I find it strange how I like this man's music so much. I'm not a country music fan, but I own on CD or vinyl just about every song Cash recorded. I grew up listening to his most popular songs, not by choice, but because my grandmother always had the radio tuned to a country station in the background. So, Cash and his contemporaries were an unconscious, integral part of my childhood that I wouldn't recognize or give credence to until I was closing in on middle-age. In the early '90s, Cash started putting out the American Recordings. My buddy, Woods, reintroduced me to Cash with a gift of one of these CDs. I was hooked. Then I started buying up all the older stuff, and I fell in love. That's about the time I read this book. Cash can tell a story, and he does a fantastic job telling of his remarkable life in this book. This autobiography came out in '76, so there were quite a few years he'd lived since. I was really hankering for more, and I got it in '97 when he published his up to date [b:Cash|35488|Cash|Johnny Cash|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1422322302l/35488._SY75_.jpg|49239]. That one is a masterpiece of autobiography, thus the reason I give this one 4 stars, instead of 5. The newer bio covers a lot more, but if you're a fan, you should read both. ( )

I read this book after seeing the movie "I Walk the Line." I was dissatisfied with the movie and wanted to learn what really happened to Johnny Cash. Still unsatisfied, I looked for more books and wound up reading his second autobiography "Cash: The Autobiography;" his first wife Vivian’s book "I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny Cash;" Marshall Grant’s book "I Was There When It Happened," and Cash’s son John Carter Cash’s account of Cash’s life when married to June Carter "Anchored in Love." After comparing what all these books portray, I think I have a pretty good idea of the impact of Johnny’s Cash’s legacy on those who revere him. It is not every day that someone heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol and immersed into something as worldly as Rock and Roll would suddenly have a conversion experience, quit drugs practically on his own and spend the next thirty-five years of his life bearing witness to Jesus Christ.

I found some contradictions in the information about Johnny Cash posted on The Internet, so here are my attempts to sort fact from fiction. Johnny Cash joined the Air Force in 1950; He met Vivian Liberto in 1951 shortly before being sent to Germany. He was discharged in 1954 and married Vivian one month later. A year later, he started his rise to fame. Vivian and Johnny were happy together; both enthused with his success until Johnny started taking amphetamines to boost his energy for his performances and barbiturates to calm down after the performances. This is a murderous recipe, and no one benefits from heavy intake of these drugs. His mood changed drastically; and the demands of his singing engagements kept him away from home, eventually, most of the time. He began womanizing, drinking heavily, showing burst of violent behavior, having problems with the law, many things he later became ashamed of. His marriage fell apart because he was not there for his wife and daughters. Finally, in 1966, his wife filed for divorce, hoping this might shock him into cleaning up his act. When she later asked him if there is any chance for reconciliation, he said “No, it’s too late.” Finally, in late August 1966, the divorce became final because Cash did not want to contest it.

A little more than a year later in October 1967, the personal crisis leading to his conversion came after Cash spent the night in jail for possession of drugs. The sheriff released Cash the next morning, returning his money and his illegal drugs, telling him “I’m going to give you your money and your dope because you know better than most people that God gave you a free will to do with yourself whatever you want to do. You can throw away the pills and live or kill yourself with the pills, which you know is a sin.” Cash elected to throw away the pills. This was his moment of conversion.

Cash knew that withdrawing from drugs cold turkey like this is almost impossible to do. He phoned June Carter to help him and he went to his home in Henderson TN. June arrived the next day with some friends and family to help him. Cash endured a month of living hell as he struggled with withdrawal, but with the help of June Carter, her parents and friends, he made it. He was drug free on November 11, 1967. Almost four months later, on March 1, 1968, he and June Carter married. His life was basically exemplary for the remaining thirty-five years, but he did have a few setbacks with addiction. But he steadfastly bore strong witness to Jesus Christ in his public appearances and in the special things he did. He narrated The New Testament for a producer of bibles on tape, he wrote a story about St. Paul’s conversion Man in White, produced a movie about salvation through Jesus Christ The Gospel Road, and frequently expressed in public his faith in Jesus Christ and his conversion story. He spent the remaining thirty-five years of his life trying to be faithful to Christ compared to approximately nine years when he was out of control due to drugs.

The Internet mentions his conversion experience as occurring to him when he decided to commit suicide by crawling deep into the crevices of Nickajack Cave in Tennessee and just lying down in the darkness to wait for death. Cash does not mention this experience in Man in Black but he does mention it in his later Cash, the Autobiography. Trying to piece the two accounts together, I think it probably occurred right after he threw away the pills the sheriff returned to him in October 1967. He claimed, while in the cave, he soon realized that God is in charge of when he will die, not him; and he changed his mind about suicide. He then tried to try to find his way out of the cave by crawling through the darkness. He noticed a breeze of fresh air, and following the air, emerged out of the cave and was surprised to see his mother and June Carter waiting for him at the entrance to the cave. His mother had a premonition and had flown from California to find her son and help him. His mother and June took him directly to his home in Henderson where Cash experienced his withdrawal from drugs. The two accounts merge at that point, but Cash does not mention the sheriff that returned his drugs to him in Cash: the Autobiography. Cash composed a song about his conversion entitled Nickajack Cave.

As I write this, Johnny Cash has already left this life to meet the Lord; his wife, June, had left this life four months previously. A few years later his first wife, Vivian leaves; Vivian’s parents, June’s parents, Johnny’s parents, all have already left this life to meet the same Lord taking with them their hopes and expectations, their fidelity to the Lord, their wounds inflicted upon them by some of Cash’s actions and, I’m sure, some things they are not proud of. I don’t have any idea how their conflicting expectations sorts out before God. I’m sure when each of these persons stood before the Judgment Seat; Jesus was standing there along with each one of them, showing the wounds he bore from the cross he carried for all of us. I agree with Johnny Cash that Jesus Christ is our only arbiter before the Father. In the end, I think all of us will be glad to have had Jesus plead our case before the father because, I think, none of us have been fully compliant with the Father’s will while we were in this life.

To Johnny Cash’s credit, he did, for later half of his life, bear better witness to Christ than many of us would be bold enough to do. ( )

Great on the highs and lows of his affair with drugs, and some good photos, but not much else – too much God, not as well written as the later collaboration with Patrick Carr.

http://steelbrassnwood.livejournal.com/58414.html ( )

Very Excellent Physical Condition and autographed by Johnny Cash himself! ( )