Fall 2000

Page 10

As history tells it, their beginnings were not so sweet. Thankfully, the grace of God finds us right where we are, not where we’re supposed to be.

In 1961, June Carter hooked up as a singer/comedienne on the hard-travelling Johnny Cash Show. Thus began the longest, most-harrowing, and most rewarding reclamation project of June's career: Johnny Cash himself.

This was the supporting role to end all supporting roles. June and her close friend Patsy Cline used to laugh at Johnny's wrinkled shirts, but it was June who pressed them. Later, when the entire troupe rolled their eyes at the boss's drug addiction, it was June who took it upon herself to save him.

When Johnny nearly killed himself (he was jailed for crossing the mexican border with a suitcase full of loose amphetamines) June and her parents simply moved in with him. June threw away his pills, and took the heat for it.

June and Maybelle and Eck prayed over Johnny, and they prayed around Johnny, and they prayed with Johnny, until Johnny found salvation. "June saved my life," he says simply. One night, he proposed, on stage. And she married him on March 1^st in 1968.

"When I married Johnny Cash, it was like I made a choice to follow Moses," June chuckles. "Johnny has always seemed like Moses to me and it's been wonderful following him through the desert."

Once, when their music took them behind the Iron Curtain, a Polish border guard insisted on a command performance of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" before he let them pass.

Their union has produced one son and two Grammy Awards - one for "Jackson," and the other for "If I Were A Carpenter." And June (along with Merle Kilgore) also wrote one of Johnny's best-loved songs, "Ring of Fire."

Today June and her husband continue to bring their music to an unbelievably broad audience. They are one of the few musical acts in America who can bring down the house at a Billy Graham crusade one night and at a smoke-filled bar full of lost souls the next.

Throughout the last three decades, June has continued to act. In 1997 she did a star turn in the Robert Duvall feature film, "The Apostle."

Johnny produced and co-scripted a movie about the life of Jesus, Gospel Road, and filmed it in Israel. The film is distributed by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and is still in great demand today.

People forget just how hot Johnny Cash was, when his sales career was at its zenith. In the fall of 1969, Johnny Cash was the hottest act in the world, selling around 250,000 albums per month of his Folsom Prison and San Quinten albums.

At that time, he was even outselling the Beatles. He is one of the very few people in the history of music to sell more than 50 million records.

What Johnny Cash means to me – fans speak out: "He sings The Truth despite cries that it is unwise."

"Johnny Cash personifies loss, pain, mistakes, grief. His public acknowledgement of personal failures demonstrates courage, honesty, healing, hope. He shows us God's love, mercy and healing power. He teaches us that we must fight to participate in life. He challenges us to live boldly and with integrity."

"When I was young I thought that he was singing just to me. I asked what is truth? I learned about a thing called love. And just when I needed it the most, I learned about a carpenter who turned the water into wine."

See: www.johnnycash.com & www.junecartercash.com