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Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of double Elvis.

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Speaker 2: Stories about country singer Johnny Cash are insane. He was

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Speaker 2: busted for drug smuggling, burned down a national forest, crashed cadillacs,

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Speaker 2: fueled himself daily with speed, tranquilizers, and beer, and was

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Speaker 2: rebellious to his core. He took little to no lip

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Speaker 2: from anyone, fought relentlessly with authority, cops, judges, prison wardens,

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Speaker 2: and for the underdog, and against social injustice, once even

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Speaker 2: famously getting into it with the Ku Klux Klan. He

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Speaker 2: was also daring and big hearted at most everything he did,

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Speaker 2: daring to dream big and love and in life, and

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Speaker 2: fearless in pursuit of his art and the woman he loved,

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Speaker 2: June Carter. Johnny Cash constantly played with fire. He was

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Speaker 2: a walking time bomb, a human wrecking ball of self destruction,

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Speaker 2: seemingly always one false move from death. But Johnny Cash

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Speaker 2: made great music. That music you heard at the top

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Speaker 2: of the show that wasn't great music. That was a

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Speaker 2: preset loop for my melotron called Flaming Mellow Flutes BK one.

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Speaker 2: I played you that loop because I can't afford the

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Speaker 2: rights to Hello Goodbye by the Beatles and why would

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Speaker 2: I play you that specific slice of Two Faced Cheese?

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Speaker 2: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one

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Speaker 2: song in America on January thirteenth, nineteen sixty eight, And

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Speaker 2: that was the day that Johnny Cash stepped onto the

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Speaker 2: stage at Falsom Prison and created one of the most

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Speaker 2: enduring musical statements of the twentieth century, a statement that

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Speaker 2: were not for his willingness to play with fire, likely

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Speaker 2: would have never happened. On this episode, Two Faced Cheese,

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Speaker 2: Mellow Flutes, Drugs at the Border, playing with Fire, and

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Speaker 2: the man in Black Johnny Cash, I'm Jake Brennan and

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Speaker 2: his disgrace slam. The gunman's hand was steady, cool under pressure.

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Speaker 2: Johnny Cash respected that the steal from the pistol was cold.

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Speaker 2: Johnny wanted to stay that way. He could feel it

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Speaker 2: as the gunman pressed it to the back of his neck.

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Speaker 2: Johnny wasn't scared though, as usual. He was cool, steady,

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Speaker 2: just like his assailant, not because he was some sort

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Speaker 2: of TV tough guy, and not because he was distracted

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Speaker 2: by drugs or drink, but because he had faith, faith

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Speaker 2: in three things. His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the

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Speaker 2: love of his life, his wife, June Carter Cash. In

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Speaker 2: the power of music, he dedicated his life to all

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Speaker 2: of them, most recently to his wife, sitting next to

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Speaker 2: him at the moment in their home, bound by strong rope,

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Speaker 2: with their eyes averting contact with their homes invaders, resolute

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Speaker 2: as was their normal disposition.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 2: For the past decade or so, Johnny had dedicated a

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Speaker 2: large portion of his creative and personal efforts to Christ,

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Speaker 2: churning out numerous recordings to evangelize the Good Word and

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Speaker 2: declaring that quote, being a Christian isn't for sisses. It

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Speaker 2: takes a real man to live for God, a lot

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Speaker 2: more man than to live for the devil. If you

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Speaker 2: really want to live right these days, you gotta be tough.

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Speaker 2: But Johnny happily preached another kind of gospel as well,

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Speaker 2: the gospel of country music, on his long running music

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Speaker 2: variety television show on ABC that he hosted and produced,

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Speaker 2: bringing to the stage and thus the living rooms of

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Speaker 2: mind millians of Americans country musicians he adored and respected,

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Speaker 2: like Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, Marty Robbins, and many others,

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Speaker 2: as well as the folk rock musicians he admired. Like

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Speaker 2: his friend Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, Johnny's faith was calming.

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Speaker 2: It was everything, even back then, back in the sixties,

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Speaker 2: when his life was anything but calm. The gunmen were

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Speaker 2: desperate and playing with fire, but Johnny knew that the

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Speaker 2: demands they were making on him and his family would

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Speaker 2: somehow work themselves out. Johnny Cash knew about desperation, and

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Speaker 2: he knew about playing with fire. He closed his eyes,

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Speaker 2: took a long, quiet, deep breath, and let his mind

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Speaker 2: bring him back a couple of years in nineteen sixty four,

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Speaker 2: Johnny Cash was a well known or respected performer. His

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Speaker 2: musical style was completely his own. To date, there's never

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Speaker 2: been anyone who's come close to sounding like him. His

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Speaker 2: was a hard driving, but effortless sound, honest at times, humorous,

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Speaker 2: and it's totally authentic. Johnny Cash's music definitely balanced the

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Speaker 2: energy of rockabilly with seasoned country music, and it was

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Speaker 2: all anchored into something spiritual with the gravitas afforded him

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Speaker 2: by his voice, a deep, sophisticated sounding baritone. When you

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Speaker 2: heard Johnny Cash, you knew it was Johnny Cash. He

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Speaker 2: performed upwards of two hundred shows a year. His albums

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Speaker 2: and singles on Sun and Columbia Records were well known

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Speaker 2: to country and pop fans alike. His nineteen sixty three

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Speaker 2: single Ring of Fire topped the country charts at number

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Speaker 2: one for seven weeks and cracked the Top twenty pop chart.

