentlessly with authority, cops, judges, prison wardens,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: and for the underdog, and against social injustice, once even
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: famously getting into it with the Ku Klux Klan. He
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: was also daring and big hearted at most everything he did,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: daring to dream big and love and in life, and
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: fearless in pursuit of his art and the woman he loved,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: June Carter. Johnny Cash constantly played with fire. He was
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: a walking time bomb, a human wrecking ball of self destruction,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: seemingly always one false move from death. But Johnny Cash
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: made great music. That music you heard at the top
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: of the show that wasn't great music. That was a
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: preset loop for my melotron called Flaming Mellow Flutes BK one.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: rights to Hello Goodbye by the Beatles and why would
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I play you that specific slice of Two Faced Cheese?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: song in America on January thirteenth, nineteen sixty eight, And
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: that was the day that Johnny Cash stepped onto the
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: stage at Falsom Prison and created one of the most
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: enduring musical statements of the twentieth century, a statement that
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: were not for his willingness to play with fire, likely
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: would have never happened. On this episode, Two Faced Cheese,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Mellow Flutes, Drugs at the Border, playing with Fire, and
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: the man in Black Johnny Cash, I'm Jake Brennan and
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: his disgrace slam. The gunman's hand was steady, cool under pressure.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Johnny Cash respected that the steal from the pistol was cold.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Johnny wanted to stay that way. He could feel it
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: as the gunman pressed it to the back of his neck.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Johnny wasn't scared though, as usual. He was cool, steady,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: just like his assailant, not because he was some sort
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: of TV tough guy, and not because he was distracted
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: by drugs or drink, but because he had faith, faith
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: in three things. His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: love of his life, his wife, June Carter Cash. In
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: the power of music, he dedicated his life to all
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: of them, most recently to his wife, sitting next to
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: him at the moment in their home, bound by strong rope,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: with their eyes averting contact with their homes invaders, resolute
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: as was their normal disposition.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: For the past decade or so, Johnny had dedicated a
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: large portion of his creative and personal efforts to Christ,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: churning out numerous recordings to evangelize the Good Word and
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: declaring that quote, being a Christian isn't for sisses. It
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: takes a real man to live for God, a lot
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: more man than to live for the devil. If you
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: really want to live right these days, you gotta be tough.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: But Johnny happily preached another kind of gospel as well,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: the gospel of country music, on his long running music
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: variety television show on ABC that he hosted and produced,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: bringing to the stage and thus the living rooms of
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: mind millians of Americans country musicians he adored and respected,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: like Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, Marty Robbins, and many others,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: as well as the folk rock musicians he admired. Like
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: his friend Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, Johnny's faith was calming.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: It was everything, even back then, back in the sixties,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: when his life was anything but calm. The gunmen were
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: desperate and playing with fire, but Johnny knew that the
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: demands they were making on him and his family would
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: somehow work themselves out. Johnny Cash knew about desperation, and
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: he knew about playing with fire. He closed his eyes,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: took a long, quiet, deep breath, and let his mind
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: bring him back a couple of years in nineteen sixty four,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Johnny Cash was a well known or respected performer. His
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: musical style was completely his own. To date, there's never
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: been anyone who's come close to sounding like him. His
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: was a hard driving, but effortless sound, honest at times, humorous,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: and it's totally authentic. Johnny Cash's music definitely balanced the
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: energy of rockabilly with seasoned country music, and it was
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: all anchored into something spiritual with the gravitas afforded him
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: by his voice, a deep, sophisticated sounding baritone. When you
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: heard Johnny Cash, you knew it was Johnny Cash. He
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: performed upwards of two hundred shows a year. His albums
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: and singles on Sun and Columbia Records were well known
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: to country and pop fans alike. His nineteen sixty three
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: single Ring of Fire topped the country charts at number
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: one for seven weeks and cracked the Top twenty pop chart.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: His reputation is a hard drinking outlaw, constantly battling his
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: demons and song, along with his signature man in Black style,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: made him unmistakable and one of the most popular entertainers
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: in the country. But despite his star status, Johnny Cash
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: was a serious drug addict and alcoholic who popped up
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: to one hundred pills a day, mostly amphetamines and barbituates,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: and chased them with full cases of beer, the result
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: of which made him legless, incoherent, and totally unreliable as
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: a performer to his fans and as a husband to
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: his wife and as a father to his four daughters
