Johnny Cash’s bizarre belief that a country star sent him a message from beyond the grave
While country music has developed its fair share of modern stars in the 21st century, it is with a sense of heavy-heartedness that we have to acknowledge that many of the figures from the golden age are no longer here to witness its resurgence.
With several of the most celebrated icons having started their careers in the 1940s and ‘50s, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the vast majority have passed on long ago. Johnny Cash was arguably one of the last ones of the old guard left standing, and he had to witness many of his closest friends pass away and go through the grieving process for them.
However, Cash’s strong bonds with his former accomplices didn’t go away easily, and while it’s a stretch to say he was an expert at necromancy, he claimed to have once received a message from one of his closest allies from beyond the grave.
In 1993, not long after the passing of country star Roger Miller, the Singers’ Salute to the Country Songwriter was held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, where Miller was posthumously honoured alongside Buck Owens, Harlan Howard, Hank Cochran and Cash, with Rosemary Clooney hosting the event
At the show, many country stars of a younger generation performed, with Dale Watson getting up to perform a medley of Miller’s songs, although on the night, he unfortunately forgot how to correctly perform the transition between ‘Dang Me’ and ‘Chug-A-Lug’, resulting in him simply humming while he collected himself.
Slightly embarrassed by the mishap, he rushed backstage in an attempt to brush off any thoughts of having ruined his moment to honour the late legend. However, he found himself being approached by Cash and his wife, June, after the performance, and expecting the ‘Man in Black’ to chide him for screwing up two of the most notable songs by his dearly departed friend, he was surprised when Cash had something more bizarre to share.
“I just wanna let you know, that when we agreed to fly out here and do this, Roger talked us into it.” Cash supposedly said to Watson, per the latter’s recollection. “He wanted us to go with it, so we made plans and we said we’d do it, but then Roger passed away and we just didn’t want to go.”
“They were regretting it the whole time until I got on stage,” Watson said of Johnny and June’s attendance, “and it wasn’t me performing the song, but it was when I messed up.”
“When you did what you did in the middle of that song,” Cash continued, “June reached for my hand the same time I reached for her hand, because that was Roger’s way of saying ‘I love you’ on his TV show.”
Watson was touched by the supernatural anecdote that Cash had shared with him, and claimed that it made him feel infinitely better about having forgotten the words to a song that he should so easily have recalled. Evidently, Cash was just as touched by Watson’s performance, and through that, was touched by the spirit of Miller who was clearly nodding his head in approval from his heavenly residence.