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Speaker 2: His reputation is a hard drinking outlaw, constantly battling his

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Speaker 2: demons and song, along with his signature man in Black style,

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Speaker 2: made him unmistakable and one of the most popular entertainers

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Speaker 2: in the country. But despite his star status, Johnny Cash

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Speaker 2: was a serious drug addict and alcoholic who popped up

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Speaker 2: to one hundred pills a day, mostly amphetamines and barbituates,

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Speaker 2: and chased them with full cases of beer, the result

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Speaker 2: of which made him legless, incoherent, and totally unreliable as

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Speaker 2: a performer to his fans and as a husband to

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Speaker 2: his wife and as a father to his four daughters

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Speaker 2: at the time. But the bad behavior did have the

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Speaker 2: benefit of making him a totally reliable narrator, authentic to

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Speaker 2: his core, and with the absolute authority to deliver lyrics

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Speaker 2: that are bold and direct and right up in your face.

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Speaker 2: Just like Johnny Cash, the drugs, the drink and the violent,

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Speaker 2: dangerous mishaps that went along with his particular brand of

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Speaker 2: boldness meant that Johnny Cash was playing with fire. Just

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Speaker 2: like the lyrics to his nineteen sixty four song bad

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Speaker 2: News said, There's no mistaking who or what he was,

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Speaker 2: a fast moving, bad bad man. The judge knew this,

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Speaker 2: he could sense it sitting across the courtroom from Johnny.

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Speaker 2: Johnny had been in front of many judges up until

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Speaker 2: this point and had little interest in what they had

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Speaker 2: to say, And Johnny took the criminal rap and stride.

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Speaker 2: Things always seemed to work themselves out. He'd live another day,

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Speaker 2: breathe the air of a free man, and make his

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Speaker 2: way to the next gig, or through the next pile

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Speaker 2: of pills, or to the bottom of the next case

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Speaker 2: of cold ones, whichever came first. So Johnny had no

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Speaker 2: problem getting lippy with the judge. Besides, the charges were bullshit,

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Speaker 2: killing condors, endangering protected wildlife, destroying property, federal property. Shit

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Speaker 2: regarding the fire that did all the damage. Johnny was

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Speaker 2: now being charged with the one that burned down five

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Speaker 2: hundred acres of Los Padres National Forest in California and

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Speaker 2: killed a reported fifty three endangered condors. The judge asked, Johnny,

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Speaker 2: did you start this fire? Johnny shot back to the judge, No,

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Speaker 2: my truck did, and it's dead, so you can't question it.

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Speaker 2: Johnny meant it, at least he thought he did. Truth

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Speaker 2: be told, he couldn't remember who or what started the fire,

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Speaker 2: but he was sticking to his story that his truck's

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Speaker 2: wheelbearing overheated, cracked and leaked oil onto a tire, which

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Speaker 2: threw it up to the forest dry grass, and that

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Speaker 2: that's what started the fire. However, the most reasonable explanation

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Speaker 2: and accounts for Johnny picking up his nephew Damon for

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Speaker 2: a fishing trip. Johnny was half in the bag when

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Speaker 2: he arrived, and by the time they hit the forest,

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Speaker 2: Johnny was blitzed dim and bailed to get in some

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Speaker 2: fishing and left his uncle to get his head right.

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Speaker 2: Johnny set up camp in a little fire to keep warm,

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Speaker 2: but blitzed on pills and beer, was unable to control

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Speaker 2: the flames when they quickly began to spread like wildfire.

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Speaker 2: The smoke was reported and in no time over one

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Speaker 2: hundred firefighters descended, including Healey jumpers and five air takers.

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Speaker 2: After a couple hours, the fire spread, covering acre upon

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Speaker 2: acre of forestland. Four hundred firemen from all over the

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Speaker 2: state were called in to battle and eventually stopped the

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Speaker 2: flames in the process, and eventual five hundred acres was destroyed,

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Speaker 2: as were fifty three endangered and protected condors nesting in

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Speaker 2: a refuge in the nearby Sespy Wildlife Area. Johnny was

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Speaker 2: near legless in court, packed to the gills with pills

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Speaker 2: to fend off the reality of the situation. The judge

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Speaker 2: asked him, do you feel bad about what you did?