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: at the time. But the bad behavior did have the
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: benefit of making him a totally reliable narrator, authentic to
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: his core, and with the absolute authority to deliver lyrics
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: that are bold and direct and right up in your face.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Just like Johnny Cash, the drugs, the drink and the violent,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: dangerous mishaps that went along with his particular brand of
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: boldness meant that Johnny Cash was playing with fire. Just
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: like the lyrics to his nineteen sixty four song bad
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: News said, There's no mistaking who or what he was,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: a fast moving, bad bad man. The judge knew this,
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: he could sense it sitting across the courtroom from Johnny.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Johnny had been in front of many judges up until
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: this point and had little interest in what they had
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: to say, And Johnny took the criminal rap and stride.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Things always seemed to work themselves out. He'd live another day,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: breathe the air of a free man, and make his
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: way to the next gig, or through the next pile
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: of pills, or to the bottom of the next case
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: of cold ones, whichever came first. So Johnny had no
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: problem getting lippy with the judge. Besides, the charges were bullshit,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: killing condors, endangering protected wildlife, destroying property, federal property. Shit
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: regarding the fire that did all the damage. Johnny was
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: now being charged with the one that burned down five
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: hundred acres of Los Padres National Forest in California and
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: killed a reported fifty three endangered condors. The judge asked, Johnny,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: did you start this fire? Johnny shot back to the judge, No,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: my truck did, and it's dead, so you can't question it.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Johnny meant it, at least he thought he did. Truth
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: be told, he couldn't remember who or what started the fire,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: but he was sticking to his story that his truck's
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: wheelbearing overheated, cracked and leaked oil onto a tire, which
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: threw it up to the forest dry grass, and that
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: that's what started the fire. However, the most reasonable explanation
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: and accounts for Johnny picking up his nephew Damon for
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: a fishing trip. Johnny was half in the bag when
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: he arrived, and by the time they hit the forest,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Johnny was blitzed dim and bailed to get in some
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: fishing and left his uncle to get his head right.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Johnny set up camp in a little fire to keep warm,
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: but blitzed on pills and beer, was unable to control
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: the flames when they quickly began to spread like wildfire.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: The smoke was reported and in no time over one
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: hundred firefighters descended, including Healey jumpers and five air takers.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: After a couple hours, the fire spread, covering acre upon
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: acre of forestland. Four hundred firemen from all over the
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: state were called in to battle and eventually stopped the
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: flames in the process, and eventual five hundred acres was destroyed,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: as were fifty three endangered and protected condors nesting in
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: a refuge in the nearby Sespy Wildlife Area. Johnny was
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: near legless in court, packed to the gills with pills
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: to fend off the reality of the situation. The judge
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: asked him, do you feel bad about what you did?
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Johnny replied with a thick tongue, well, I feel pretty
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: good right now. But how about driving all those condors
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: out of the refuge? The judge asked, you mean those
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: yellow buzzards. I don't give a damn about your yellow buzzards.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Why should I care? Johnny Cash cared about little at
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: the time. He didn't care about the judge or the
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: judges questions, nor did he care about his family, or
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: his fate, or even his career. He didn't care about
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: his fans or his music. He didn't care about condors
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: or yellow buzzards, and unlike the rest of the world
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: at the time, he didn't care about the Beatles either,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: why should he he was Johnny Cash. The gig in
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Dallas that night was unmemorable. Johnny was supposed to bounce
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: out afterward on a flight to la but he bailed instead,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: he flew to El Paso. From there, it was only
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: a short thirty minute drive south on Route forty five
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: over the US border to war As, Mexico, where they
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: kept the good pills, and Johnny Cash needed those pills.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: The Cavey drove like a maniac, just the way Johnny
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: liked it, and there was no time to spare. He
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: needed to score and get high, or else his moods
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: would get the best of him. The road from El Paso,
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Texas to Warres, Mexico was a dusty, passing blur of
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: sunstrokes and roadkill, a vision right at home in the
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: drug added cobweb Brain of Johnny Cash. In October nineteen
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: sixty five, the volume on the Cave's radio was jacked
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: downtown by Petula Clark, blasting back at maximum volume. Johnny
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: was annoyed and about to say something when the song ended,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: and within seconds the cat was overtaken by the sound
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: of John Lennon singing help, his unmistakable voice repeating the
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: title word over and over again in the chorus, the
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: final call for help, dragging Johnny suspiciously into the Beatles'
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: verse with curious ears and what the hell was this?
