Johnny Cash holds the record for appearing on our cover-nine times in all-including our first issue in September 1972. We've done about everything to him we can...except ask him 20 Questions. We finally did when we caught up with him in one of his favorite hideouts: Fifth Avenue, New York City.

1. Remember being on the first cover of Country Music Magazine ?

Yes. (Laughs.) I saw it the other day...I've got it in my office at the House of Cash. I'm really proud of that.

2. Did you think Country & Music Magazine would make it?

Yes. It looked like something the business had been waiting for a long time. It had class, and it said "country music" magazine, and any country music fan is bound to like that idea. I thought that right up front. Then when I looked inside, I knew that it was going to be a success. Now, after 20 years, it's still the best.

3. I talked to Waylon about your interview with him. What do you remember of that particular escapade.

You really want to know? I remember it all very well. That night I was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. That afternoon, Waylon and Jessi and Shooter were "getting away from it all" at my farm near Bon Aqua in Hickman County. I had told him I wanted to do that interview, and when I called up there to see how they were doing, he said come on up and we'll do it. So we did the interview on the front porch of the house, and I took pictures.

Let me tell you a funny thing about the house at Bon Aqua. Of course, I don't ask many people to come there at all. It's my place of refuge. I took Joe South up there-we spent a couple of nights. That was about 1969 or'70 when he did my TV show. There's a bearskin rug on the living room floor, between my easy chair and the television. Because some boys had been breaking into my house, and drinking and watching TV, I had taken a real thin wire and ran it from under the seat of the easy chair to the leg of the couch, and under the throw rug, and tied it to the bottom of the bear's jaw. So when you sat down in that easy chair, that bear's head is gonna move. And after he sat in that chair, Joe South didn't sleep a wink that night.

But I had a good time interviewing Waylon. I found that tape yesterday at my house. I haven't listened to it again, but I laid it out to listen to. Waylon really opened up to me. I had some questions that I thought he would enjoy answering, and certainly some that I would enjoy.asking. I'm proud of that interview.

4. You asked him what he used on his hair to keep it looking messy.

I know. He didn't like that question.

5. Tell us about your relationship with Cowboy Jack Clement.

Well, traveling the way I do, I don't get to see Cowboy very often. We talk a lot by phone and his friendship is always there. But like I told him yesterday, I miss his "buddyship." I wish we could hang out more together and just do nothing.

I remember from day one at Sun Records when Cowboy was in the studio with Sam Phillips. And the very first time I remember him in the studio was when I recorded "Big River." Cowboy tuned his J200 Gibson to open E, laid it on the floor, and took a bottleneck, put the microphone right over the guitar and played it on the floor. That's how we got that funky sound.

6. Is that the same as the mystery G on "Big River"?

Yeah, that's it. I recognized his genius from the beginning, and through the years, I've worked off and on with Cowboy and it's grown stronger. He is responsible for something he never got credit for- producing "Ring of Fire." I called him from California and told him I wanted to record "Ring of Fire" with trumpets. He thought I was crazy. We got into it, but he hired the trumpet players, had the parts written and produced that record. But somebody else got credit for it.

7. Didn't a pair of your fans write "Ring of Fire"?

Yeah, June Carter and Merle Kilgore. You know the first recording of "Ring of Fire" was by Anita Carter. She recorded it on an album of folk songs. She just had the guitar and bass on it and sang it as a folk song, much slower than I did....I've told this before and people have called me a liar, but it's true-I dreamed I heard trumpets on that song. That's when I called Cowboy and told him I wanted to record it with trumpets.

8. Think it's fair to say you've gotten serious about your music more times than any other country artist? Every interview we ran seemed to start out with "Cash is getting serious about his music.... "

That's right. I'm getting serious about my music just as I said I was getting serious about it when I recorded Rockabilly Blues. But this time is gonna be better than ever. I feel better-I don't smoke, I don't take drugs, I'm in great health and I feel like I'm singing as good as I was in the 50's. And I've got better songs. I've been writing up a storm for about a year or two. I don't want to give away too much of the themes, but I've written rockabilly, I've written gospel, country, story songs. These are all in my notebooks that I carry with me, and I write every day or two. When I get in the right situation, I'm going to record the best album I've ever had.

There's a lot of albums I want to do. I want to do an album of real "heart" folk songs, or country songs, or love songs, mainly with just me and my guitar, and I want to call it Johnny Cash Alone and Late. And I want to do an album called Johnny Cash and The Carter Family sing The Gospel, and I want to do Johnny Cash The Rockabilly Years. I might do two volumes of that-one of rockabilly songs of the 50's, and one of "new rockabilly"...get a leg up on The Stray Cats, go back to my roots, but make it sound better than ever with the technology we've got today.