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Speaker 2: Johnny replied with a thick tongue, well, I feel pretty

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Speaker 2: good right now. But how about driving all those condors

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Speaker 2: out of the refuge? The judge asked, you mean those

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Speaker 2: yellow buzzards. I don't give a damn about your yellow buzzards.

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Speaker 2: Why should I care? Johnny Cash cared about little at

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Speaker 2: the time. He didn't care about the judge or the

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Speaker 2: judges questions, nor did he care about his family, or

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Speaker 2: his fate, or even his career. He didn't care about

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Speaker 2: his fans or his music. He didn't care about condors

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Speaker 2: or yellow buzzards, and unlike the rest of the world

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Speaker 2: at the time, he didn't care about the Beatles either,

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Speaker 2: why should he he was Johnny Cash. The gig in

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Speaker 2: Dallas that night was unmemorable. Johnny was supposed to bounce

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Speaker 2: out afterward on a flight to la but he bailed instead,

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Speaker 2: he flew to El Paso. From there, it was only

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Speaker 2: a short thirty minute drive south on Route forty five

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Speaker 2: over the US border to war As, Mexico, where they

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Speaker 2: kept the good pills, and Johnny Cash needed those pills.

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Speaker 2: The Cavey drove like a maniac, just the way Johnny

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Speaker 2: liked it, and there was no time to spare. He

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Speaker 2: needed to score and get high, or else his moods

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Speaker 2: would get the best of him. The road from El Paso,

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Speaker 2: Texas to Warres, Mexico was a dusty, passing blur of

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Speaker 2: sunstrokes and roadkill, a vision right at home in the

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Speaker 2: drug added cobweb Brain of Johnny Cash. In October nineteen

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Speaker 2: sixty five, the volume on the Cave's radio was jacked

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Speaker 2: downtown by Petula Clark, blasting back at maximum volume. Johnny

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Speaker 2: was annoyed and about to say something when the song ended,

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Speaker 2: and within seconds the cat was overtaken by the sound

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Speaker 2: of John Lennon singing help, his unmistakable voice repeating the

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Speaker 2: title word over and over again in the chorus, the

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Speaker 2: final call for help, dragging Johnny suspiciously into the Beatles'

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Speaker 2: verse with curious ears and what the hell was this?

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Speaker 2: The song was enthralling. Paul McCartney's bass bounced from the

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Speaker 2: one to the five, boom tom to kaboom in a

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Speaker 2: way that was very familiar to Johnny, as were the

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Speaker 2: little bass notes struck by George Harrison on the rhythm guitar, Goom, doom, doom.

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Speaker 2: It was all country music. Johnny felt a tinge of resentment,

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Speaker 2: but Ringo swung like a motherfucker, and Johnny was hard

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Speaker 2: pressed to do anything but loved the song. The rhythm

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Speaker 2: sealed it for him, just like it always did. The

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Speaker 2: song was infectious, and that big acoustic guitar humming along,

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Speaker 2: bold and up in your face. Johnny knew that sound too,

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Speaker 2: the sound of a Gibson J one eighty, the model

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Speaker 2: made popular by the Everly Brothers, a little smaller than

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Speaker 2: the J two hundred. Johnny slum a country nonetheless, either

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Speaker 2: way he had handed to the Beatles. There was way

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Speaker 2: more going on in this tune than anything else in

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Speaker 2: the radio at the time, just like countless numbers of

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Speaker 2: previously recorded country songs, help was jammed with insecurity and desperation,

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Speaker 2: but it was funneled through a completely new pop songwriting paradigm.

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Speaker 2: The sound, the production, It was alive and it came

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Speaker 2: screaming out of the speakers. Sure, the country influences were there,

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Speaker 2: but combined with the modern production and the naked emotion,

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Speaker 2: the whole sound was totally new. Johnny blitzed as usual,

200
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Speaker 2: wasn't sure if his head was fucking with him or not.

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Speaker 2: Was Lennin literally crying out for help in the track

202
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Speaker 2: on the record over the radio? The thought was gone

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Speaker 2: almost as quickly as it came, kind of like the song.

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Speaker 2: It was over in two minutes and thirty seconds, followed

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Speaker 2: quickly by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs excellent Willy Bully,

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Speaker 2: Oh no those one two tresquatro. Johnny let the song

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Speaker 2: bounce through him in unison with the rock and the

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Speaker 2: role of the early model De Soto custom, carrying him

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Speaker 2: over the bumpy road to Horras, Mexico. But despite Sam

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Speaker 2: the Sham, Johnny couldn't get his head off of the Beatles.

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Speaker 2: He'd met them a couple months earlier. At the Kyle

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Speaker 2: Palace up near San Francisco, and frankly could have cared less.

