Rosanne Cash, the acclaimed singer-songwriter, has always had a unique connection to music, thanks to her legendary father, Johnny Cash. In a heartfelt conversation with Closer Weekly, Rosanne, now 64, reminisces about her first-ever paying gig. “It was with my dad,” she says with a warm smile. “When I was a teenager, he took me and my sisters on tour with him. We’d join him on stage at the end of the show to sing a song together.” She vividly remembers the excitement of those nights, especially when her dad would toss money at them after the performance. “If we were in Vegas, even though we were too young to gamble, he’d encourage us to hit the slots. He just wanted us to have fun,” she recalls with a chuckle.
While the world often remembers Johnny Cash as the rugged outlaw from the 2006 movie Walk the Line, which portrayed his battles with drug addiction, infidelity, and law-breaking, Rosanne paints a much gentler picture of her father. “There was so much more to him than what people saw on screen,” she explains. “He had this incredibly sweet side. For instance, during the summers, he’d make us homemade ice cream. It was one of those old-fashioned hand-cranked machines, and you could tell his arm was exhausted by the end, but he kept going until it was perfect for us.” When asked about his favorite flavor, Rosanne beams and says, “Peach, of course. He’d throw in fresh peaches, and it was just magical.”
Beyond the Stage: Johnny Cash's Playful Side
Though Johnny Cash's on-stage persona was often stern and commanding, Rosanne insists that at home, he was a completely different person. “He was hilarious,” she says with a laugh. “He was the ultimate practical joker. He’d get down on the floor and play with the kids, and he absolutely adored babies. It was just another side of him that not many people got to see.”
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Rosanne also addresses a common misconception about her father: that he was a narrow-minded, right-wing conservative. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” she says firmly. “He was so much more open-minded than people give him credit for. His love for music transcended genres. He took my brother, John Carter Cash, to see heavy metal bands. He listened to everything—rock, jazz, classical—and he had an incredible appreciation for all forms of music. As Louis Armstrong once said, there’s only good music and bad music, and Johnny embodied that philosophy.”
Johnny Cash's Later Years: A New Generation of Fans
As Johnny Cash aged, his openness to different styles of music only grew. “He covered songs by bands like Nine Inch Nails, and it connected him with a whole new generation of fans,” Rosanne explains. “It wasn’t just a gimmick; it was a reflection of who he truly was. There was an endless expansiveness to his spirit. He had the mind of a true artist, and sometimes, that made it hard for him to navigate the world. But his art was always genuine, and that’s why people loved him so much.”
The Final Months: A Deep Connection
In the final months of Johnny’s life, after the passing of his beloved wife, June Carter Cash, Rosanne found herself forming a deeper bond with her father. “He asked me to read Psalms to him,” she says softly. “I’m not particularly religious, but I was happy to do it for him. By that point, he had lost his sight, so he relied on me to connect him with the words he loved.”
Johnny passed away in September 2003 at the age of 71, just months after losing June. That Christmas Eve, Rosanne attended a service and was inspired to adapt a hymn she heard into a new song. “I wrote, ‘We’re all walking in that direction to go behind that veil,’” she explains. “At that moment, I felt a profound connection with my parents, who had already crossed over. It was a powerful reminder of the love that transcends life itself.”
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