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: The song was enthralling. Paul McCartney's bass bounced from the
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: one to the five, boom tom to kaboom in a
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: way that was very familiar to Johnny, as were the
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: little bass notes struck by George Harrison on the rhythm guitar, Goom, doom, doom.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: It was all country music. Johnny felt a tinge of resentment,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: but Ringo swung like a motherfucker, and Johnny was hard
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: pressed to do anything but loved the song. The rhythm
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: sealed it for him, just like it always did. The
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: song was infectious, and that big acoustic guitar humming along,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: bold and up in your face. Johnny knew that sound too,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: the sound of a Gibson J one eighty, the model
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: made popular by the Everly Brothers, a little smaller than
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: the J two hundred. Johnny slum a country nonetheless, either
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: way he had handed to the Beatles. There was way
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: more going on in this tune than anything else in
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: the radio at the time, just like countless numbers of
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: previously recorded country songs, help was jammed with insecurity and desperation,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: but it was funneled through a completely new pop songwriting paradigm.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: The sound, the production, It was alive and it came
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: screaming out of the speakers. Sure, the country influences were there,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: but combined with the modern production and the naked emotion,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: the whole sound was totally new. Johnny blitzed as usual,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: wasn't sure if his head was fucking with him or not.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Was Lennin literally crying out for help in the track
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: on the record over the radio? The thought was gone
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: almost as quickly as it came, kind of like the song.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: It was over in two minutes and thirty seconds, followed
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: quickly by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs excellent Willy Bully,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Oh no those one two tresquatro. Johnny let the song
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: bounce through him in unison with the rock and the
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: role of the early model De Soto custom, carrying him
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: over the bumpy road to Horras, Mexico. But despite Sam
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: the Sham, Johnny couldn't get his head off of the Beatles.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: He'd met them a couple months earlier. At the Kyle
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Palace up near San Francisco, and frankly could have cared less.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: He found them at the time at least to be comical,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: but also smug in a wash in the glory of
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: their own bullshit. Johnny was there because, frankly, he didn't
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: have anything better to do that day. June Carter of
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Carter Family country music royalty fame was off playing shows
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: somewhere else, no longer on the road with Johnny and
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: his band and support of Johnny's act, and Johnny was
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: at loose ends without her. Their secret affair was next
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: to getting high his main priority in nineteen sixty five,
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: and at the Kyle Palace that night, backstage and waiting
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: like a chump alongside folk singer Joan Bias to meet
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: the Beatles. Johnny Cash, perhaps because of Bias's undeniable beauty,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: had June Carter on his mind. She was beautiful, kind,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: supremely talented, both as a musician and as an artist.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: She was one of those rare types of people whose
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: talent doesn't affect their ego. June Carter, despite her obvious
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: gifts and celebrity, was at once endlessly interested as well
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: as being endlessly interesting, and she understood Johnny Cash on
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: a molecular level. It was the type of understanding that
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: can possess and propel a man. Their attraction for one
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: another was next level. It was chemical scientific. June Carter's sexuality,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: singed Johnny Cash at a show with June back in
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: August up in Toronto. Johnny, overcome with his desire for
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: his not so secret secret girlfriend, called her a sex
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: machine from the stage. Wasted again on booys and pills,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Johnny left the stage, dropped down onto all fours, and
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: began howling at June and following her around while attempting
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: to lick her ankles. It was the kind of public
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: breakdown that, had it happened in the Internet age, would
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: likely have been a career killer, but because it happened
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty five, resulted and only a short mention
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: in the Toronto Star admonishing Johnny for his act being
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: inappropriate for children. Married or not. Johnny was obsessed to
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: the point of distraction. Johnny Cash was once again playing
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: with fire. June Carter was a world wrecker. Pills were
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: ever necessary. It may have been Mexican Radio, but it
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: was owned by the Little Lads from Liverpool. After Willie Bully,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: it was right back to the Beatles again. George Harrison's
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: intro rift to Ticket to Ride pierced the static on
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: the cabs speakers and pulled Johnny's head out of June
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Carter's pants. For the moment, Ringos staggered, but steady beat
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: banged on through, and Johnny was held fixed again by
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: John Lennon's lyrics melancholy, blue and full of sex, just
