Country music is not my favorite. I can’t say I dislike it because I enjoy listening or watching any high level of talent, but I’ve never had a country music station on my radio and can’t imaging paying to see a country music concert. However, I love Johnny Cash. I have several of his CDs and have his station on Pandora. I’ve always liked the guy but never really understand why. I saw Walk the Line in the theatre and bought the DVD immediately upon release. I used to tell people that I liked his story-telling, and that’s what set him apart from other Country singers. That felt like an empty answer … don’t all Country singers tell stories?
Well, we spent this past weekend in Nashville and I visited the Johnny Cash Museum. Since my wife wasn’t interested and we had our three year-old daughter with us, I took the tour by myself… and I finally figured out why I’m so drawn to Johnny Cash.
All of us have demons we battle. If there is anything I’ve learned as an adult is that you never know what someone is battling behind the scenes. Most people do their best to hide their challenges and issues. We fear them, deny them, and cower from them. We do our best to overcome them. We do our best, but most of the time we worry about our demons popping up again in our lives. Johnny Cash didn’t do any of these things. Maybe he did behind the scenes, but the celebrity that we saw was completely transparent about his struggles and didn’t seem to care. From his childhood to his substance abuse to his anger, he never seemed to run from or avoid it. He just accepted life and moved forward… all the way to the end when he covered the song Hurt, written and originally recorded by Nine Inch Nails. It’s funny how such an amazing story-teller’s life could be wrapped up in a song written by Nine Inch Nails.
To be clear, I’m not impressed with Cash’s lifestyle or the way he managed it. I’m actually sad about the regret with which he lived toward the end of his life. I would never instruct my daughter to model her life after Johnny Cash. However, his apparent stubbornness and “spit in adversity’s face” attitude impresses the heck out of me. Maybe because I don’t have it. I’ve done and continue to do everything possible to avoid my demons, which really aren’t that bad. I’ve never had a substance abuse problem. All of my relationships have been healthy. I had very caring and supportive parents. All good stuff. However, I worry about things like the rest of you – finances, providing for my family, protecting my daughter and helping her live her best life, aging, regret, and uncertainty. I worry about these challenges and do everything possible to prepare for and overcome them. They scare me. They shouldn’t scare me. I’ll handle them. Cash seemed to know that. He seemed to know that he’d handle anything life threw at him. It didn’t matter – he knew he would handle it, whatever “it” was.
Maybe that’s why he had such a tumultuous life. Maybe that’s why he was such a great songwriter and story teller. Maybe his attitude brought on more demons. Maybe my attitude is right and his is wrong. Maybe Johnny Cash’s spirit is writing a blog post right now about Chris Peterson. I don’t know. All I know is the guy appeared to have the guts to spit at adversity, while I’m busy developing a strategy to overcome adversity. Sometimes I wish I did more spitting and less strategizing… and that’s why I’ve always liked Johnny Cash. It’s taken me a few decades, but it makes total sense to me now.
