Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash is often referred to as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was an American singer, actor, songwriter and author. Although he is majorly remembered for his contribution in country music, his tunes have also spanned across different genres such as rock and roll. He is specifically recognized for his profound, characteristic deep baritone voice coupled with a humble demeanor. His concerts typically start with his introduction line ‘Hi this is Johnny Cash’ and then usually proceed with ‘Folsom Prison Blues’.

Early Life

Johnny Cash was born on February 26th, 1932 in Kingsland, Arkansas. He belonged to a royal descent from Scotland, however he discovered this only after searching for his ancestry. In his younger days, he believed that he was majorly Irish and partly belongs to Native America. Even after learning about his ancestry, he still remained compassionate towards Native Americans and this was clearly portrayed in his songs from the album called ‘Bitter Tears’.

Johnny Cash was given the name J.R. Cash since his parents could not agree on a single name. At the time when he enlisted for US Air Force, he had to change his name since the military would not accept initials for a name. Hence, he took a name John R. Cash. When he signed the Sun records in 1955, he adopted ‘Johnny’ as his stage name.

Johnny was one of the seven children to parents Ray and Carrie Cash. Tommy Cash, his younger brother, also became one of the successful country artists. He started singing songs while working with his family in cotton farms at the age of 5. His family experienced a lot of personal and economic struggles during the ‘Great Depression’, which was reflected in a majority of his songs. His early memories of music were dominated by radio and gospel music. His mother as well his childhood friend introduced him to writing songs and playing guitar. He used to sing at the local radio station in childhood and years later, he released an album of gospel songs as a tribute called ‘My Mother’s Hymn book’. Cash was highly influenced by the traditional Irish songs.

Later on, Cash was enlisted in the US Air Force and was posted in Landsberg, Germany as a code intercept operator, where he developed his first band called ‘The Landsburg Barbarians’. He then returned to Texas after being respectfully released as a sergeant.

Marriages

During his Air Force training in San Antonio, Johnny met Vivian Liberto at a skating rink when she was only 17. The couple dated for three weeks before Cash left for Germany and stayed in touch thereafter. After being discharged, they got married on 7th August, 1954. They had four daughters out of this marriage. However with increasing drug and alcohol abuse, constant alliance with other women, extreme closeness with June Carter and several other affairs urged Liberto to file for a divorce in the year 1966.
Jonny Cash finally proposed June Carter, a fellow country singer he met 12 years ago, in a live performance. They got married on 1st March 1968 and they had one child out of the marriage. The couple worked together and produced some of the biggest hits of all times ‘Ring of Fire. They won two Grammys for their duets, during their professional relationship of 35 years.

Career

After getting married to Liberto, the couple moved to Tennessee. He visited the Sun records studio with the hope of getting a music contract. However when he met the producer Sam Phillips, he was told that his gospel songs were unmarketable. With a lot of improvements, he finally impressed the producer with songs like ‘Cry, Cry, Cry’ and ‘Hey Porter’, which were released by Sun studios in 1955.

His next record called ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ made it to the top 5 country songs whereas his other record called ‘I Walk the Line’ topped the country charts and was entered the top 20 of the pop charts. After the success of ‘Home of the Blues’ in 1957, he recorded an album with Sun. Although he was recording best-selling songs, he felt constrained with a small label. Thereafter he signed an attractive deal with Columbia Records and recorded one of his biggest hits called ‘Don’t take your guns’. During the 1960’s, he toured with the Carter Family. In the year 1961, he acted in a film called ‘5 Minutes to Live’ which was later released as ‘Door-to-Door Maniac’.

Last Years and Death

Johnny Cash was diagnosed with Shy-Drager Syndrome, a neurodegenerative disease, in the year 1997. Later on, he was diagnosed of autonomic neuropathy, often linked with diabetes. Due to this illness, he was forced to shorten his touring. In 1998, he has to be hospitalized due to severe pneumonia that damaged his lungs to a great extent. His last two American albums called ‘The Solitary Man’ and ‘The Man Comes Around’ released in 2002 contained his response to the diseases in the form of songs.

His 73-years old wife June Carter died on 15th May 2003 and had asked him to continue recording. Cash performed a few shows thereafter. On 5th July 2003, he gave his last public performance as a tribute to his wife. Four months after the death of his wife June Carter, his health worsened due to diabetes and was hospitalized at a hospital in Nashville. He died at 2am on 12th September 2003. Cash was buried in Hendersonville Memory gardens, next to his wife. One of his final works called ‘A Hundred Highways’ produced by Rick Rubin was released after his death on 4th July 2006. The album was an instant hit and got the first position on the charts. On 26th February 2010, Rick Rubin along with the Cash Family released another posthumous record called ‘Aint No Grave’ to mark the 78th birthday of Johnny Cash.