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: like Johnny. Johnny knew Lennon was talking about sex. It
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: was all right there in the air in his head. Damnit,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: he missed June. The pills would help, they always did,
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: and right now Johnny Cash was staring at a suitcase
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: filled with them. His enterprising cab driver had turned from
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: a shady Horras bar with enough dex adrine and tranquilizers
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: to put an entire audience of Grand Old Opry fans
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: out the pasture, which, after being banned from the Opry
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: back in fifty six, was a fate Johnny would have
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: relished seeing come to fruition. But enough about the past.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: The future was now, and Johnny Cash was movie jonesing,
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: so he threw a handful of pills to the back
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: of his throat, chased him down with a warm bottle
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: of beer, and began stuffing the rest of his newly
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: procured stash into his guitar case. He was flying back
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: to the States. He had to get back to June asap,
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: and the DeSoto, despite the Cabby's lead foot, wasn't going
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: to cut it Johnny's drug slinging. Cabby made his way
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: to the airport nel Passo, but not before being made
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: by a couple of cops. Johnny was searched on suspicion
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: of heroin possession. The cops didn't find heroin, but they
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: did find Johnny's pills six hundred and eighty eight dexadrine
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: four hundred and fifty seven equanol. Johnny Cash was busted
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: and thrown in jail. Perhaps out of shame, or more
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: likely out of fear of being locked up for a
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: long stretch, Johnny Cash straightened himself out for a moment anyway,
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: He put June Carter on the shelf and began a
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: period of reconciliation with his wife, Vivian. If for no
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: other reason, appearance is sake, the judge would most likely
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: go easy on a family man went to thinking, especially
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: one who was doing his best to clean up his
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: act and to pull himself out of the scandalous ring
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: of fire that had come to define him in the newspapers.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: It worked. At his arraignment, Johnny appeared clear eyed, in
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: a gained weight. His wife was at his side, standing
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: by her man, and there was no smart ass in
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Johnny's answers to the judge like there had been back
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: during the Los Padres wildfire incident. Johnny's lawyers went to
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: work and he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge. The
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: judge went easy on him, a thousand dollars fine in
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: a thirty day suspended sentence, in effect leaving Johnny to
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: get his life and career back in order. But Johnny
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Cash could not leave well enough alone. Reckless, stubborn, hell bent.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: He was like a moth to a flame. We'll be
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: right back after this word, word word, Johnny Cash was
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: dead on the floor, and it was all Ronnie Hawkins's fault.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Ronnie Hawkins, the hard driving Canadian rockabilly hell raiser, singer
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: of The Hawks, the man who told his young guitarist
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Robbie Robertson in his pitch to get him to join
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: his band, you won't make much money, or you'll get
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: more pussy than Sinatra had. It seemed drunk and drugged
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: his friend Johnny Cash into an early grave, pretty much
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: to the surprise of no one. Despite johnny'sttempt at sobriety
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: and fidelity a couple months prior, he was back to
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: his old ways pills booze June Carter. He was a
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: man possessed, bent on self destruction, and Ronnie Hawkins was
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: the perfect wingman for such a mission. Following a semi
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: disaster show earlier in the evening, the two set about
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: the party. At some point, Ronnie took off and Johnny
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: felt into a stupor. He was found the following morning,
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: face down on the floor of his motor home in
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: the parking lot of the Toronto Four Seasons without a pulse,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: and that's the time. In the music industry, Johnny Cash
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: was a liability. Promoters knew he'd pack him in, but
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: they figured he was fifty to fifty on whether or
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: not he'd show up sober enough to play. His manager,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Sal hall Off was doing everything he could outrun Johnny's
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: ever deteriorating professional reputation, managing the fallout from the bust
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: in El Paso, the trials surrounding the fire at Los Padres,
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: the loan, string of canceled concerts due to Johnny's drug
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: and alcohol use, and of course, covering up the car
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: crash in Nashville, the one where Johnny totaled June Carter's Cadillac.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Saul had a scramble to keep the details of the
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: crash and Johnny and June's affair under wraps and out
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: of the newspapers. Somehow, Sal's hustle always kept it so
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Johnny Cash would lived at the end of the day.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: But on that morning in Toronto, on March nineteenth, nineteen
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: sixty six, they both seemed out of options. Johnny Cash
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: had no pulse and no one had any answers. Where
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: were his pillstash? What should they do? Who should they call?