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Speaker 2: He found them at the time at least to be comical,

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Speaker 2: but also smug in a wash in the glory of

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Speaker 2: their own bullshit. Johnny was there because, frankly, he didn't

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Speaker 2: have anything better to do that day. June Carter of

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Speaker 2: Carter Family country music royalty fame was off playing shows

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Speaker 2: somewhere else, no longer on the road with Johnny and

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Speaker 2: his band and support of Johnny's act, and Johnny was

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Speaker 2: at loose ends without her. Their secret affair was next

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Speaker 2: to getting high his main priority in nineteen sixty five,

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Speaker 2: and at the Kyle Palace that night, backstage and waiting

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Speaker 2: like a chump alongside folk singer Joan Bias to meet

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Speaker 2: the Beatles. Johnny Cash, perhaps because of Bias's undeniable beauty,

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Speaker 2: had June Carter on his mind. She was beautiful, kind,

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Speaker 2: supremely talented, both as a musician and as an artist.

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Speaker 2: She was one of those rare types of people whose

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Speaker 2: talent doesn't affect their ego. June Carter, despite her obvious

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Speaker 2: gifts and celebrity, was at once endlessly interested as well

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Speaker 2: as being endlessly interesting, and she understood Johnny Cash on

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Speaker 2: a molecular level. It was the type of understanding that

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Speaker 2: can possess and propel a man. Their attraction for one

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Speaker 2: another was next level. It was chemical scientific. June Carter's sexuality,

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Speaker 2: singed Johnny Cash at a show with June back in

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Speaker 2: August up in Toronto. Johnny, overcome with his desire for

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Speaker 2: his not so secret secret girlfriend, called her a sex

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Speaker 2: machine from the stage. Wasted again on booys and pills,

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Speaker 2: Johnny left the stage, dropped down onto all fours, and

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Speaker 2: began howling at June and following her around while attempting

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Speaker 2: to lick her ankles. It was the kind of public

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Speaker 2: breakdown that, had it happened in the Internet age, would

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00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:58,320
Speaker 2: likely have been a career killer, but because it happened

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Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty five, resulted and only a short mention

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Speaker 2: in the Toronto Star admonishing Johnny for his act being

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Speaker 2: inappropriate for children. Married or not. Johnny was obsessed to

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Speaker 2: the point of distraction. Johnny Cash was once again playing

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Speaker 2: with fire. June Carter was a world wrecker. Pills were

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Speaker 2: ever necessary. It may have been Mexican Radio, but it

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Speaker 2: was owned by the Little Lads from Liverpool. After Willie Bully,

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00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:27,520
Speaker 2: it was right back to the Beatles again. George Harrison's

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Speaker 2: intro rift to Ticket to Ride pierced the static on

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Speaker 2: the cabs speakers and pulled Johnny's head out of June

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Speaker 2: Carter's pants. For the moment, Ringos staggered, but steady beat

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Speaker 2: banged on through, and Johnny was held fixed again by

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Speaker 2: John Lennon's lyrics melancholy, blue and full of sex, just

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Speaker 2: like Johnny. Johnny knew Lennon was talking about sex. It

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Speaker 2: was all right there in the air in his head. Damnit,

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Speaker 2: he missed June. The pills would help, they always did,

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00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:57,320
Speaker 2: and right now Johnny Cash was staring at a suitcase

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Speaker 2: filled with them. His enterprising cab driver had turned from

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00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:03,880
Speaker 2: a shady Horras bar with enough dex adrine and tranquilizers

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Speaker 2: to put an entire audience of Grand Old Opry fans

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Speaker 2: out the pasture, which, after being banned from the Opry

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Speaker 2: back in fifty six, was a fate Johnny would have

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00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:16,680
Speaker 2: relished seeing come to fruition. But enough about the past.

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Speaker 2: The future was now, and Johnny Cash was movie jonesing,

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Speaker 2: so he threw a handful of pills to the back

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Speaker 2: of his throat, chased him down with a warm bottle

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Speaker 2: of beer, and began stuffing the rest of his newly

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Speaker 2: procured stash into his guitar case. He was flying back

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Speaker 2: to the States. He had to get back to June asap,

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Speaker 2: and the DeSoto, despite the Cabby's lead foot, wasn't going

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Speaker 2: to cut it Johnny's drug slinging. Cabby made his way

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Speaker 2: to the airport nel Passo, but not before being made

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Speaker 2: by a couple of cops. Johnny was searched on suspicion

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Speaker 2: of heroin possession. The cops didn't find heroin, but they

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Speaker 2: did find Johnny's pills six hundred and eighty eight dexadrine

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Speaker 2: four hundred and fifty seven equanol. Johnny Cash was busted

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Speaker 2: and thrown in jail. Perhaps out of shame, or more

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Speaker 2: likely out of fear of being locked up for a

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00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:06,760
Speaker 2: long stretch, Johnny Cash straightened himself out for a moment anyway,

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00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:09,800
Speaker 2: He put June Carter on the shelf and began a

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00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:13,040
Speaker 2: period of reconciliation with his wife, Vivian. If for no

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Speaker 2: other reason, appearance is sake, the judge would most likely

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00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:19,760
Speaker 2: go easy on a family man went to thinking, especially

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Speaker 2: one who was doing his best to clean up his

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00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:23,920
Speaker 2: act and to pull himself out of the scandalous ring

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Speaker 2: of fire that had come to define him in the newspapers.

