Johnny Cash’s Poetry
Put to Music by Cornell, Rosanne Cash, More
At the end of 2016, a book of unpublished poetry by the late, great country-rock singer Johnny Cash hit the shelves. The poems, dating back to the 1940s, including one he wrote when he was just 12, reveal an even deeper, more thoughtful Man in Black than we were already familiar with through his tough and tender song lyrics. Forever Words: The Unknown Poems (Blue Rider Press) has 41 poems about the many chapters in Johnny’s life, including love, drugs, and fame. His son, John Carter Cash, discovered the work, and decided to put the words to music.
Cash invited musicians, including his sister Rosanne Cash, to create tunes to accompany the poems, resulting in Johnny Cash: Forever Words, recorded at the Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Johnny built the cabin himself in 1978, as a quiet place to write music, eventually turning it into a state-of-the art recording studio where legends like Elvis Costello, Loretta Lynn, and the entire musical Carter family have made their musical marks.
Contributing songs to the album are country stars Kacey Musgraves and her husband Ruston Kelly, John Mellencamp, T Bone Burnett, and members of Cash’s old band The Highwaymen, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. Even the late Chris Cornell represents with his poignant tune, “You Never Knew My Mind,” which he recorded before his suicide last year.
Here are a few of the heart wrenching songs and videos produced from the album.
