Johnny Cash Goes to Washington: Statue of the Man in Black to Be Unveiled

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Regarding country music, they never came any greater than Johnny Cash. The Man in Black’s career and his appeal spanned generations; I saw him in concert in 1978, and my kids listen to him today. He had a distinct style, a marriage that was the envy of many, and perhaps the most easily recognizable performer of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He crossed genres and played with a variety of people; one of his best bits is a studio recording of Johnny with America’s Songwriter, Bob Dylan, in 1967, covering Dylan’s song “One Too Many Mornings.”

Now Johnny’s likeness is headed to the Capitol, and there is nobody in music that deserves that honor more than the Man in Black.

A statue depicting Johnny Cash departed Arkansas for Washington on Thursday, as state officials gave the bronze figure a send-off toward its new home at the U.S. Capitol.

A small crowd that included members of Cash’s family gathered outside Arkansas’ Capitol to watch as the statue — safely enclosed in a wooden crate in the back of a tractor trailer — began its journey. The eight- foot-tall statue is scheduled to be unveiled at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 24.

“Today is the day we’re going to send Johnny to D.C.,” Shane Broadway, chairman of the Arkansas National Statuary Hall Steering Committee, said.

The two statues replace ones from Arkansas that had been at the Capitol for more than 100 years. The Legislature in 2019 voted to replace the two statues, which depicted little-known figures from the 18th and 19th centuries with Bates and Cash.

I remember that 1978 concert very well. A buddy and I drove down to the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, where Johnny was playing in that school’s athletic stadium, the UNI-Dome. It was a great show; Johnny in his traditional black, with a great band backing him up. We talked about it for days afterward.

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Johnny Cash’s achievements were legion:

Cash was born in Kingsland, a tiny town about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Little Rock. He died in 2003 at age 71. His achievements include 90 million records sold worldwide spanning country, rock, blues, folk and gospel. He was among the few artists inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

One of his latest pieces was one I find most interesting, and almost heartbreaking, that being his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt.” On seeing the video, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor admitted that, thereafter, it was Johnny’s song.

“I wasn’t prepared for what I saw,” Reznor said. “What I had written in my diary was now superimposed on the life of this icon and sung so beautifully and emotionally. It was a reminder of what an important medium music is. Goosebumps up the spine. It really made sense. I thought: ‘What a powerful piece of art.’ I never got to meet Johnny, but I’m happy I contributed in the way I did. It wasn’t my song any more.”

There are few performers with greater stature than Johnny Cash. Some might object to putting a statue of an entertainer in the Capitol, and indeed for most, I would agree. But not Johnny Cash. His cultural impact was too great, his music so defining, his life and career so quintessentially American, that he deserves this honor.

Keep singing, Johnny. America will always remember you.