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00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:31,040
Speaker 2: It worked. At his arraignment, Johnny appeared clear eyed, in

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00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:33,840
Speaker 2: a gained weight. His wife was at his side, standing

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Speaker 2: by her man, and there was no smart ass in

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00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,119
Speaker 2: Johnny's answers to the judge like there had been back

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00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:41,879
Speaker 2: during the Los Padres wildfire incident. Johnny's lawyers went to

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Speaker 2: work and he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge. The

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00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:47,840
Speaker 2: judge went easy on him, a thousand dollars fine in

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Speaker 2: a thirty day suspended sentence, in effect leaving Johnny to

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00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:54,280
Speaker 2: get his life and career back in order. But Johnny

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00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:58,720
Speaker 2: Cash could not leave well enough alone. Reckless, stubborn, hell bent.

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00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:02,359
Speaker 2: He was like a moth to a flame. We'll be

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00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:12,520
Speaker 2: right back after this word, word word, Johnny Cash was

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Speaker 2: dead on the floor, and it was all Ronnie Hawkins's fault.

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00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:20,119
Speaker 2: Ronnie Hawkins, the hard driving Canadian rockabilly hell raiser, singer

303
00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:22,680
Speaker 2: of The Hawks, the man who told his young guitarist

304
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Speaker 2: Robbie Robertson in his pitch to get him to join

305
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:27,800
Speaker 2: his band, you won't make much money, or you'll get

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00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:31,240
Speaker 2: more pussy than Sinatra had. It seemed drunk and drugged

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00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:34,480
Speaker 2: his friend Johnny Cash into an early grave, pretty much

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00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:39,400
Speaker 2: to the surprise of no one. Despite johnny'sttempt at sobriety

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Speaker 2: and fidelity a couple months prior, he was back to

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Speaker 2: his old ways pills booze June Carter. He was a

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Speaker 2: man possessed, bent on self destruction, and Ronnie Hawkins was

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00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:55,960
Speaker 2: the perfect wingman for such a mission. Following a semi

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Speaker 2: disaster show earlier in the evening, the two set about

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00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:02,359
Speaker 2: the party. At some point, Ronnie took off and Johnny

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00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:05,320
Speaker 2: felt into a stupor. He was found the following morning,

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Speaker 2: face down on the floor of his motor home in

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Speaker 2: the parking lot of the Toronto Four Seasons without a pulse,

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00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:15,200
Speaker 2: and that's the time. In the music industry, Johnny Cash

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00:19:15,280 --> 00:19:18,439
Speaker 2: was a liability. Promoters knew he'd pack him in, but

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00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:20,320
Speaker 2: they figured he was fifty to fifty on whether or

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00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:23,920
Speaker 2: not he'd show up sober enough to play. His manager,

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00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,440
Speaker 2: Sal hall Off was doing everything he could outrun Johnny's

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Speaker 2: ever deteriorating professional reputation, managing the fallout from the bust

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00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:35,200
Speaker 2: in El Paso, the trials surrounding the fire at Los Padres,

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00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:38,160
Speaker 2: the loan, string of canceled concerts due to Johnny's drug

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00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:41,280
Speaker 2: and alcohol use, and of course, covering up the car

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00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:45,080
Speaker 2: crash in Nashville, the one where Johnny totaled June Carter's Cadillac.

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00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:48,080
Speaker 2: Saul had a scramble to keep the details of the

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Speaker 2: crash and Johnny and June's affair under wraps and out

330
00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:56,000
Speaker 2: of the newspapers. Somehow, Sal's hustle always kept it so

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00:19:56,080 --> 00:19:57,960
Speaker 2: Johnny Cash would lived at the end of the day.

332
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Speaker 2: But on that morning in Toronto, on March nineteenth, nineteen

333
00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:06,480
Speaker 2: sixty six, they both seemed out of options. Johnny Cash

334
00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:09,720
Speaker 2: had no pulse and no one had any answers. Where

335
00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:12,800
Speaker 2: were his pillstash? What should they do? Who should they call?

