COMMENTARY: The Spiritual Side of `The Man in Black,’ Johnny Cash

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) “Walk the Line,” the much-anticipated biopic on Johnny Cash’s early career _ and his initial romance with wife June Carter Cash _ is scheduled for release Nov. 18. As “Walk the Line” depicts Cash’s life only through the late 1960s, moviegoers will not get a glimpse of the intense […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) “Walk the Line,” the much-anticipated biopic on Johnny Cash’s early career _ and his initial romance with wife June Carter Cash _ is scheduled for release Nov. 18.

As “Walk the Line” depicts Cash’s life only through the late 1960s, moviegoers will not get a glimpse of the intense spiritual revival Cash experienced soon after his marriage to June _ a turnaround of the soul that informed and sustained him in significant ways for the rest of his life.


“Walk the Line” understandably keeps things focused on a specific portion of Cash’s life. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon have been getting high marks for their portrayals as Johnny and June.

But unless one reads carefully between the lines _ or in this case, watches carefully between the frames _ “Walk the Line” viewers can miss the spirituality that affected Cash even during his early career, even in the midst of his family problems, road fever and life-threatening struggles with substance abuse. All of the latter are elements the film depicts with a no-holds-barred attitude.

“I had the advantage of making a movie about a man who was an artist himself, and an artist of the shadows, in the sense that he understood life’s lonelinesses and life’s mistakes, and that people make them. In that sense, he wasn’t interested in hiding them,” director James Mangold told the Associated Press.

“He was much more concerned about protecting others than himself. The thing he would always say to me was, `I don’t care if I look bad. Just don’t make other, innocent people look bad, because they were my mistakes.”’

So if you watch “Walk the Line,” it may help to keep several things in mind.

First, the influence of Cash’s Christian upbringing cannot be minimized. His family was dirt poor, but his house was filled with the sounds of gospel music and spirituals. In fact, it was Cash’s original intent to break into music by singing gospel, and while Sam Phillips wouldn’t let him, Cash recorded several gospel/hymn records shortly after leaving Sun Records.

Second, Cash’s older brother Jack _ who died after a grisly table saw accident _ had a profound spiritual influence on Johnny. Jack was Johnny’s all-time hero, a stronger, more spiritually mature Cash, in every way a protector.


“When we were kids he tried to turn me from the way of death to the way of life, to steer me toward the light, and since he died his words and his example have been like signposts for me,” Cash writes in his autobiography. “The most important question in many of the conundrums and crises of my life has been, `Which is Jack’s way? Which direction would he have taken?”’

Even during his lowest moments of drug abuse and failing health, Cash believed Jack’s voice was always audible in his soul _ a kind of virtuous fly in the ruinous ointment Cash continually spread on himself during his early career.

Third, while life on the road _ and the substances that artificially sustain its hectic pace _ almost killed Cash, the “Man in Black” still struggled with his professional choices in relation to his spiritual center. During Cash’s notorious, wildcat early days, he saw a show by Sonny James _ a musician and a Christian. After the gig, Cash asked for some direction.

“Sonny, I know you’re a Christian, and so am I. I know I was meant to be in the music and entertainment world, but how do you live a Christian life in this business?” Cash recalls in his autobiography.

James had this to say: “John, the way I do it is by being what I am. I am not just an entertainer who became a Christian. I am a Christian who chose to be an entertainer. I am first a Christian.”

Clearly, Cash struggled as a Christian and an entertainer early in his career _ and often the latter won the battles. But the ties of a deep-down, core faith in God and the love that June expressed to Johnny in his darkest moments were ultimately what pulled Cash from the clutches of an early death and into the light of renewed spirit, life and career.


MO/PH END RNS

(Dave Urbanski is the author of “The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash.” He is senior developmental editor for Youth Specialties, an El Cajon, Calif., organization that assists workers in youth ministries.)

Editors: To obtain a photo of Dave Urbanski and of the cover of his book “The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash,” go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject (Urbanski, Johnny Cash) or slug. Designate “exact phrase” for best results.

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