In 1950, Johnny left his rural Arkansas home in search for a job in Detroit. Instead of making it to Detroit, he ended up making it to Pontiac, Michigan. He got settled with a job working at an automotive plant. He worked at the automotive plant for a short period of time, and he later on enlisting in the United States military. While being in the military, he later on got stationed in Landsberg, Germany where he organized his band “The Landsberg Barbarians”.
The Landsberg Barbarians was his first band and started giving Cash the boost to move on to his musical career that was soon to explode.
After his discharge, from the United States military, he and his first wife Liberto settled in Memphis, Tennessee in 1954. Almost like every other individual trying to find fame in Nashville, Cash work several small jobs to make ends meet and the last job he had before auditioning for a record deal he was an appliance salesman.
In 1954 Johnny Cash then moved to Memphis. In that same year he auditioned for a solo artist record deal at Sam Phillips’ Sun Records. Originally Cash wanted to record and set fame as a gospel singer. Once Phillips’ heard Cash sing he instantly changed the idea and wanted to make Johnny a huge country star.
Johnny Cash did not need help becoming a star, he already had the gift of stardom and that is all he needed. A couple of months after Cash auditioned for his first record deal he then created a band called the “Tennessee Three” the days as a “Landsberg Barbarian” were over.
The three men in the group consisted of Luther Perkins, Marshall Grant, and Red Kernodle. In the beginning of recording Kernodle was not feeling the idea of the Tennessee Three and bailed in the middle of the production of the band. Cash then recorded the song “Folsom Prison Blues” and the legendary song “I Walk the Line” that dominated the Billboards Top 20 and then within four weeks it hit number one on the chart. In 1957 Johnny Cash was then invited to perform at The Grand Ole Opry well from there he then booked and perform over two hundred concerts a year.
During the 1950’s and 1960’s he continued to make many, many great songs including “Ring of Fire” and the “Ballad of Ira Hayes”. After he released many of his popular songs he ended up getting booked on The Tonight Show and The Ed Sullivan Show and other extremely popular late night talk shows. With all the bookings and song releasing’s he eventually started to lose it. Johnny Cash then transferred from Sun Records and then moved to Columbia Records where he had more of an artistic freedom for composing his music.
When Cash started to lose it his marriage was out of control. He lost it more because his concert bookings went from two hundred a year to three hundred bookings a year. He began to start using many narcotics to deal with the pressures. In 1967 he overcame his drug addiction with the help of his singing partner, June Carter. A year later he and June married and he then shot to the top of his game.
In 1969 he was invited to do some interviews and some tapings for ABC. Two years later in 1971 in one of his interviews he told his views about prison reform, Native Americans. Nearly ten years later at the age of 48 he became the youngest star to be inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1995 he also was accepted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and only a few stars are privileged to be in both organizations.
Johnny produced much other great songs throughout the 1990’s and won several awards such as MTV awards and a couple of Grammy awards.
In May of 2003, June Cash died unexpected and it devastated Johnny to his whit end. He went through a period of anxiety and depression and he won another MTV award and Grammy for his song “The Hurt”. “The Hurt” was a song written by Cash showing his love and affection for June through such an emotional time. It wasn’t even four months later and Johnny died September 12th, 2003 from his diabetes problems.
Johnny Cash had a great life and he was very successful in many times of his career. He did battle many drug and relationship problems but he turned to the one he loved, June Carter, to help turn his life turn around. He won many awards and has songs that even today’s generation knows. That right there is why Johnny Cash is a legend and will always be a country music icon.