336
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:15,720
Speaker 2: Where should they go? They could go to the hospital,

337
00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:17,960
Speaker 2: but that would mean making the overdose public and thus

338
00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:20,520
Speaker 2: driving the final nail into the coffin. That was Johnny

339
00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:23,400
Speaker 2: Cash's career at the moment. And they could say fuck

340
00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:25,720
Speaker 2: it and try to revive Johnny themselves and head to

341
00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:28,320
Speaker 2: the next show. But that was in the States in Rochester,

342
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,720
Speaker 2: New York. So that meant crossing the border and subjecting

343
00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:34,119
Speaker 2: Saul and the rest of Johnny's entourage to a custom

344
00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,159
Speaker 2: search and risking the discovery of what was believed to

345
00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:40,440
Speaker 2: be an ample supply of Johnny's illegal drugs, and thus

346
00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:44,680
Speaker 2: jail for the lot of them. Either way, they were screwed,

347
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,080
Speaker 2: so they said fuck it, the show must go on,

348
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:50,200
Speaker 2: and they headed to the border. They endeavored to bring

349
00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:53,480
Speaker 2: Johnny back to consciousness, slapping him about the face, yelling

350
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,000
Speaker 2: at him, pounding his chest, until, by some stroke of

351
00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:58,240
Speaker 2: dumb luck, they were able to generate some signs of

352
00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:02,040
Speaker 2: life minimal as they were. Twitch of the eyelid, a moan,

353
00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:05,200
Speaker 2: a labored cough. It was enough for them to press on,

354
00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:08,080
Speaker 2: and they stashed a prone Johnny Cash under a pile

355
00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:11,359
Speaker 2: of dirty laundry and miraculously made it through customs without

356
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:15,399
Speaker 2: being searched. Soon enough they were able to fully revive Johnny.

357
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:18,040
Speaker 2: They made it to Rochester in time for the show,

358
00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:20,879
Speaker 2: and with Johnny's heartbeat now ticking again at a normal

359
00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:23,159
Speaker 2: pace and with the benefit of a couple hours of

360
00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:26,639
Speaker 2: forced sobriety, Johnny Cash waltzed onto the stage and delivered

361
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:30,040
Speaker 2: a transformative performance. It was nothing short of a miracle.

362
00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:33,600
Speaker 2: It was inspired, just like Johnny's love for his touring

363
00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:39,479
Speaker 2: mate June Carter. That year, in nineteen sixty six, Johnny's wife, Vivian,

364
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:43,600
Speaker 2: filed for divorce, a request Johnny was happy to oblige.

365
00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:47,800
Speaker 2: Also that year, June Carter, formerly divorced professional badass Edwin

366
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:51,800
Speaker 2: rip Nicks, a former football player, race car driver, and cop.

367
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:55,679
Speaker 2: Johnny and June were finally able to be with one another.

368
00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:58,880
Speaker 2: Not that anything had really stopped them before, but now

369
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:00,560
Speaker 2: they were able to be out in the open about it,

370
00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:04,480
Speaker 2: and now with June's support, or more likely, with the

371
00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:07,119
Speaker 2: prospect of some sort of real future with June, the

372
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:10,160
Speaker 2: woman of his dreams. Johnny Cash took a sincere swing

373
00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:14,639
Speaker 2: at sobriety and it stuck. With a clear head, his

374
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:17,240
Speaker 2: next move was to take his career to the next level.

375
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:20,960
Speaker 2: He needed a hit. Popular music was evolving at a

376
00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:25,400
Speaker 2: fevered pitch. Dylan had gone electric, the Beatles were going psychedelic,

377
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Speaker 2: and if Johnny Cash didn't make some sort of new

378
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:32,280
Speaker 2: musical statement, he was going nowhere. He had an idea,

379
00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:36,919
Speaker 2: a collaboration of sorts with murderers, rapists, bank robbers, and

380
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 2: an assortment of men just like himself, bad bad men

381
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:44,479
Speaker 2: who used to move fast but weren't going nowhere. A

382
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:49,280
Speaker 2: captive audience of bag men, second story men, wheelmen, confidence men,

383
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Speaker 2: men out on the margins, men with no direction home

384
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Speaker 2: men who played with fire. Fulsome prison Men. Johnny's record label,

385
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,080
Speaker 2: Columbia Records, wasn't having any of it, but Johnny went

386
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:03,879
Speaker 2: through with the plan to record a live show for

387
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:06,480
Speaker 2: an album release the storied prison he'd written about in

388
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:10,040
Speaker 2: his nineteen fifty five Sun Records release Fulsome Prison Blues.

389
00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:14,040
Speaker 2: Since then, Johnny had been written to from countless prisoners

390
00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:16,520
Speaker 2: who identified with not only his music, but with his

391
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:21,520
Speaker 2: fast living, sometimes criminal behavior. Just like them, Johnny Cash

392
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:26,639
Speaker 2: had stripes. Johnny also had empathy. He felt for the prisoners.

393
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,240
Speaker 2: He knew what they were up against, and he knew

394
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:31,200
Speaker 2: the energy he'd bring to a live show for them

395
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:35,760
Speaker 2: would be transformative and thus worthy of getting down on tape.

