I don’t give up. I don’t believe in it.
Johnny Cash on persistence. (The Commonplace Book Project)
“You can ask the people around me. I don’t give up. I don’t give up… and it’s not out of frustration and desperation that I say I don’t give up. I don’t give up because I don’t give up. I don’t believe in it.” — Johnny Cash
I’ve loved Johnny Cash for as long as I can remember. But as an adult, I know what it is that draws me to him. It’s the same thing that draws me to Eminem and Taylor Swift.
I’m drawn to a writer. Johnny Cash was a serious writer, too. He was a songwriter, of course. He said this about writing Walk the Line during a 2002 interview with Larry King.
The line “because you’re mine, I walk the line.” It kept coming to me, you know? But I was — I was … young and not been married too long. Yes, it kept coming to me. Because you’re mine, I walk the line. And then the words just naturally flowed. It was an easy song to write.
As a writer, I know that feeling. When the words are just right and there isn’t a real reason for them to be other than they just are.
Here’s the first part of that interview.
Cash also wrote an autobiography in 1975 called The Man in Black. And novel in 1986 called The Man in White.
He also wrote hundreds and hundreds of love letters to both of his wives. I loved reading some of those at the Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville a couple of years ago. If you’re ever in Nashville, I highly recommend it.
Cash was a troubled man, prone to addiction and infidelity, but he was also devoutly Christian. His music and other writing often reflected his faith. I was fascinated to find out that there is a spoken word recording of Cash reading out loud the entire King James version of the New Testament.
I’ve had a longstanding goal of reading the Bible — mostly to try to understand more about my upbringing and my faith of origin, I guess. I’m pretty devoutly agnostic. As a result, I have to keep moving ‘Read the Bible’ to the next year’s resolution list. I think I might use an Audible credit on Johnny Cash Reading the Complete New Testament. That might do the trick.
Cash was also involved in an impromptu, informal recording session with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Cal Perkins that involved gospel music.
The entire session is available as The Million Dollar Quartet. There is something electric about it — these young men, at the start of brilliant careers, just jamming together, caught by accident.
I’m pretty sure that everyone has seen Walk The Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as his second wife, June Carter. If you haven’t seen it, you really should. And if you have? It’s worth a second look.
Johnny and June’s son, John Carter Cash, was the executive producer and I enjoyed this interview with him. I remember reading where he caught some flack from his half sisters whose mother was Cash’s first wife and his response was that he was telling his parents’ love story and he thought he’d done that well.
One of the last albums that Cash recorded as American IV: The Man Comes Around. At the end of his life, he covered several modern rock songs. His cover of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt is heartbreakingly beautiful and one of my favorite songs.
He also covered Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode. I love hearing such an iconic voice interpreting a song that meant so much to angsty teenage me in the 1980s.
Here’s my secret weapon for sticking with whatever your thing is.
Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the author of Viral Nation and Rebel Nation and the upcoming novel The Astonishing Maybe. She is the original Ninja Writer.
