The 1950s performer Johnny Cash would never miss for the world: “He was that charismatic”
Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley had a connection that most other artists would probably fail to understand.
Of course, one of those careers lasted far longer than the other in a lifespan sense, but equally, you could argue that what Presley achieved was so seismic that he didn’t need to live beyond 1977. In any case, the point is that as soon as Cash came across the young rock star, he knew his life had been forever changed.
That relationship began in earnest in the early 1950s, just at the birth of rock and roll, under the watchful eye of Sam Phillips, who signed them both to Sun Records with the hopes that he had a new musical revolution on his hands, and well, he wasn’t wrong. But although they had likely seen each other floating around the halls of the label, it wasn’t until Cash saw Presley perform in the flesh that he realised just how much of a powerhouse was before him.
From the very first second that the future king opened his mouth as the Man in Black’s opener in Armadillo, Texas, in October 1955, there was no turning back. This was a glitterball, a lightning bolt, an electric spark who lit up the stage with every sultry note and swivel of the hips that he engineered. Nobody wanted to follow that, and Cash was meant to be the main attraction.
But instead of that boiling his blood, it was a testament to the man that he did nothing but bow down in admiration. “Elvis was such a nice guy, and so talented and charismatic,” Cash once said, “He had it all. Some people just couldn’t handle it and reacted with jealousy. It’s only human, I suppose”.
He was right in the sense that there was somewhat of an elephant in the room with Presley, but he also felt the need to put people in their place.
“But it’s sad,” he added to this effect, “Elvis was so good. Every show I did with him, I never missed the chance to stand in the wings and watch. We all did. He was that charismatic”. Indeed, no matter where across the country their shows took them, you could imagine Cash flashing back to that night in October ‘55 every time. It was a moment that changed everything.
Over the years, that friendship and bedrock of admiration obviously transformed into a stint of working together more closely. A prime example of that was the Million Dollar Quartet, in which Presley and Cash teamed up with Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins in 1956 for a jamming session that would go on to transcend the ages.
Between the pair of them, and including Lewis and Perkins more widely, they created rock and roll history so often that it genuinely felt like just another day at the office. That recording, unearthed and released to the world in 1981, stood as proof of the fact that what they were creating behind closed doors was arguably more magical than the show they brought to the stage.
Presley was incomparable, and we all know that, but to get the seal of approval and respect from someone like Cash spoke to another level of godliness that very few would be able to access. He was a law unto himself, in a league of his own, and in that instance, the wisest thing to do was to just sit back and revel in it.
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