Johnny Cash Folsom prison inspiration?

January 22, 2006 4:21 PM

I remember hearing once that someone in the audience at Johhny Cash's Folsom Prison performance - as a prisoner - was inspired by it to go on to a successful career as a singer/songwriter. Is this apocryphal? If not, who was it? Someone mentioned to me Waylon Jennings, but I don't think it's him. Google is inconclusive.
posted by oxala to media & arts (17 comments total)

It was Merle Haggard.
posted by scody at 4:27 PM on January 22, 2006

Wikipedia says that Merle Haggard was already a singer/songwriter, but that Cash's performances at San Quentin inspired him to "straighten up and pursue singing". And it looks like he was a prisoner.
posted by MadamM at 4:41 PM on January 22, 2006

Not sure who it was at Folsom, but it wasn't Merle Haggard either - he saw Johnny play at San Quentin. This is a quote from Merle in a Rolling Stone interview after Johnny's death:

I met Johnny in 1963 in a restroom in Chicago. I was taking a leak, and he walked up beside me with a flask of wine underneath his coat and said, "Haggard, you want a drink of this wine?" Those were the first words he ever said to me, but I had been in awe of him since I saw him play on New Year's Day in 1958, at San Quentin Prison, where I was an inmate. He'd lost his voice the night before over in Frisco and wasn't able to sing very good; I thought he'd had it, but he won over the prisoners. He had the right attitude: He chewed gum, looked arrogant and flipped the bird to the guards -- he did everything the prisoners wanted to do. He was a mean mother from the South who was there because he loved us. When he walked away, everyone in that place had become a Johnny Cash fan. There were 5,000 inmates in San Quentin and about thirty guitar players; I was among the top five guitarists in there. The day after Johnny's show, man, every guitar player in San Quentin was after me to teach them how to play like him. It was like how, the day after a Muhammad Ali fight, everybody would be down in the yard shadowboxing; that day, everyone was trying to learn "Folsom Prison Blues."

Then when my career caught fire, he asked me to be a guest on his variety show on ABC. He, June and I were discussing what I should do on the show, and he said, "Haggard, let me tell the people you've been to prison. It'll be the biggest thing that will happen to you in your life, and the tabloids will never be able to hurt you. It's called telling the truth: If you start off telling the truth, your fans never forget it." I told him, "Being an ex-convict is the most shameful thing. It's against the grain to talk about it." But he was right -- it set a fire under me that hadn't been there before.

On preview, what Wiki and MadamM said...
posted by Moondoggie at 4:43 PM on January 22, 2006 [1 favorite]

Beaten by the scodster. She's spot on.

My favourite Onion headline? "Merle Haggard Haggard."
posted by blag at 4:44 PM on January 22, 2006

It was Merle Haggard, I knew it was someone who's music I was vaguely aware of. I confused my prisons. Thanks!
posted by oxala at 4:58 PM on January 22, 2006

Doesn't Cash play a song by some prisoner in the audience?
posted by johngoren at 5:24 PM on January 22, 2006

Here's a link to an episode of American Routes where Nick Spitzer interviews Haggard about his prison experiences.
posted by Miko at 5:26 PM on January 22, 2006

Doesn't Cash play a song by some prisoner in the audience?

Yes, it was "Greystone Chapel" by Glen Sherley.
posted by boomchicka at 5:34 PM on January 22, 2006

Haggard had already performed in concert with Lefty Frisell many years before that, so its not like it was a bolt from the blue.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:34 PM on January 22, 2006

Why is everyone saying it was Merle Haggard at Folsom when the quoted interview clearly indicates it wasn't? Was there someone at Folsom too, or is there confusion in the location?
posted by A189Nut at 6:36 PM on January 22, 2006

I think the confusion is stemming from Johnny Cash's association with Folsom Prison -- i.e., his song "Folsom Prison Blues" and his album Live at Folsom Prison. Cash actually performed live at other prisons besides Folsom, including San Quentin -- which is indeed where Haggard saw him.
posted by scody at 7:06 PM on January 22, 2006

Haggard saw Cash at San Quentin in 1958.

At San Quentin was recorded live by Cash in 1969.

(Just in case anyone was trying to pick out Merle's voice from the recorded crowd noise.)
posted by grabbingsand at 7:26 PM on January 22, 2006

(Just in case anyone was trying to pick out Merle's voice from the recorded crowd noise.)

Dang! Coulda sworn that was Merle screaming "Freebird"!!!
posted by RavinDave at 8:18 PM on January 22, 2006

FWIW, the San Quentin album is better than the Folsom one. And it has "Cocaine Blues."
posted by 6550 at 10:45 PM on January 22, 2006

Random Prison/Music/Inspiration Digression: Barker Gang mastermind Alvin Karpis, while in MacNeil Penitentiary, was approached by a younger inmate who wanted to learn how to play guitar:

"This kid approaches me to request music lessons. He wants to learn guitar and become a music star. 'Little Charlie' is so lazy and shiftless, I doubt if he'll put the time required to learn. The youngster has been in institutions all of his life--first orphanages, then reformatories, and finally federal prison. His mother, a prostitute, was never around to look after him. I decide it's time someone did something for him, and to my surprise, he learns quickly. He has a pleasant voice and a pleasing personality, although he's unusually meek and mild for a convict. He never has a harsh word to say and is never involved in even an argument... The history of crime in the United States might have been considerably altered if 'Little Charlie' had been given the opportunity to find fame and fortune in the music industry. He later became the infamous Charles Manson."

And Now You Know.... The REST of the Story (That you didn't ask about.)
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:32 AM on January 23, 2006

Folsom album also has Cocaine Blues.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:11 AM on January 23, 2006

O/T, but Manson got his shot with producer Terry Melcher. The recordings got nowhere.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:15 AM on January 23, 2006