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I Still
Miss Someone
Friends and Family
Remember
Johnny Cash
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Book Excerpt:
We receive many gifts during the course of our lives,
not just on birthdays or at Christmas, and not all are
wrapped. Many gifts are unseen, unknown, or at the time,
seemingly inconsequential. They are blessings that occur
when others bestow concern, or care, or grace. I have
been so blessed in this way to have known "Johnny
the Cash" and to have shared so much with him and
June.
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It is hard to realize that 2005 would have marked John's 50th
year of
creating music since his start at Memphis' Sun Records in
February of 1955.
During this almost half-century, there have been so many
individuals, like
myself, who were privileged to be a part of what John referred
to as his
"inner circle". Some stayed in the circle longer
than others.
Like moons in an orbit, we gravitated in and out of planet
Johnny. All who
really knew him, also knew this to be true. Although he
was keen on "out of
sight, out of mind" due to the very nature of constant
schedule demands on
his time, once you were in John's good graces, there you always
remained.
To this day, calendars or clocks need not be consulted to
sustain a Cash
family relationship.
Many recent books are published and available now on Johnny
Cash, all with
their place in the greater niche of retrospective Cash annals.
I Still Miss
Someone is unique in that it only strives to accomplish a
respectful tribute
to Johnny Cash. There are over forty chapter contributors,
none of them
career writers, but all well-versed in things Cash. There
is no, nor would
there be, any real way to gather all of John's family and
friends into one
tribute volume.
No grandiose book could be so all-encompassing. Mostly,
there is not, nor
would there be, any reliable source to identify fifty years of
Johnny's
'inner circle'. The names often changed with time, as did
some of these
personalities and many of their addresses. Hundreds were
fortunate, or
blessed, or even lucky to have known Johnny Cash outside of the
sparkle and
lure of celebrity. Many members of the clergy were drawn
to John's honest
thirst for spiritual knowledge. Simultaneously, they were
pillars of
strength during John's struggles, helping him embrace his
Biblical
philosophy of "Never let adversity get you down, except on
your knees to
pray."
I Still Miss Someone is candid and straightforward short stories
and essays
from a token sampling of the entire sum of people, most out of
the public
eye, who knew Johnny Cash as a friend. Two renowned
photographers, who only
met John once, recount their images. Family members'
chapters are proudly
included. It is an honor that they have blessed this
uncomplicated book
with viable, insightful and heart-touching recollections that
John Cash kin
could only share.
The writers and their respective chapters in I Still Miss
Someone are listed
alphabetically. This is the book's only semblance of
symmetry. Each chapter
has its own length and dimension created by these various
Cashologists, my
own term for people who knew John.
This book contains no profanity or nudity or dancing bears or
celebrity
testimonials. And, as John often said onstage describing
his own concerts,
"contains no flying pigs or exploding bails of hay."
However, someone in
this book does refer to Johnny as "booger bear".
Several contributors here do have books published, or should
have. Some
writing in these pages could fill entire compositions
themselves, when
recalling their Johnny Cash-filled past. Aside from John's
direct family,
there is an eclectic mix of individuals gathered here for I
Still Miss
Someone. Each with their own personal take on whatever exclusive
relationship they shared with Johnny Cash.
Luther Fleanor cared for John's grapes at Bon Aqua for over
twenty years.
Bill Walker was John's only musical arranger and conductor of
choice.
Michelle Rollins had the pleasure of countless years of Cash /
Jamaican
Christmas celebrations. By request, Garland Craft played
piano at Mother
Maybelle Carter's funeral service and at June Carter's funeral
service and
in September 2003, at John's. Pat Katz attended over five
hundred Johnny
Cash concerts.
John L. Smith shared an undying love of Native Americana with
John, aside
from four books he's had published concerning Cash recordings.
