Johnny Cash’s Arkansas roots

Johnny Cash and company perform the theme song to “Bonanza” and “Five Feet High and Rising,” a song inspired by the performer’s childhood in Arkansas.

To many, he was known as The Man in Black. Others have called him one of the most influential artists in country — or any genre — of music.

But some just called him J.R., the name he was given has as a child. And, as many of us know, much of the childhood of the artist who would later be known as Johnny Cash was spent here in Arkansas.

Now, the town of Dyess, Arkansas, a city where Cash worked in the cotton fields and was inspiration for songs such as “Five Feet High And Rising” is planning to build an $800,000 museum in honor of one of the state’s most famous sons.

Read more about the plans for the museum in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette here, or, for an alternate take, visit the Fayetteville Flyer.

Filed under: Music Industry News, NWA Music News by Kevin Kinder. Posted on: December 2, 2008 at 9:16 am