Always Dressed In Black
Reflecting on a modern legend
Twenty years ago today an American icon left this temporal realm.
Throughout our brief history there have been individuals who, for whatever reason, managed to embody the American spirit. Names like Benjamin Franklin and Jesse James, George Patton and Ronald Reagan, Nicola Tesla and Ayn Rand… larger-than-life characters. It’s not always something into which they are natively born - the latter of the two mentioned above were immigrants, after all - but it is instead an energy - a something - which lives within each.
Larger than life… quintessentially American. Johnny Cash was such an individual.
Known as ‘the man in black,’ Cash projected the bearing of a prophet, the soul of a warrior, and the heart of a poet. He was mythical yet all-to-human, curious yet resolute… flawed, yet perfectly so.
Like so many of our icons, Cash would be considered a contradiction by the rigid woke/anti-woke standards of today. An advocate for both Amerindian and prisoner rights long before either were fashionable, he was also a firm defender of the Second Amendment and Old Glory. He is a man oft revered by those on the Right, one who didn’t give a damned about endangered ‘yellow buzzards’ - yet his favorite president was (of all people) Jimmy Carter.
As I said… contradictions.
When the masses remember Cash-The-Artist, many think back to their youthful years. I am one of those fortunate enough to have been a youngster during the age of analog, when sitting in your room before bedtime listening to AM stations - on a transistor radio - was commonplace. Songs by Waylon and Willie, Loretta and Tanya, Hank’s Senior and Junior… good memories, indeed.
And Johnny Cash was there, too.
However, he did something that no other managed to accomplish; he became relevant later in life, and became as such in the eyes of those in their teens and 20s. His collaborations with rock and rap producer Rick Rubin allowed Cash to ‘cross over’ in a way few have. Via those stark yet powerful American Recordings sessions, he was not only being played on (some, but certainly not the corporate) country stations, but was also a hit on alternative radio.
Indeed, I remember one time hearing songs by Nirvana, The Cranberries, and Johnny Cash… one after the other. On the same radio station.
[Sidebar: For those of you who were not listening to music during the 1990s? You all missed out.]
So, despite my love for earlier songs like Folsom Prison Blues and Man in Black, my memories of Cash are primarily focused on songs like Delia’s Gone, I See a Darkness, and yes… his brilliant and poignant cover of the Trent Reznor tune, Hurt.
There are so many stories about Cash which I could site to further his iconic status, but they are all well-documented, to the point of them entering the realm of legend. Many of those tales may even be apocryphal, but even if so? I do not believe it matters much any longer.
Once one becomes an icon, ‘fact’ become less important than ‘legend.’ Facts inform us, yes, but legends inspire us… and we do need our legends. Now, at this time, perhaps more so than ever.
Twenty years ago today Johnny Cash died, yet his spirit - his essence - lives on. Like the aforementioned Franklin, I do not believe it will ever leave us.
RIP Mr. Cash.
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Notes…
-- Edit [05/22/2025]: Updated cover image.
-- Unless otherwise credited, all images were generated by the author via NightCafe, Grok 3 [X], or Substack’s AI Image Tool, with digital alterations when desired or needed.
-- Any memes created by the author will have a “The Stone Age” watermark attached; all other memes were snatched from various sources on the Internet.
I was one of those teens listening to transistor radio AM stations. Back then, we were exposed to many genres of music on radio from country to easy listening to pop to rock - you name it, unlike today where radio stations specialize in one category of music. So our generation was exposed to it all. Riding the school bus allowed me to listen to music more often. I’d hear Engelbert Humperdinck followed by some favorite Johnny songs (Cash) and little Charlie Feathers, then The Beatles and Janis Joplin and finally Herb Albert and not to leave out some great Mo-town! It was quit a cornucopia of sound. An eclectic mix of everything. But it was great, because that’s how you learned music appreciation. Here where I live in rural mostly Mexican American part of California I even learned to appreciate a little nortiño and corrido sounds. At home my parents played Glenn Miller and classical music and my grandparents polka music. Lol. Our generation had it good when it came to music. It left a strong impression on me and that’s why I love artists like Johnny Cash and listen to his songs today. I’m not sure I’d listen to him today had it not been from my early AM music foundation, because my parents didn’t listen to country western. May he continue to Rest In Peace. 🙏💜🎶✨🤗
Johnny Cash had reach. I grew up in Montreal. Our family watched the Johnny Cash Show weekly for a couple of years before it was cancelled. That was 50-odd years ago. I was 12 or 13.
How I loved my red transistor radio Made in Japan with the single earphone and the wide variety of music played on AM radio. At night I could pick up the U.S. border stations. That was always an adventure.
Sure, Cash was a contradiction, but his music was true. This is why we loved him.