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Where should they go? They could go to the hospital,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: but that would mean making the overdose public and thus
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: driving the final nail into the coffin. That was Johnny
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Cash's career at the moment. And they could say fuck
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: it and try to revive Johnny themselves and head to
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: the next show. But that was in the States in Rochester,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: New York. So that meant crossing the border and subjecting
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Saul and the rest of Johnny's entourage to a custom
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: search and risking the discovery of what was believed to
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: be an ample supply of Johnny's illegal drugs, and thus
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: jail for the lot of them. Either way, they were screwed,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: so they said fuck it, the show must go on,
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: and they headed to the border. They endeavored to bring
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Johnny back to consciousness, slapping him about the face, yelling
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: at him, pounding his chest, until, by some stroke of
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: dumb luck, they were able to generate some signs of
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: life minimal as they were. Twitch of the eyelid, a moan,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: a labored cough. It was enough for them to press on,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: and they stashed a prone Johnny Cash under a pile
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: of dirty laundry and miraculously made it through customs without
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: being searched. Soon enough they were able to fully revive Johnny.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: They made it to Rochester in time for the show,
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: and with Johnny's heartbeat now ticking again at a normal
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: pace and with the benefit of a couple hours of
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: forced sobriety, Johnny Cash waltzed onto the stage and delivered
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: a transformative performance. It was nothing short of a miracle.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: It was inspired, just like Johnny's love for his touring
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: mate June Carter. That year, in nineteen sixty six, Johnny's wife, Vivian,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: filed for divorce, a request Johnny was happy to oblige.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Also that year, June Carter, formerly divorced professional badass Edwin
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: rip Nicks, a former football player, race car driver, and cop.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Johnny and June were finally able to be with one another.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Not that anything had really stopped them before, but now
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: they were able to be out in the open about it,
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: and now with June's support, or more likely, with the
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: prospect of some sort of real future with June, the
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: woman of his dreams. Johnny Cash took a sincere swing
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: at sobriety and it stuck. With a clear head, his
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: next move was to take his career to the next level.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: He needed a hit. Popular music was evolving at a
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: fevered pitch. Dylan had gone electric, the Beatles were going psychedelic,
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: and if Johnny Cash didn't make some sort of new
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: musical statement, he was going nowhere. He had an idea,
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: a collaboration of sorts with murderers, rapists, bank robbers, and
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: an assortment of men just like himself, bad bad men
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: who used to move fast but weren't going nowhere. A
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: captive audience of bag men, second story men, wheelmen, confidence men,
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: men out on the margins, men with no direction home
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: men who played with fire. Fulsome prison Men. Johnny's record label,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Columbia Records, wasn't having any of it, but Johnny went
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: through with the plan to record a live show for
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: an album release the storied prison he'd written about in
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: his nineteen fifty five Sun Records release Fulsome Prison Blues.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Since then, Johnny had been written to from countless prisoners
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: who identified with not only his music, but with his
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: fast living, sometimes criminal behavior. Just like them, Johnny Cash
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: had stripes. Johnny also had empathy. He felt for the prisoners.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: He knew what they were up against, and he knew
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: the energy he'd bring to a live show for them
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: would be transformative and thus worthy of getting down on tape.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Against Columbia's wishes, Johnny went ahead with the project. The
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: proof was in the performance here on record on Johnny
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Cash Is at Fulsome Prison As unlike any other pop
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: music live record, the excitement from the audience, the result
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: of a truly impassioned performance by Johnny Cash and his
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: band The Tennessee Three plus Carl Perkins on guitar and
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: June Carter on backing vocals and infectious. During the set,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Johnny was Johnny. He was inspired and inspiring. He cajoled
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: the inmates. He paraded June, a beautiful woman on stage,
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: the likes of which some of the men in the
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: audience hadn't seen in the flesh in years. In Cocaine Blues,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: a song where the main character snorts a mountain oft
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: coke and kills his cheating wife after a bad night
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: in Horrors Mexico, Johnny changed the lyric I shot my
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: woman down to I shot that bad bitch down. Unsurprisingly,
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: the prisoners went nuts. There. He was the Man in Black,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Johnny Cash in a maximum security prison, surrounded by machine
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: guns and felons, with the woman he loved, skirting danger,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: risking it to make the album that would define him.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: The results were undeniable. The record went to number one
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: on the country charts, but more importantly, and totally on
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: brand for The Man in Black, it hit number thirteen
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: on the pop charts. Upon its release, the album was
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: held critically and to this day has become a cultural
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: landmark of sorts. A piece of music that is much
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: more than a piece of music. It's social commentary. It's
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: a fast thrill, it's a swing in the face of authority.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: It's pure Johnny Cash. It redefined him as something more
