The Man in Black

Rest in peace, Mr. Cash. I'll raise a glass for you tonight.

I loved Johnny Cash.

Not just as a fan. I loved him. He was, and will always be, a legend of a musicianship and artistry. Some people are born to share their talent with other people, and that is what he was, and that is what he did.

He was not perfect. As a matter of fact, he was the definition of imperfect. His face was stony and uneven, eyes heavy, crooked smile. His voice, so lauded by all kinds of singers as being so moving and inspirational, was not perfect, but it was Great.

So great that his impact on sonwriters and singers is without parallel. No one but Willie and Merle,and I guess George Jones, remain now in that group of legendary alumni. Today is George Jones's birthday, as a matter of fact. It won't be a happy one. That was the first thing I heard on the news this morning when I got in the car at 6:30. I thought to myself "these guys are getting old," and had this funny feeling... and then ten seconds later, they announced about Johnny. I wish I had turned around and gone home.

It is a tremendous loss. When any sort of artist passes away, no matter their medium, a void is created that can never be filled. Someone may come along some day who is as talented as Johnny, but it won't be him.

His maudlin style was more intelligent than most others in his class. It was the sort of quiet intensity about him that made him so alluring to people. He wore black, as everyone knows, and became famous for it, representing the downtrodden and maligned with his black clothes, black hair and black eyes. What an amazing man. People identified with him because they felt like he was one of them, on of their own representing them, but he wasn't. He was much bigger and much stronger. Johnny Cash was a hero - not in the sense that he saved people from drowning in wells, or lead an army - he was the literal figure of a hero. Bigger and stronger. Man, yes, but more.

His weaknesses were well documented, but isn't what forms people into heroes their ability to overcome weakness? It's in every hero story from Greek myth to the Bible. Most heroes suffer the weakness of pride, and he was no different. Johnny Cash was the first to admit the abuse he heaped on himself back in his darkest of dark days. He gave all the credit for his redemption to his wife, June, who died not very long ago.

Their relationship was what hero stories are made of in the oldest stories of the oldest books. He loved her. He loved his wife. If you've ever seen the footage of the two of them singing "Jackson," you can see it plain as day. He did some bad things to his family, he said, drinking and carousing and generally abusing himself almost to death many times. What makes him a hero is that he used the depth of his wisdom to control his pride - he didn't do it for June or his children, though. I think he did it because he was too smart to let himself go down like that. Bigger and stronger.

The Cash's relationship is one I want my own to emulate. I know I sound like I am doing that Southerner's thing where we get dramatic and stomp around saying "by God," but I assure you, I am being as serious as I have ever been. In life, you don't have to love somebody. There's no law. As a matter of fact, it's harder to do it than to not do it. There is no guarantee, at birth, that each person in the world will experience love on Earth. Human beings are not pack animals, by nature. We are singular and individual, and to commit yourself to another person is a chore and ocassionally in the middle of it, you wonder why in the world you're bothering. There are times when it takes superhuman, heroic strength to love someone, even if they are good and beautiful. That is the imperfection inherent in being a person. It's equally hard at times to just be good and decent, and to rise above these flaws in their makeup and become better than what they are, just out of a pure desire to do it, makes someone like Johnny Cash a hero.

The man was just a brilliant performer and American songwriter. Willie Nelson, who I think may be this country's greatest poet, loved to hear Johnny Cash sing. I feel like, when I hear Johnny sing, that he's telling the truth. He was a great storyteller, a real writer of stories crafted into songs. Kris Kristofferson may have put it best: "Johnny Cash's voice... it sounds like the real thing, which is what he is."

No question. To see him go is heartbreaking. I'm sitting here at my desk at seven in the morning, crying about Johnny Cash. It's amazing. If you go back and look at the man's life and career, from an historical perspective, you can see very plainly the literary path of the hero. He was bigger and stronger and when people heard him they were affected by his depth and by his honest way of living - even when he was living crazy and kicking out lights on the Opry stage, high as a kite. They were watching what seemed like the spiral into downfall. But, they saw him come back up. He didn't just clean up his act, he transformed himself into his destiny, and he was smarter for it. He made other people smarter just telling them about it. This last album of his has a song on it that he said he spent more time on than any song before. It's all over the place and includes a bunch of stuff from the Book of Revelations. Listen to it, and try to figure out what he was trying to tell you. Even at the door of death, Johnny Cash was allowing things to be revealed to him. If every generation is given a hero, I hope whoever comes next can do even half the job.

-Lifted from here.