Why Did Johnny Cash Go to Prison?

As his career was taking off in the early 1960s, Cash began drinking heavily and became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates. For a brief time, Cash shared an apartment in Nashville with Waylon Jennings, who was heavily addicted to amphetamines. Cash used the uppers to stay awake during tours. Friends joked about his “nervousness” and erratic behavior, many ignoring the signs of his worsening drug addiction.

Although in many ways spiraling out of control, his frenetic creativity was still delivering hits. His rendition of “Ring of Fire” was a crossover hit, reaching No. 1 on the country charts and entering the Top 20 on the pop charts. The song was written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore and originally performed by Carter’s sister, but the signature mariachi-style horn arrangement was provided by Cash, who said that it had come to him in a dream. The song describes the personal hell Carter went through as she wrestled with her forbidden love for Cash (they were both married to other people at the time) and as she dealt with Cash’s personal “ring of fire” (drug dependency and alcoholism).

Cash sometimes spoke of his erratic, drug-induced behavior with some degree of bemused detachment. In June 1965, his truck caught fire due to an overheated wheel bearing, triggering a forest fire that burnt several hundred acres in Los Padres National Forest in California. When the judge asked Cash why he did it, Cash said in his characteristically flippant style at the time, “I didn’t do it, my truck did, and it’s dead, so you can’t question it.”[2] The fire destroyed 508 acres, burning the foliage off three mountains and killing 49 of the refuge’s 53 endangered condors. Cash was unrepentant: “I don’t care about your damn yellow buzzards.” The federal government sued him and was awarded $ 125,127. Johnny eventually settled the case and paid $ 82,001. Cash said he was the only person ever sued by the government for starting a forest fire.[2]

He carefully cultivated a romantic outlaw image, but he never served a prison sentence. Although he landed in jail seven times for misdemeanors, each stay lasted only a single night. His most serious and well-known run-in with the law occurred while on tour in 1965, when he was arrested by a narcotics squad in El Paso, Texas. The officers suspected that he was smuggling heroin from Mexico, but it was prescription narcotics and amphetamines that he had hidden inside his guitar case. Because they were prescription drugs rather than illegal narcotics, he received a suspended sentence.

He was also arrested on May 11, 1965, in Starkville, Mississippi, for trespassing late at night onto private property to pick flowers. (This incident gave the spark for the song “Starkville City Jail”, which he spoke about on his live At San Quentin prison album.)

The mid 1960s saw Cash release a number of concept albums, including Ballads Of The True West (1965), an experimental double record mixing authentic frontier songs with Cash’s spoken narration, and Bitter Tears (1964), with songs highlighting the plight of the Native Americans. His drug addiction was at its worst at this point, however, and his destructive behavior led to a divorce from his first wife and cancelled performances.

In 1967, Cash’s duet with Carter, “Jackson”, won a Grammy Award.

Cash quit using drugs in 1968, after a spiritual epiphany in the Nickajack Cave. June, Maybelle, and Eck Carter moved into Cash’s mansion for a month to help him defeat his addiction. Cash proposed onstage to Carter at a concert at the London Gardens in London, Ontario on February 22, 1968; the couple married a week later in Franklin, Kentucky. June had agreed to marry Cash after he had ‘cleaned up’. [4] Cash rediscovered his Christian faith, taking an “altar call” in Evangel Temple, a small church in the Nashville area. Cash chose this church over many larger, celebrity churches in the Nashville area because he said he was just another man there and not a celebrity.

i thought he died…

As far as i knw he only did a gig in jail in san quentin

He didn’t go to prison…other then to do a performance. He may have sang alot about it, but never made it there.

)o( trinity

Johnny Cash spent one night in a county jail in Georgia,and the next morning the sheriff returned his drugs to him,and told him if he wanted to throw his life away,and kill himself to go ahead and do it.After that Cash slowely began to change. That is the only time I know he spent any amount of time in jail,now Paycheck and David Allen Coe,and the late Freddie Fender all served hard time,along with the Hag.

Johnny Cash wan never actually IN prison. He went to do a concert and that was it. He did go to jail for drugs but never prison.

The Crash is an amazing song! Great job Jill!