JOHNNY CASH: THE REDEMPTION OF AN AMERICAN ICON

JOHNNY CASH: THE REDEMPTION OF AN AMERICAN ICON is a documentary getting a brief theatrical release and tells how the influential country and folk music singer, songwriter lost his way after becoming addicted to amphetamines, but returned to Jesus and became a spokesman for the Gospel. JOHNNY CASH: THE REDEMPTION OF AN AMERICAN ICON tells an inspiring story of redemption, faith and service to the Lord, but there are references to adultery, drug addiction and recovery, so it’s not for younger children.

Narrated by Marty Stuart, another country music icon, the movie opens by revealing how Johnny Cash grew up poor in the toughest part of Arkansas. His family were God-fearing people, and Johnny grew up singing gospel songs in the family’s church. Dirt poor, the children had to work the cotton fields, and Johnny’s beloved older brother, Jack, had to do odd jobs to help. At a young age, Jack wanted to be a preacher, and Johnny wanted to be a church singer.

Jack and Johnny were very close. However, in 1944, Jack was almost cut in two by a large saw at the local sawmill and died a week later.

Johnny joined the Air Force in 1950 and married his first wife, Vivian. After getting honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1954, he and Vivian moved to Memphis so Johnny could pursue a musical career. He went to Sam Phillips of Sun Records, but Sam said there was no market for gospel music. So, Johnny turned to country music, where Sam recognized the unique sound that he and his two bandmates, Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant, had created and developed.

An early hit record, titled “I Walk the Line,” where Johnny sang about his fidelity to his wife, thrust Johnny’s career into the stratosphere. However, years of being on the road and an increasing addiction to amphetamines and barbiturates led to Johnny becoming estranged from his wife and family. Then, in the early 1960s, he began touring with the Carter Family, the first group to become country and gospel music stars. Sadly, he began an adulterous affair with June Carter, the adult daughter of one of the founders of the group who sang with her two sisters.

Johnny’s addiction to prescription drugs began to affect his career. He started not showing up for some performances, and his wife finally divorced him and married another man in 1967. Later that same year, Johnny spent a night in jail in Georgia for an accident and being caught with a bag of prescription pills. The next morning, Johnny went walking through a forest and wrestled with his conscience. He wandered into a cave, where He encountered Jesus and gave his life to Christ, who led him out of the cave.

“There’s no lonelier place on Earth to be than being separated from God,” Johnny says in a recording. “I was taking the pills for a while, and then the pills started taking me.”

The rest of the movie details how Johnny turned his life over to Jesus and began speaking publicly about his faith. However, ABC-TV didn’t like his references to Jesus and cancelled his weekly TV show in 1971. Johnny kept speaking out about his faith, and occasionally joined the Rev. Billy Graham on one of his crusades.

JOHNNY CASH: THE REDEMPTION OF AN AMERICAN ICON tells an inspiring story of redemption, faith and service to the Lord. The movie contains interviews with his sister, Joanne Cash Yates, and his son, John Carter Cash, and several major music stars, including Marty Stuart, Wynonna Judd, Tim McGraw, and Sheryl Crow, and with actor John Schneider. Pastor Greg Laurie, who wrote the book on which the movie is based, and the Rev. Franklin Graham, Billy’s son, also discuss Johnny Cash’s faith.

However, the movie contains references to Johnny and June’s adultery and drug addiction and recovery, so it’s not for younger children. Also, the movie doesn’t mention that after getting free of drugs in 1970, Johnny relapsed three times before he died in 2003, four months after his second wife, June. His gravestone, however, cites Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”