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On This Day: Johnny Cash Records ‘The Johnny Cash Show’ Album Live from The Grand Ole Opry

There’s no denying that Johnny Cash is one of the biggest names in country music history. His ties to the genre’s storied past go even deeper. For instance, he married June Carter of Carter Family fame. The Carter Family was one of the first prominent country recording groups and Mother Maybelle Carter‘s guitar technique changed the way generations of artists approached the instrument. Today, however, we’re going to look at how some of Johnny’s historical connections came together while recording the live album The Johnny Cash Show.

Johnny Cash recorded the live album fifty-two years ago today. He meant it to be a tie-in with his variety show of the same name. He taped his weekly show on the Ryman Auditorium stage. That, in and of itself, would have been an iconic pairing. However, it went a little deeper. At the time, country music’s Mother Church was still the site of the Grand Ole Opry. In fact, Cash recorded the album during a Grand Ole Opry performance. What’s more, this night fell almost 14 years to the day of the Man in Black’s Opry debut. It was a big night.

The lineup of guests on The Johnny Cash Show album exhibited Cash’s connection to country music history. Not only was he playing an iconic venue during one of the genre’s most sacred shows, but he also brought along some old-school A-listers. The Statler Brothers, as well as the Carter Family, added their voices to the recording. Additionally, legendary guitarist and writer of “Blue Suede Shoes,” Carl Perkins did some picking on the album. It doesn’t get much more iconic than that.

However, Johnny Cash didn’t just show his ties to and respect for the history of country music. That night, he changed the course of the genre’s history by introducing the crowd to a then-unknown songwriter named Kris Kristofferson when he covered the song “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.”

The Johnny Cash Show hit shelves in October of 1970. It went to the top of Billboard’s Country Albums chart and was later certified Gold by the RIAA. Cash selected his cover of Kristofferson’s song as the only single from the record and it went to the top of the chart.

Johnny Cash Helps to Launch Kris Kristofferson with Hit Single

Today, we know Kristofferson as a singer, songwriter, and actor. However, he is probably best known for being one of the Highwaymen. Cash’s decision to use “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” had a lot to do with Kristofferson’s rise to prominence.

 When Kristofferson wrote the song, he was living in a run-down house in Nashville and sweeping floors at Columbia Records. There, he met Johnny Cash and June Carter-Cash. June and Kris became friendly and she would sneak the songwriter’s demos home to Johnny whenever she could. One of those tapes included “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” and Cash loved it.

When he introduced the song that night Cash said, “One of the greatest songwriters around these days is a friend of mine named Kris Kristofferson. He’ll be with us on the show in a couple of weeks. But, before he comes, I’d like to do one of his songs, too. One of my favorite songs of his.”

Before he went on stage that night, the producers told Johnny Cash to change the lyrics. They wanted him to swap “Wishin’, Lord, that I was stoned,” to “Wishin’, Lord, that I was home.” In true Outsider fashion, Cash said, “I don’t give a damn what they say, I’m going to sing it the way Kris wrote it.” And, he did. If you listen to the cut of the song from the album, you can hear a subtle emphasis on the word “stoned.” It was, at the same time, a middle finger to the man as well as an endorsement of Kristofferson’s writing.