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: than just another hard living country artist and reignited his
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: career exactly as he talked. A couple months after the
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Fulsome performance, Johnny proposed to June on stage in front
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: of seven thousand people at the London Ice House in London, Ontario.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: June said yes, finally after multiple previous proposals from Johnny,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: and the two were married in a fever on March first,
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight. Things finally leveled out for Johnny Cash
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: and thenineteen seventies. Not that it wasn't without its ups
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: and downs, both professionally and personally, but compared to the
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixties, the seventies was a decade of relative calm imbalance.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: Johnny and June, despite being creatures of the road, anchored
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: themselves into domestic bliss. When not out on the road,
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: they split their time between their home in Hendersonville, Tennessee,
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: and their Cinnamon Hill home in Jamaica, an old sugar
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: plantation property built in seventeen forty seven near Montego Bay,
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: and it was where they sat listening to their housekeeper
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: recite Grace on an idyllic Christmas Day in nineteen eighty one,
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: along with their eleven year old son, John Carter Cash,
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: the boy's friend Doug Caldwell, Johnny's sister Reba, and her
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: husband Chuck. The sound of the bandits invading their peaceful
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: holiday home was at first more surprising than frightening. A
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: loud and out of place clang from the front entryway
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: had the guests searching each other's faces for answer across
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: the dinner table, then hurried feet marching furiously through the
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: adjacent rooms and toward the room. The guests re seated
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: and sent their heart rates from pulse to pound and
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: finally shouting out of place. In the Cash Carter home,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: no one shouted, but there it was loud, angry and
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: desperate commands careening off the interior walls of the home
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: in the familiar Jamaican petois. Nobody move, Where are the jewels?
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Give us the cash? Three armed robbers, locals, menacing hungry
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: at their wits ends, all armed, one with a gun,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: another with a knife, and the tall one with a
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: twitch and the junkie gaze. He held a hatchet in
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: his hand. The one with the pistol grabbed eleven year
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: old Doug Coldwell and thrust the barrel of the gun
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: into his temple. Some of the guests gasps, others averted
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: their eyes. The smell of urine was now apparent. Johnny
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: played it cool.
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: What do you want, he calmly asked, the assilence everything
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: where the boy dies replied the bandit, Johnny said, sat
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: there in his chair expressionless.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: He knew these men boys really desperate. He could see
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: it in their eyes. Addicted. He could also see himself
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: from a few years earlier, and recognized that, were it
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: not for a few faithful turns in the road, that
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: his reality could easily have been more like his junkie assailants.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: So he knew what to do. Play it cool, give
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: him what they want. With that enough, wait for it.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: With time, they'd let down their guard. It was human nature,
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: and when the opportunity presented itself, pounce, grab a chair
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: and swing it hard into the grill, the tall one
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: with a twitch level them and snatch his hatchet, and
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: hope and pray that outnumbering the other two in the
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: ensuing melee would save your family. But it never happened.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: The bandits gave up pressing Johnny and his guests. They
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: were content with the fifty grand in cash and jewelry
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: they had taken from the house, along with the keys
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: to Johnny's range rover, and split and they didn't make
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: it far. After local authorities were alerted. The threesome was
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: located at the Montego Bay Airport en route to Miami
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: defence the stolen jewelry, and they were arrested, taken into custody,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: and never seen or heard from again, apparently the victims
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: of swift, cold Jamaican justice, colonial style. In the end,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Johnny Cash was more upset by the fate of his assailants,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: men who he reasoned were unjustly punished for a crime
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: against him, the punishment for which he had no agency,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: than he was upset by the traumatic events of that day.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: The way Johnny Cash saw it, it was pure luck
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: that he hadn't met a violent end sooner himself. Car
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: crashes wildfires, drug over doses, angry badass husbands. He'd been
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: playing with fire for years up to that point, and
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: even in his sober domestic years. The home in Jamaica
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: at Cinnamon Hill was risky living in comparison to the
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: vast majority of Jamaican locals who existed in poverty. Johnny Cash,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: despite his down home salt of the Earth disposition, live
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: as an ostentatious American rock star and a big, expensive
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: house with a pretty wife, famous friends, hired servants, and
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: luxury vehicles, all with little to no obvious or effective security.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Playing with fire. Burned, Burned, Burned. I'm Jake Brennan and
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: episode can be found on the show notes page at
• 30:45
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• 30:49
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• 30:51
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• 30:54
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• 30:58
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• 31:02
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• 31:06
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• 31:15
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• 31:18
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• 31:22
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• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Rock a roll up here the bed Donland