Johnny Cash

Year:
1992
Inducted by:
Lyle Lovett
Category:
Performers

Introduction

Johnny Cash had all the qualities of a country legend: a rich life, a keen instinct for storytelling and an unflinching eye on the world around him.

Cash’s humble beginnings made him an authentic storyteller whose plainspoken narrative songs spoke to the American everyman. He wrote songs prolifically but never carelessly; each one captured a deeper truth and resonated uncannily with the working man.

Johnny Cash Acceptance Speech

Johnny Cash Acceptance Speech at the 1992 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Johnny Cash Acceptance Speech

00:01:48
"Big River"

00:03:27

Hall of Fame Essay

1992

Arthur Levy

He's the man in black, “walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction.” His six foot-plus, ebon-draped frame has worked itself deep into the American psyche to become as familiar to some as Woody Guthrie or Billy the Kid, Geronimo or Luke the Drifter.

Johnny Cash is a little bit of all those American legends. During a career that spans five distinct decades, he has created more than 1,000 compositions that describe a folk hero in transition, singing in his distinctive baritoned-bass voice of coal miners and sharecroppers, cowboys and Native Americans, families and lovers. Invariably, he returns to his early years for strength and inspiration.