Johnny Cash
Subtitle: the life
By: Robert Hilburn
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Little, Brown and Company; Orion Publishing Group, Limited
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 679
ISBN-13: 9780297866572; 9780297866589; 9780297870661
Subjects: Country musicians; Country music; History and criticism; Biography
Other titles: Life
Description: People don't just listen to Johnny Cash: they believe in him. But no one has told the Man in Black's full story, until now. In Johnny Cash: The Life, Robert Hilburn conveys the unvarnished truth about a musical icon, whose colourful career stretched from his days at Sun Records with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to his remarkable, brave and deeply moving 'Hurt' video, aged sixty-nine. As music critic for the Los Angeles Times, Hilburn knew Cash well throughout his life: he was the only music journalist at the legendary Folsom Prison concert in 1968, and he interviewed Cash and his wife June Carter for the final time just months before their deaths in 2003. Hilburn's rich reporting shows the remarkable highs and deep lows that followed and haunted Cash in equal measure. A man of great faith and humbling addiction, Cash aimed for more than another hit for the jukebox; he wanted his music to lift people's spirits. Drawing upon his personal experience with Cash and a trove of never-before-seen material from the singer's inner circle, Hilburn creates an utterly compelling, deeply human portrait of one of the most iconic figures in modern popular culture - not only a towering figure in country music, but also a seminal influence in rock, whose personal life was far more troubled, and whose musical and lyrical artistry much more profound, than even his most devoted fans ever realised.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part one. Dyess and the dream ; Vivian and the air force ; Memphis and Sam Phillips ; Sun Records, the Tennessee Two, and Boom chicka boom ; "Hey, Porter", "Folsom Prison blues" and a baby girl ; Louisiana hayride and "I walk the line" ; "Big river" and pills; title: Part two. Hollywood, town hall party, and Lorrie Collins ; "Ride this train" and the Huntsville Prison rodeo ; Billie Jean and the marriage proposal ; Casitas Springs and Saul Holiff ; June Carter ; The drugs and Carnegie Hall ; "Ring of fire", "Understand your man" and the troops in the far east ; Newport, Bob Dylan, "Ira Hayes", and Ballads of the true west ; The Los Padres fire and the El Paso drug bust; title: Part three. The deathwatch ; The divorce, Bob Johnston, and a suicide tale ; Folsom Prison and marrying June ; The Johnny Cash Show and superstardom ; Kris Kristofferson, Billy Graham and Anita Carter ; "It's a boy" and the White House; title: Part four. Israel and the calling ; The gospel road and a change of managers ; Family man and national icon ; Losing the muse ; The pills return and all hell breaks loose ; No one's listening; title: Part five. At Betty Ford and dropped by Columbia Records ; The beginning of the Mercury era and heart surgery ; Branson, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and U2 ; Rick Rubin ; The end of the concert trail and struggling with physical pain ; A hero again ; "The man comes around" and "Hurt" ; The final days.