The Man in Black...
 

Johnny Cash died last night at the age of 71. He will be missed. I liked the man.

I liked Cash since I was young. I had all his records about 30 years ago.

"Better to be dead and cool than alive and uncool..."
--From Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man.

Johhny Cash was one of the cool ones. He lived a hard life in many ways, and his death is not unexpected, but still a reminder to us all of our own mortality. I was glad to hear that he had done some things to resolve some of his family problems in the las few years.

If Steve McQueen was the King of Cool in the movies, Johnny Cash was the King of Cool in the music world.

btw, has everyone heard his version of Ternt Reznor's "Hurt?" Even though JC's voice is rougher, he really nails it. He had us riight until the end.

Today, Johnny's sitting in a saloon, having a drink. He's got a guitar and stool, and heaven just got more interesting...

Here here! Lets embark with a virtual Crown and Soda.

Here's the video, from the director's web site:

http://www.markromanek.com/video/14.html

If anything, it's even more brutal than the audio track. Outstanding, and even more poignant given his wife's death a month or so ago.

I saw JC play in Prague in '97 at the former Communist Party Congress Hall, to a bunch of adoring Czechs in cowboy hats. He already looked pretty weak then, but what a show.

Johhny was definately one of a kind.:(
So long, and say hi to June for us all.

When I was 14 or so we moved to Hendersonville, home of Johnny. We were at WalMart; Johnny was in the store - he said Hi to me, he was unaccosted although closely observed by the other shoppers. I saw June loading bags of manure into the trunk of a large black Benz. I thought "My Gosh, what hillbillies"! (At the time a Mercedes was in the same holy grail category as Ferrari for me). Fast forward to 2002 and I am vacuuming out the trunk from my wife's last Lowes trip. I laughed out loud at myself, the hillbilly.

-Tom