John Carter Cash

JOHN CARTER CASH JOHNNY CASH: FOREVER WORDS TURNS A LOST HAUL OF THE MAN IN BLACK’S LYRICS INTO NEW MUSIC VIA SOME STAR COLLABORATORS, AMONG THEM KINDRED SPIRIT, CHRIS CORNELL

- Matt Parker

In August 2003 Johnny Cash was in a reflective place. His legend was secured following a decade’s work on the Rick Rubin-produced American Recordings series, but he had lost his beloved wife June Carter Cash in May and thoughts had turned to his own legacy. A shy man by nature, Cash spent much of his time reading. His office was half study, half library piled high with books, letters tucked in drawers, filled notebooks and folders of his studies on the Book Of Job. At some point during the weeks before his passing on 12 September, the following lines came to rest on a note in that room: ‘You tell me that I must perish, like the flowers that I cherish/Nothing remaining of my name, nothing remembered of my fame/But the trees that I planted still are young, the songs that I sang must still be sung’.