Who was the first artist to perform a concert for prison inmates?
Since its conception, rock and roll in all its various forms has had a dangerous edge. When the first people emerged holding a guitar like a gun and daring to play tunes outside the realms of cookie-cutter, parent-friendly radio fodder or religious hymns, it sent shock waves worldwide. From that moment on, artists have played with that line between beauty and danger, with the image of playing live music in a high-security prison to criminals standing as perhaps the most outright depiction of that.
The prison concert is a perfect example of the ethos of music. It plays with the idea of rock and roll, especially being a dangerous thing, a rousing thing capable of getting a crowd riled up. It dares to play with the threat of getting a decidedly violent or dangerous crowd riled up, with the artist standing up on stage in front of them, bold and defiant.
But it also speaks to a more poetic side. Prison concerts make the point that art is for everyone. By bringing live music into the walls of a prison and in front of people who are being kept away from the pleasures of the outside world as a punishment, the artists performing there are saying that their music is for everyone and that no legal system or cell bars should keep a person from enjoying and engaging with art.
By now, plenty of artists have performed in prisons. There are countless schemes set up worldwide to bring music into prisons as a rehabilitative force, encouraging inmates to pick up instruments or sing to make music themselves as a kind of therapy. Plenty of artists engage with this and with charities that help use art and music to support inmates.
There are also several notable prison concerts. In 1977, Sex Pistols brought punk inside Chelmsford Top Security Prison as the ultimate display of their raging, violent sound. Frank Sinatra performed more demurely alongside Count Basie in front of the San Quentin and Lorton Correctional inmates. Blues legend BB King also did a show inside the prison walls at Cook County Jail in Chicago, showing that the phenomenon truly extends across all genres.
But there was one artist who waved the way for them all as Johnny Cash did his first-ever prison concert in 1957.
While Cash was serving in the United States Air Force Security Service, he watched the film Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison and became obsessed with the prison. It inspired his 1955 track ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ which was his second single and a true breakthrough hit for the artist.
From then on, Folsom prison and the wider idea of prisoners’ lives and mindsets stayed with him as a constant inspiration and source of intrigue. So, in 1957, he gave his first-ever concert to prison inmates at Huntsville State Prison in Texas. However, that’s certainly not his most famous performance behind bars.
Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison concert
Without a doubt, Cash’s most famous prison concert, and maybe his most infamous concert of them all, was his January 1968 shows at California’s Folsom Prison. After years of being interested in the place, as he sang his song around the country, he finally sang inside its walls.
However, it almost didn’t happen. Initially, the plan wasn’t specific to Folsom, as Cash simply had the idea of recording an album live in a prison in front of the inmates. His team phoned both Folsom and San Quentin State Prison, but Folsom was the first to respond.
So, on January 13th, 1968, Cash played two shows in front of the inmates, with Carl Perkins there to open the show and June Carter in tow for some duets and to read a poem for the crowd. Both shows saw Cash begin with ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, treated as an anthem for the inmates, as well as a whole 19-track set list of originals and covers. The result was a historic moment in music history, captured on his 1968 album, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison.
