The final public performance of Johnny Cash did not happen in an arena or on national television. It happened in a wooden music hall at the end of a country road in southwest Virginia, in front of a crowd that knew they might be seeing him for the last time. Seven weeks earlier, he had lost the love of his life.
Losing June
June Carter Cash died on May 15, 2003, at age 73, after complications from heart valve surgery. She and Johnny had been married since 1968. She had stood beside him through addiction, recovery and decades of music, and she had co-written one of his most famous songs, “Ring of Fire.”
Johnny himself was in fragile health. He had battled diabetes and a serious neurological illness for years. But in the months after June’s death, he kept working, recording new songs and, remarkably, returning to the stage one more time.
The Carter Family Fold
The place he chose meant everything. The Carter Family Fold, in Hiltons, Virginia, was founded in 1974 by Janette Carter, daughter of A.P. and Sara Carter of the original Carter Family, to keep traditional old-time and bluegrass music alive. It sits just a few miles from where the Carter Family story began, and June was a Carter, the daughter of Mother Maybelle.
The Fold had a firm rule: acoustic instruments only. But Johnny Cash was family.
No wheelchair
On July 5, 2003, Janette Carter introduced him to the crowd. Johnny was too weak to walk to the microphone without help, but he refused to be brought onto the stage in a wheelchair. He was helped to his seat, and from there he did what he had done for nearly fifty years.
“Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,” he said, and he opened with “Folsom Prison Blues.” His voice was shaky, but his guitar was steady. He followed with “I Walk the Line” and Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.”
“Somewhere between here and heaven”
Before the next song, he paused to talk about June. He told the crowd her spirit was all around him that night, filled with the love she had for him and the love he had for her. Then he said:
“We connect somewhere between here and heaven.”
He said he believed June had come down for a short visit from heaven to be with him that night, to give him courage and inspiration, just as she always had. He thanked God for her and said he loved her with all his heart. Then he sang “Ring of Fire,” the song she had been so proud of.
“Angel Band”
Next came “Angel Band,” an old hymn about being carried home by angels. Johnny explained that it was the song June had asked Emmylou Harris to sing at her funeral, just weeks earlier. For many in the room, it was the hardest moment of the night.
There was still room for a smile. Johnny told the story of the first time he brought electric instruments to the Fold, against its acoustic-only rule. Janette, he recalled, had explained it to the audience this way:
“June said that Johnny Cash was already plugged in when she met him.”
The crowd laughed and applauded, and Janette, sitting behind him on stage with her brother Joe, laughed through tears.
The last song
He played “Big River,” and then “Understand Your Man,” a song he said he had not performed in 25 years. The set lasted about thirty minutes. When it ended, the audience stood and cheered as he was helped off the stage.
It was the last public performance of Johnny Cash’s life.
September 12, 2003
Johnny Cash died on September 12, 2003, at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, from complications of diabetes. He was 71 years old. He had lived less than four months without June.
On that July night in Virginia, he had told a room full of strangers and family that June had come to sit with him one more time. Two months later, he went to join her.