Ring of Fire

I love this guy. The picture below is a classic. Johnny ran it in the Nashville trade papers in 1969 after he won the Grammy for best country album for “Live at Folsom Prison”. The original caption read, “I would like to thank the Nashville music industry for all its support in helping me attain my recent Grammy.” The Nashville music industry in fact had not supported Johnny in any way; and warned Cash he was headed for absolute commercial failure. Guess Johnny had the last laugh.

In 1996, the ad ran again, this time in the Rolling Stone. You guessed it. Johnny had just won country album of the year for “American Songs”. Again, the Nashville clique figured Johnny was all washed up, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Cash was attracting a whole new audience covering grunge songs like “Hurt” by the Nine Inch Nails and “Rusty Cage” by Soundgarden.

What a guy! There will never be another like him.