Johnny Depp

Musician, actor and director Johnny Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky as John Christopher Depp, Jr. on June 9, 1963. His parents were Betty Sue and John Depp. At the same time as his father was a civil engineer, his mother was a waitress and a housewife. He happened to be the youngest of four children and was often withdrawn and a self-admitted oddball. Due to his father’s profession, they often moved to different places and finally landed in Miramar, Florida.

Early Life

At the age of 7, Johnny lived with his family in a motel in Miramar for 12 months, until his father found another job. At the age of 12, he began smoking and started experimenting with drugs. He was frequently disturbed by the stress of family problems. He would often lock himself in a room and play guitar for hours. When he was 15, his parents got divorced in the year 1978. It is known that the split caused a huge rift between his father and himself.

Johnny dropped out of school when he was 16 and joined the garage band called ‘The Kids’. The group became pretty popular and started opening for ‘Talking Heads’ and the ‘B-52’s’, however the income wasn’t enough. Johnny lived for months in his friend’s Chevy Impala. At the age of 20, in 1983, he met and later married the 25 year old make-up girl Lori Allison. The couple moved to LA in the same year, looking forward to the success of the band. With a small budget, the band mates would sell pens for a telemarketing firm, in order to make some extra money.

Career

His wife introduced Johnny to her ex-boyfriend, Nicolas Cage a year later. It is known that Cage sported a lot of potential in the young musician and introduced him to a Hollywood agent. After a few small roles, Johnny got his first legitimate movie role in the popular horror film called ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’. The garage band was broken apart by 1985 and he got divorced in the same year. After his divorce, he met Sherilyn Fenn on the set of his upcoming film, ‘Dummies’. The couple dated for a few months and then got engaged, but the affair was fairly short lived. After this break-up, Johnny was associated to actress Jennifer Gray; however that romance didn’t last long enough as well.

He then focused solely on acting and attended classes at the Loft Studios in LA. His dedication towards acting paid off in 1987 where he replaced the actor Jeff Yagher for the role of an undercover cop in the Canadian TV series ’21 Jump Street’. This role took him to an instant stardom and he soon became a teen-idol. He started pursuing better roles after the series ended in 1989. Johnny starred in the John Waters musical in 1990 called ‘Cry Baby’, which became a major cult hit and led to changing his image completely.

The Stardom

Johnny got to exhibit his flexibility as an actor in the movie called ‘Edwards Scissorhands’ in the year 1990. This movie not only brought him to the list of best actors, but also grossed about $54 million at the box office. He gradually engraved a niche for himself as a dark, serious and a characteristic performer, selecting only those roles that would click with the audiences. He met another actress Winona Ryder while shooting for this film and they soon became the next power couple of Hollywood. The couple split in 1993 when Winona’s parents forbade her to marry at the age of 17.

Besides his personal life, he continued to flourish as an actor and gained critical acclaim for his work. Some of his notable movies include ‘Benny & Joon’ as well as ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?’ Along with two other business partners, Johnny bought ‘The Viper Club’ in LA and it became one of the hottest spots in the Sunset Stripe. He used this club as a platform to introduce patrons to his newly formed musical band ‘P’. However actor River Phoenix experienced a drug overdose in this club and died on October 31.

The Depression

After the incident in the club, Johnny submerged himself into drugs and started losing control of his life. He then had a disparaging relationship with the model Kate Moss in the year 1994 and the couple started making headlines for their erratic behaviour. The happenings in his personal life didn’t seem to affect his professional life and he continued his critically acclaimed movies such as ‘Ed Wood’ and ‘Don Juan DeMarco’.

He split with Kate Moss in the year 1998 and was involved in a relationship with a French actress, Vanessa Paradis who later became the biological mother of his first daughter, ‘Lily-Rose Melody Depp’. He became popular with some of his movies thereafter such as ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, ‘The Ninth Gate’, ‘The Astronaut’s Wife’ and ‘Sleepy Hollow’. A few of the big-budget films to follow include ‘Blow’, ‘From Hell’ and ‘Once Upon a Time in Mexico’. His relationship with Vanessa continued and she gave birth to his second child called ‘Jack’.

The Academy Award Nominations

Jonny received an Academy Award nomination for his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the year 2004 for the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. The film was a box office hit and he starred in another critically acclaimed movie called ‘Finding Neverland’. This movie received as many as 10 award nominations and he stared in both the sequels for the pirate series. He then emerged as a dark character in the movie called ‘Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’. He received a Golden Globe Award for his work in this movie. Three of his films are slated to release this year which also include the adaptation of the classic ‘Alice in Wonderland’.