396
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 2: Against Columbia's wishes, Johnny went ahead with the project. The

397
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:44,919
Speaker 2: proof was in the performance here on record on Johnny

398
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 2: Cash Is at Fulsome Prison As unlike any other pop

399
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:51,520
Speaker 2: music live record, the excitement from the audience, the result

400
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:54,159
Speaker 2: of a truly impassioned performance by Johnny Cash and his

401
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,560
Speaker 2: band The Tennessee Three plus Carl Perkins on guitar and

402
00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:03,600
Speaker 2: June Carter on backing vocals and infectious. During the set,

403
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:08,600
Speaker 2: Johnny was Johnny. He was inspired and inspiring. He cajoled

404
00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:12,320
Speaker 2: the inmates. He paraded June, a beautiful woman on stage,

405
00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:14,000
Speaker 2: the likes of which some of the men in the

406
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:18,000
Speaker 2: audience hadn't seen in the flesh in years. In Cocaine Blues,

407
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:20,520
Speaker 2: a song where the main character snorts a mountain oft

408
00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:22,920
Speaker 2: coke and kills his cheating wife after a bad night

409
00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:26,280
Speaker 2: in Horrors Mexico, Johnny changed the lyric I shot my

410
00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:30,400
Speaker 2: woman down to I shot that bad bitch down. Unsurprisingly,

411
00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:33,720
Speaker 2: the prisoners went nuts. There. He was the Man in Black,

412
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:37,920
Speaker 2: Johnny Cash in a maximum security prison, surrounded by machine

413
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:41,280
Speaker 2: guns and felons, with the woman he loved, skirting danger,

414
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:44,600
Speaker 2: risking it to make the album that would define him.

415
00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:48,200
Speaker 2: The results were undeniable. The record went to number one

416
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:51,359
Speaker 2: on the country charts, but more importantly, and totally on

417
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 2: brand for The Man in Black, it hit number thirteen

418
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 2: on the pop charts. Upon its release, the album was

419
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:01,080
Speaker 2: held critically and to this day has become a cultural

420
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,040
Speaker 2: landmark of sorts. A piece of music that is much

421
00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:07,440
Speaker 2: more than a piece of music. It's social commentary. It's

422
00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:10,440
Speaker 2: a fast thrill, it's a swing in the face of authority.

423
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:14,120
Speaker 2: It's pure Johnny Cash. It redefined him as something more

424
00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:17,199
Speaker 2: than just another hard living country artist and reignited his

425
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 2: career exactly as he talked. A couple months after the

426
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,320
Speaker 2: Fulsome performance, Johnny proposed to June on stage in front

427
00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 2: of seven thousand people at the London Ice House in London, Ontario.

428
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:35,360
Speaker 2: June said yes, finally after multiple previous proposals from Johnny,

429
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,359
Speaker 2: and the two were married in a fever on March first,

430
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:59,640
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight. Things finally leveled out for Johnny Cash

431
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,960
Speaker 2: and thenineteen seventies. Not that it wasn't without its ups

432
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:06,199
Speaker 2: and downs, both professionally and personally, but compared to the

433
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:10,480
Speaker 2: nineteen sixties, the seventies was a decade of relative calm imbalance.

434
00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:15,879
Speaker 2: Johnny and June, despite being creatures of the road, anchored

435
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:19,440
Speaker 2: themselves into domestic bliss. When not out on the road,

436
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,520
Speaker 2: they split their time between their home in Hendersonville, Tennessee,

437
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 2: and their Cinnamon Hill home in Jamaica, an old sugar

438
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:29,600
Speaker 2: plantation property built in seventeen forty seven near Montego Bay,

439
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:33,320
Speaker 2: and it was where they sat listening to their housekeeper

440
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:36,880
Speaker 2: recite Grace on an idyllic Christmas Day in nineteen eighty one,

441
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:40,200
Speaker 2: along with their eleven year old son, John Carter Cash,

442
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:43,879
Speaker 2: the boy's friend Doug Caldwell, Johnny's sister Reba, and her

443
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:50,880
Speaker 2: husband Chuck. The sound of the bandits invading their peaceful

444
00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 2: holiday home was at first more surprising than frightening. A

445
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 2: loud and out of place clang from the front entryway

446
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 2: had the guests searching each other's faces for answer across

447
00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:04,159
Speaker 2: the dinner table, then hurried feet marching furiously through the

448
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:06,679
Speaker 2: adjacent rooms and toward the room. The guests re seated

449
00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:09,399
Speaker 2: and sent their heart rates from pulse to pound and

450
00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,600
Speaker 2: finally shouting out of place. In the Cash Carter home,

451
00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:16,280
Speaker 2: no one shouted, but there it was loud, angry and

452
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:19,400
Speaker 2: desperate commands careening off the interior walls of the home

453
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 2: in the familiar Jamaican petois. Nobody move, Where are the jewels?