John Cash
threw his younger brother Tommy off of a twelve-foot-high
bridge. Dave
Rorick was hired by John to back Cash in concert with a musical
style Dave
didn't know, using an instrument Dave didn't own. John probably
didn't
remember his first meeting with Dr. Nat Winston. Dennis
Devine has had
"Johnny Cash is a friend of mine" on his tombstone for
over a decade, and
Dennis is still very much alive. Ted Rollins and
John invented a new sport
embracing gallantry and golf balls.
Merle Kilgore was best man at John and June's wedding. Penni
Lane chased
John around the stage with hair spray. Irene Gibbs had Rev.
Billy Graham and
Sheriff Buford "Walking Tall" Pusser in her office at
the same time - on her
first day working for John. Alan Messer was told by John not to
photograph
him picking his nose. John gave his daughter Kathy a gun
for a wedding
present, when she married Jimmy Tittle; he gave Jimmy a book.
Chance Martin met John flipping cards. Jack Shaw met John by
chance, on a
prayer, a missed turn and a fluke. W.S. "Fluke"
Holland watched trucks go
off cliffs and was the only road-managing drummer Johnny Cash
ever had. Jay
Abend shot John and Waylon and Brooke Shields together. Lou
Robin could have
actually been shot in Ireland. Johnny Cash and Johnny Western
could shoot
and got cash for being in westerns.
Jack Hale learned of French horns in England. Me, well I
filled in on drums
for a few Cash tours and managed not to get fired after I told
John that I
had pushed girls around the House of Cash building on Buddy
Holly's
motorcycle. (The Indian bike, on loan from Waylon after
the closing of his
own Nashville museum, was exhibited in Johnny's museum, and as
it wouldn't
start, this was the only way the girls could officially say
"they had ridden
Bubby Holly's motorcycle.") However, John did fire me on
other occasions,
for other reasons. And so, these I Still Miss Someone
stories go on.
This book makes no false pretense. This book only verifies
that every
individual contributor of photos and words herein, equally in
their own
capacity and understanding, loved and admired and respected John
R. Cash.
Additionally, remembrances by family members, ranging from
brother to son to
brother-in-law to grandson to sister and daughters, reveal the
passion of a
man who knew well his Arkansas roots and respected his Cash name
and legacy.
I Still Miss Someone contains no major biographical or personal
Cash
revelations. Those stories of fact and fiction, have all
been written.
Actually, the only real "dirt" on Johnny Cash, other
than that from his Bon
Aqua garden, might be that John slipped a cigarette in here and
there after
telling folks he'd quit; or that, despite doctor's orders, John
continued to
be stealthy, not healthy, while eating fried pork rinds from
Center Point
Barbeque in Hendersonville; or that on "rare"
circumstances he might have
driven "slightly" over the legal posted speed limit.
However, every story inevitably weaves that perpetual Johnny
Cash message of
sin and redemption. Someone once asked me, "How many
personalities did
Johnny Cash have?" I immediately responded, "All
of them!" And many of them
are revealed in these pages.
John Cash had "itchy feet". He would say this
over time, on numerous
occasions. Metaphorically, it was his expression for
readiness and love of
movement and exposure and exploration and revelation. He told
me, "Everyone
has itchy feet and some scratch more than others."
With few exceptions,
after a couple of days in one place, Johnny Cash was ready to
scratch that
travel itch. In keeping with this "itchy feet" spirit
of mobility, each
writer's shoe size is listed at the beginning text of their
chapters.
As each new chapter debuts, there are no cumbersome, italicized
paragraphs
with the author's biography. Each writer introduces
themselves and reveals
their Johnny Cash relationship, as they wish. Holding this book
together is
neither glue nor thread. The force binding this book is
Johnny Cash. I
Still Miss Someone is many persons with itchy feet, all
relative, and some
actual relatives, whose life paths, by favorable destiny,
crossed into that
line walked by Johnny Cash.
Hugh Waddell, Joelton, Tennessee
USA
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Copyright Maninblack.net 2005
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