Guest Blogger Joshua Rollins on Johnny Cash

I've always loved Johnny Cash.
As a little boy, I remember diggin' through my granddad's tape box, and coming across "Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues" and falling in love. I'd play it over and over again. My love for this man began at a young age.
As I grew older, I remember hearing songs like "Hey Porter" and "Luther Played the Boogie" and realizing they weren't like anything I'd ever heard. The first riff I ever learned on guitar was the beginning to "I Walk the Line".
Needless to say, when Johnny Cash died 2 years ago, I wept.
Not with a tear of sadness, but a tear like that when finishing an epic novel. Going through the tough times and the slow starts, to seeing the high points and even lower depths of the main characters soul, only to see it in the end fade away.
Today, Johnny Cash is beloved by my peers not neccesarly for his groundbreaking work in his prime, but for his last IV American Recordings. While Good, and haunting at time, they're not Johnny in his prime. They're not Johnny how I will remember Johnny.

Tomorrow night, Johnny Cash will be honored once again my music legends like U2, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others. It's a part of my life that's reminding me once again why I loved Johnny, because he transcended genres and went straight to the souls of those who wanted to be touched. A new generation of fans is emerging and they will continue to emerge as long as Johnny is remembered. I just pray someone, 20 years from now, will get the same chill I did 15 years ago, when I first heard the stone cold "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."

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Thanks, Joshua. More of Joshua's writings can be found at rollinsville.net or you can click the title of this post for a link. -FP