Johnny Cash’s strange obsession with the Scottish county of Fife
Prolific songwriters are much like poets in the sense that they’re always on the lookout for inspiration no matter where they go. From simply walking down the street to professing their undying love, true artists have the knack for turning everything from the mundane to the extraordinary into a stellar song, of which no better description could be bestowed on anyone than Johnny Cash. The Man in Black’s lyrical mastery spanned the depths of pain, moral anguish, and redemption, but another unlikely muse came arguably in a place a bit less poetic.
Fife, the Scottish east coast county, may seem like the furthest possible cry from the American country and western canon – which, in many respects, isn’t wrong. Apart from the word-famous tourist town of St Andrews, it isn’t exactly known as the most enthralling or inspiring place, especially not for a global megastar. But it seems Cash saw things a little differently.
In fact, like so many, he had walked the line, if you will, of his family ancestry back to Scotland, specifically the tiny parish village of Strathmiglo on the banks of the River Eden in the Fife region. A quiet coastal area and one of the greatest American artists of all time are not exactly two likely paths to cross, so why was Cash so enamoured by it, of all places?
The answer has a lot to do with the nearby Falkland Palace. The custodian, Major Michael Crichton-Stuart, once had a chance meeting with Cash and explained that many streets and farms in the local area shared his surname. Sensing a source of sonic inspiration, as his intuition had proved so many times previously, the singer seized the chance to travel to the unsuspecting Scottish rural landscape and explore what it had to offer.
Indeed, he seemed to be drawn to Fife so much that he paid visits no less than three times after that throughout the rest of his life and even went so far as to stage a televised Christmas special concert there in 1981. If you hadn’t gathered as much already, music stars jetting into town was hardly a regular occurrence, especially in sleepy Strathmiglo, but nevertheless, Cash’s rocking up – literally and figuratively – never seemed to faze the locals too much.
This was true even to the extent that he was welcomed in as a member of the local community whenever he came calling. One local shop owner who was tasked with taking care of Cash during one of his later visits recalled that he was more interested in the human connections of the place than much else. He explained: “[Cash] spent most of his time inquiring about the local people rather than the other way round. There is a wooden post outside the [Falkland] Palace and I remember seeing Johnny just perching on that post and talking to anyone who would walk past.”
As strange an obsession as it might seem, Cash’s pull to Fife is a remarkably unlikely nugget of musical history that the villagers of Strathmiglo can hold with pride. That said, you probably won’t find the next generation of wannabe rockstars and lyricists flocking there – there’s not exactly a lot to see – but it’s an area, however unsuspecting, that gave the world the lineage to one of our greatest sonic heroes. Johnny Cash may not be overwhelmingly remembered for his Scottish ties, but it’s clear in his eyes he felt he would be nowhere without it.