454
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 2: Give us the cash? Three armed robbers, locals, menacing hungry

455
00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 2: at their wits ends, all armed, one with a gun,

456
00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:36,040
Speaker 2: another with a knife, and the tall one with a

457
00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:38,520
Speaker 2: twitch and the junkie gaze. He held a hatchet in

458
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 2: his hand. The one with the pistol grabbed eleven year

459
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:43,720
Speaker 2: old Doug Coldwell and thrust the barrel of the gun

460
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:47,200
Speaker 2: into his temple. Some of the guests gasps, others averted

461
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:50,440
Speaker 2: their eyes. The smell of urine was now apparent. Johnny

462
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:51,119
Speaker 2: played it cool.

463
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 4: What do you want, he calmly asked, the assilence everything

464
00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:00,800
Speaker 4: where the boy dies replied the bandit, Johnny said, sat

465
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:02,760
Speaker 4: there in his chair expressionless.

466
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:07,920
Speaker 2: He knew these men boys really desperate. He could see

467
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 2: it in their eyes. Addicted. He could also see himself

468
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 2: from a few years earlier, and recognized that, were it

469
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:16,760
Speaker 2: not for a few faithful turns in the road, that

470
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:20,680
Speaker 2: his reality could easily have been more like his junkie assailants.

471
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:24,320
Speaker 2: So he knew what to do. Play it cool, give

472
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:28,320
Speaker 2: him what they want. With that enough, wait for it.

473
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:31,280
Speaker 2: With time, they'd let down their guard. It was human nature,

474
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:35,640
Speaker 2: and when the opportunity presented itself, pounce, grab a chair

475
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 2: and swing it hard into the grill, the tall one

476
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:39,960
Speaker 2: with a twitch level them and snatch his hatchet, and

477
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 2: hope and pray that outnumbering the other two in the

478
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:45,880
Speaker 2: ensuing melee would save your family. But it never happened.

479
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:49,440
Speaker 2: The bandits gave up pressing Johnny and his guests. They

480
00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:51,840
Speaker 2: were content with the fifty grand in cash and jewelry

481
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:54,000
Speaker 2: they had taken from the house, along with the keys

482
00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:58,600
Speaker 2: to Johnny's range rover, and split and they didn't make

483
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:02,240
Speaker 2: it far. After local authorities were alerted. The threesome was

484
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:04,959
Speaker 2: located at the Montego Bay Airport en route to Miami

485
00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:09,400
Speaker 2: defence the stolen jewelry, and they were arrested, taken into custody,

486
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,520
Speaker 2: and never seen or heard from again, apparently the victims

487
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 2: of swift, cold Jamaican justice, colonial style. In the end,

488
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:21,760
Speaker 2: Johnny Cash was more upset by the fate of his assailants,

489
00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:25,560
Speaker 2: men who he reasoned were unjustly punished for a crime

490
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 2: against him, the punishment for which he had no agency,

491
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 2: than he was upset by the traumatic events of that day.

492
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 2: The way Johnny Cash saw it, it was pure luck

493
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 2: that he hadn't met a violent end sooner himself. Car

494
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:43,880
Speaker 2: crashes wildfires, drug over doses, angry badass husbands. He'd been

495
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:46,440
Speaker 2: playing with fire for years up to that point, and

496
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:49,360
Speaker 2: even in his sober domestic years. The home in Jamaica

497
00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 2: at Cinnamon Hill was risky living in comparison to the

498
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:57,440
Speaker 2: vast majority of Jamaican locals who existed in poverty. Johnny Cash,

499
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 2: despite his down home salt of the Earth disposition, live

500
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 2: as an ostentatious American rock star and a big, expensive

501
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 2: house with a pretty wife, famous friends, hired servants, and

502
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:12,960
Speaker 2: luxury vehicles, all with little to no obvious or effective security.

503
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 2: Playing with fire. Burned, Burned, Burned. I'm Jake Brennan and

504
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 2: this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and

505
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,080
Speaker 2: is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this

506
00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 2: episode can be found on the show notes page at

507
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 2: disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland All

508
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 2: Access member, thank you for supporting the show.

509
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 3: We really appreciate it, and if not, you can become

510
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,960
Speaker 3: a member right now by going to disgrace lamppod dot com.

511
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 3: Slash Membership members can listen to every episode of disgracelam

512
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Speaker 3: Ad free. Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode

513
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Speaker 3: every month, weekly unscripted bonus episode, special audio collections, and

514
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Speaker 3: early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgraylampod dot com

515
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:18,720
Speaker 3: slash membership for details, Rate and review the show, and

516
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 3: follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at disgracelampod

517
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Speaker 3: and on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at disgracelampod.

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00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 2: Rock a roll up here the bed Donland