Latest Johnny Cash Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I've always explored various areas of society. And I love the young people. And I had an empathy for prisoners and did concerts for them back when I thought that it would make a difference - you know? - that they really were there to be rehabilitated.

  Johnny Cash

  Differences, People, Empathy

  Source: news.wbfo.org

• Why me, Lord? What have I ever done to deserve even one of the blessings I've known? Why me, Lord? What did I ever do that was worth love from you and the kindness you've shown? Lord, help me, Jesus, I've wasted it so. Help me, Jesus. I know what I am. Now that I know that I've needed you so, help me, Jesus. My soul's in your hand.

  Johnny Cash

  Jesus, Kindness, Blessing

  Source: news.wbfo.org

• I got really excited about it. But then we went into the studio and tried to record some with different musicians, and it didn't sound good. It didn't work. So we put together the album [Unchained] with just a guitar and myself.

  Johnny Cash

  Guitar, Together, Musician

  Source: wrvo.org

• We [with Rick Rubin] would focus on the ones that we did like, that felt right and sounded right. And if I didn't like the performance on that song, I would keep trying it and do take after take until it felt comfortable with me and felt that it was coming out of me and my guitar and my voice as one, that it was right for my soul.

  Johnny Cash

  Song, Voice, Guitar

  Source: wrvo.org

• When I finally stopped [singing], he had been saying, like, the last day or so, he'd been saying, now, I think we should put this one in the album. So without him saying I want to record you and release an album, he kept - he started saying, let's put this one in the album. So the album, this big question, you know, began to take form, take shape. And Rick [Rubin] and I would weed out the songs.

  Johnny Cash

  Weed, Song, Thinking

  Source: wrvo.org

• Rick Rubin said, well, I don't know that we will sell records. He said, I would like you to go with me and sit in my living room with a guitar and two microphones and just sing to your heart's content everything you ever wanted to record. I said, that sounds good to me. So I did that. And day after day, three weeks, I sang for him.

  Johnny Cash

  Heart, Two, Guitar

  Source: wrvo.org

• What I said, what are you [Rick Rubin] going to do with me that nobody else has been able to do to sell records with me?

  Johnny Cash

  Records, Able, Said

  Source: wrvo.org

• Rick Rubin had his hair - I don't think it's ever been cut and very - dresses like a hobo, usually - clean but . Was the kind of guy I really felt comfortable with, actually. I think I was more comfortable with him than I would have been with a producer with a suit on.

  Johnny Cash

  Cutting, Thinking, Hair

  Source: wrvo.org

• Rick Rubin came to my concert in Orange County, Calif. I believe this was, like, '83 when he first came and listened to the show. And then afterwards, I went in the dressing room and sat and talked to him.

  Johnny Cash

  Believe, Orange, Rooms

  Source: wrvo.org

• That was American Recordings. I said, I like the name, maybe it'd be OK. So I said, I'd like to meet the guy [Rick Rubin ].I'd like for him to tell me what he can do with me that they're not doing now.

  Johnny Cash

  Names, Guy, Said

  Source: wrvo.org

• My contract with mercury PolyGram Nashville was about to expire. And I never had really been happy. The company, the record company, just didn't put any promotion behind me. I think one album, maybe the last one I did, they pressed 500 copies. And I was just disgusted with it. And about that time that I got to feeling that way, Lou Robin, my manager, came to me and talked to me about a man called Rick Rubin that he had been talking to that wanted me to sign with his record company.

  Johnny Cash

  Men, Thinking, Nashville

  Source: wrvo.org

• I kept talking to my producers at Columbia about recording one of those [prison] shows. So we went into Folsom on February 11, 1968, and recorded a show live.

  Johnny Cash

  Talking, February, Prison

  Source: wrvo.org

• The requests started coming in from other prisoners all over the United States. And then the word got around. So I always wanted to record that, you know, to record a show because of the reaction I got. It was far and above anything I had ever had in my life, the complete explosion of noise and reaction that they gave me with every song. So then I came back the next year and played the prison again, the New Year's Day show, came back again a third year and did the show.

  Johnny Cash

  New Year, Song, Years

  Source: wrvo.org

• We went down [Folsom Prison] and there's a rodeo at all these shows that the prisoners have there. And in between the rodeo things, they asked me to set up and do two or three songs. So that was what I did. I did "Folsom Prison Blues," which they thought was their song - you know? - and "I Walk The Line," "Hey Porter," "Cry, Cry, Cry." And then the word got around on the grapevine that Johnny Cash is all right and that you ought to see him.

  Johnny Cash

  Song, Two, Hey

  Source: wrvo.org

• I had a song called "Folsom Prison Blues" that was a hit just before "I Walk The Line." And the people in Texas heard about it at the state prison and got to writing me letters asking me to come down there. So I responded and then the warden called me and asked if I would come down and do a show for the prisoners in Texas.

  Johnny Cash

  Song, Writing, Texas

  Source: wrvo.org

• [Sam Phillips] laughed at me. I just didn't like the way I Walk The Line sounded to me. I didn't know I sounded that way. And I didn't like it. I don't know. But he said let's give it a chance, and it was just a few days until - that's all it took to take off.

  Johnny Cash

  Giving, Lines, Way

  Source: wrvo.org

• Sam [Phillips] wanted I Walk The Line up - you know, up-tempo. And I put paper in the strings of my guitar to get that (vocalizing) sound, and with the bass and the lead guitar, there it was. Bare and stark, that song was when it was released. And I heard it on the radio and I really didn't like it, and I called Sam Phillips and asked him please not to send out any more records of that song.

  Johnny Cash

  Song, Guitar, Lines

  Source: wrvo.org

• It was kind of a prodding myself to play I Walk The Line straight.

  Johnny Cash

  Play, Lines, Kind

  Source: wrvo.org

• I started to write the song. And I was in Gladewater, Texas, one night with Carl Perkins and I said, I've got a good idea for a song. And I sang him the first verse that I had written, and I said it's called "Because You're Mine." And he said, "I Walk The Line" is a better title, so I changed it to "I Walk The Line."

  Johnny Cash

  Song, Writing, Night

  Source: wrvo.org

• In the Air Force, I had an old Wilcox Gay recorder, and I used to hear guitar runs on that recorder going (vocalizing) like the chords on "I Walk The Line." And I always wanted to write a love song using that theme, that tune.

  Johnny Cash

  Running, Song, Writing

  Source: wrvo.org

• I Walk The Line was my third record.

  Johnny Cash

  Records, Lines, Walks

  Source: wrvo.org

• Sam Phillips asked me to go write a love song, or maybe a bitter weeper. So I wrote a song called, "Cry Cry Cry," went back in and recorded that for the other side of the record.

  Johnny Cash

  Song, Writing, Records

  Source: wrvo.org

• Sam Phillips responded most to a song of mine called, "Hey Porter," which was on the first record.

  Johnny Cash

  Song, Hey, Records

  Source: wrvo.org

• I met Sam Phillips when he came in [studio] and I said, I'm John Cash. I'm the one who's been calling. And if you'd listen to me, I believe you'll be glad you did. And he said, come on in. That was a good lesson for me, you know, to believe in myself.

  Johnny Cash

  Believe, Cash, Calling

  Source: wrvo.org

• One day, I just decided I'm ready to go. So I went down with my guitar and sat on the front steps of Sam Phillips recording studio.

  Johnny Cash

  Guitar, One Day, Steps

  Source: wrvo.org