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Johnny CashFarewell Johnny: Johnny Cash 1932-2003

I don’t remember the last time I wrote about someone with tears in my eyes. It is almost like losing an old friend. Johnny Cash has been with me since I was a young child and has been part of a very rich soundtrack to my and millions of other lives across the world.

Oh I admit that in my early teens I was too cool for Cash opting instead for top 40 hits of the 70s and 80s. Ironically it was Johnny’s daughter Rosanne who led me back to her dad by giving me a taste of her family legacy with her own unique contemporary sound. My own bluegrass band the Pyros then found a wealth of material from Johnny’s hits that suited our own rebellious streak.

Whether you liked his music or not you can't deny the man touched all our lives in one way or another. He was a giant of a personality. His hard living was very visible down through the years. But people saw through the craggy exterior and his persona was softened by the fact that he was so likable. His love for his second wife June Carter (who died just 4 months ago) and his family was always obvious to all who followed his career. He was loved by his fellow entertainers as well and his songs have been covered by many of the biggest names in music history. Johnny himself was recognized as an important part of that history with 11 Grammies under his belt and is the only person to have been inducted to both the Country and Rock and Roll halls of fame. He has recorded over 1,500 songs from his own tales of hard living and heartbreak to the most modern offerings from people as unlikely as Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode. His career spanned almost 50 years and at 71 he was still recording just before his death. He leaves a collection of music that will become the folk and traditional music that future generations will hold dear.

We Irish have always had a great affection for Johnny. Even U2 featured Johnny on their Zooropa recording. Maybe it was the hard living family man we took to our hearts. Maybe it was the wealth of classic songs he has left behind. Or maybe it was one song in particular, an unofficial anthem that he gave us, a song that captures the romance that all of us feel for our native soil. If that song was all Johnny Cash had given us our lives would still be so much richer for it.

Farewell Johnny and I hope that wherever June and yourself are now walking hand in hand that "the breeze is sweet as Shalamar and there's Forty Shades of Green".

 
 
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