The song that made Johnny Cash believe you can “make contact” with God
Of all the things that Johnny Cash ever was – a rebel, a rocker, and a humble writer – it was easy to forget that beneath everything, he was actually quite a spiritual bloke.
In many ways, that was no real surprise given that he hailed from a family rooted in the Deep South of America. In that part of the country, religion can almost be as integral to life as air, and one’s devoutness to this can never be seen to falter without consequence. For a man like Cash, who’d go on to achieve everything he would, that was a vitally important thing to remember.
Indeed, it was a little ironic at times, given that he was seemingly so in touch with the morbid underside of life, that Cash had so many experiences of connecting with God. Take the tragic death of his older brother Jack in 1944, at the age of just 15, as the prime example. The musician later recalled, just before his brother passed away, him saying, “Mama, can you hear the singing? Do you see the angels?”.
Anyone could tell that such a profound experience was bound to alter the course of his life to some extent, but it was still clear, even decades down the line, how much his spirituality still influenced so many of the decisions Cash made. Even as he entered the twilight of his career, as an ageing man whose health was failing, there was always a belief in some form of a higher power.
The world saw that manifested primarily on 1996’s Unchained, the third-to-last album released in Cash’s lifetime that furthered his prolific partnership with Rick Rubin, and saw him backed by none other than Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. But there was an important reason the record took that specific title, because the song in question struck him more deeply than most could understand.
Indeed, the titular track was actually a composition by the musician Jude Johnstone, but its lyrical message of “Oh, I am weak/ Oh, I know I am vain/ Take this weight from me/ Let my spirit be unchained,” startlingly reminded Cash of words his mother used to tell him. “God has his hand on you,” she would say. “Never ignore ‘The Gift’,” Cash recalled.
“I never knew what she meant by the gift until I felt the gift leave me. When the gift comes back, it’s so sweet. I think sometimes we make ‘contact’ if we leave our spiritual ears open.”
Johnny Cash
It was evidently something that steered him throughout the rest of his life, and perhaps made him more content with the idea of his own demise.
Cash’s words might seem like a rather abstract concept to those whose lives are not touched by religion, but in his eyes, ‘The Gift’ was one of the most precious things a human could ever be given in their life. It could be equal parts comfort and a call to arms, but it was certainly constant.
In many ways, ‘Unchained’ only pulled into focus what he already knew, but it just gave him the opportunity to look inside himself and find it again. The end of Cash’s career is often cited as prolific, but it was in moments like that which proved just how important it was to him, just as much as the fans.