9. What do you think of Branson? Are you committed to it?

I think it's a nice little town. Beautiful lakes all around it, and if they got a lot of that glitter off of the streets, it would really look good. I've played Branson two or three times in my career, back in the 1970's and 80's. To me, Branson, Missouri, is not the center of the universe, although a lot of country music fans go there, so I think it's worth going there to perform. But I'm very happy that I'm not involved with my own theater there. It would be like a rock around my neck that just weighs me down and holds me there. I like to perform everywhere-I'm on my way to Vienna, Austria, I'm going to do a Christmas tour of New England. I like to play the fairs in the summertime, and being tied down to my own theater anywhere-not just Branson-would preclude me from doing a lot of other things I like doing. Like television. I've just done a role in Jane Seymour's new series, Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman, that I'm really proud of, and I want to keep doing things like that.

10. What's your role in Doctor Quinn?

I play an aging gunfighter who comes to this town and he's trying to hang up his guns, but the young gunslingers want to challenge him. Once I get over that hurdle, I become sheriff of this town, and they don't have a judge. So after I arrest somebody, I have to be the judge. At the end I tell her bye and ride off into the sunset, as if I might be back. And already they've written the second one. I'm trying to find the time to do it. If an acting role feels right, I really like to do it.

11. You hear what Marty Stuart said on the Grand Ole Opry?

I sure did. The next day he sent out a copy of The Essential Johnny Cash for me to autograph. So I wrote, "To Marty, You little fart. Johnny Cash." I've always believed in Marty Stuart. I knew he was going to be a big star someday. I feel so good to see him making it.

12. Now that we've put .. Marty on the cover, do you have any good Stuart stories he'd hate to have you tell?

Well, I don't know if he'd hate to have me tell this one. When he started working for me, his mandolin didn't have a mark on it. He was playing rhythm on the mandolin during a guitartar break one night, and I walked over and opened up my pocketknife and scratched a big cross on his mandolin. (Laughs.) And he said, "Why'd you do that?," and I said, "Because Jesus loves you. Don't forget it." Since then I think everybody's scratched on his mandolin. I can't really tell some of the funny stories about him without hurting somebody else... but there are a couple.

13. Were your gigs with The Highwaymen as much fun as they looked?

Yes. They were a lot of fun.

14. Do you plan to do any more with those worthless roustabouts?

Now that I've got them trained to do what I tell them, yeah. We'll tour Canada and New England in the spring and end up at Farm Aid.

15. Honest, what do you think of "Achy Breaky Heart"?

What I think is that I find myself humming it a lot. That's one of the best things you can say about a song. Also, I see some of the same sexual charisma in Billy Ray Cyrus that I saw in Elvis. Not as intense, but it's there. And I think he's handling himself well.

16. What was it like being on the Bob Dylan tribute at Madison Square Garden?

Well, I was proud to be a part of that...with all those great performers singing Dylan's great songs. I met Bob in 1963. He was on my TV show. We recorded together. We visited each other's homes, and we admire each other's music. The Dylan fans gave June and me a very warm response when we sang "It Ain't Me." I was glad to be there.

17. What did you think when you were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame? The world thinks of you mainly as a country music legend, but, at the beginning you were a rockabilly. Nashville didn't want to call you country in those days. It wasn't clear what was rock 'n' roll and what was not...you and Elvis and Jerry and Carl, all pumping out revolution at Sun Records.

Well, being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame was the greatest honor of mycareer. It would be for any country singer. Nothing would approach that honor for me. But being inducted into the Rock'n' Roll Hall of Fame was a real honor for me since, as you say, I'm mainly thought of as a country singer. So, I was very pleased. It shows that rock 'n' roll knows its roots. And it shows that respect for people in one field of music towards those in another is a living thing. I think it was a tribute to the broader influence of country music on rock as well as an honor to me personally.

18. At this moment, what's your absolute favorite Johnny Cash song?

"Sing It Pretty, Sue." I'm gonna record it again.

19. And what's the one song you wish you never had to sing again, and why?

If you really want to know, "A Boy Named Sue." It's a hard song to do right. It's an acting job. I have to play the father and the son, and you really have to be up for it. There was a live audience there when it was recorded. It was new. The laughs were spontaneous. Now everyone knows what's coming, so it's hard to get a real reaction. I still try to do it in every show.

20. After all these years, what do you think of Patrick Carr?

Well, Patrick's writing a book about a rock'n'roll star, and I think he should have written one about Bill Monroe. Seriously, Patrick is a great writer. His review in Country Music Magazine of my Rockabilly Blues album is the single best review ever written about any of my music.