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00:00:00I'm going to go around back through the passageway.
00:00:28Now here's Mother Mabel, Helen, June, and Anita, the bride and groom.
00:00:43I'm happy to be able to entertain you a little bit today.
00:00:46I don't know what you're expecting since we're all girls.
00:00:50Since we're the only girls on the show, but I've got one announcement to make before we do our part.
00:00:59This is as sexy as I'm going to get.
00:01:06Now, this is our little family, and we sing the songs mostly of the old Carter family.
00:01:12Well, we've been around these parts for a long time, and we're proud to be part of the Johnny Cash Show.
00:01:17We're going to sing some new ones and some old ones, so sit back, relax, take your hands out of each other's pockets.
00:01:23We'll sing a few little songs for you, and then you'll see who you've come to see.
00:01:28Old Golden Throat will be right out.
00:01:31Look out, Jacksontown.
00:01:35Well, go on down to Jackson.
00:01:39Go ahead and wreck your hell.
00:01:43Go play your hand you big-talking man.
00:01:47Make a big fool of yourself.
00:01:50Yeah, go to Jackson.
00:01:53I think for most people, when they think about June Carter Cash, they're probably thinking about Reese Witherspoon.
00:01:58Will you marry me?
00:01:59Because that film, Walk the Line, was really June's mass exposure, I think, to a lot of people.
00:02:04Well, now we got married.
00:02:07Johnny Cash and June Carter, Johnny and June, Walk the Line was the fairy tale.
00:02:15The movie is about a period of time about this big and a life so large.
00:02:24There's probably going to be as much, if not more, of June involved in the equation than John.
00:02:30And I'll get shot and killed here in Nashville for saying that.
00:02:33What would you like to talk about?
00:02:34It really doesn't matter.
00:02:35I thought you might ask me where Johnny was.
00:02:37Where is Johnny?
00:02:38He's not here, is he?
00:02:42Well, hello stranger.
00:02:46If you only know June Carter Cash, you're missing a whole lot of things.
00:02:51She was born with one of the most famous names in country music.
00:02:54A remarkable show business career.
00:02:56Well, June Carter was an incredible artist in her own right.
00:03:00She's one of the most charming and talented women in country music today.
00:03:03A singer, a comedian, actress.
00:03:10Who is June Carter Cash to me?
00:03:12Well, she's a badass bitch, first off.
00:03:16You couldn't deny her.
00:03:18She had this part, the it.
00:03:20You can't overdub the it.
00:03:22But you've been married so long to one man.
00:03:24No, no, I had two before him.
00:03:26I put all mine together and I'm still not nearly caught up with you.
00:03:31There was so much about my mother that may have been misunderstood.
00:03:35Underrated and underappreciated.
00:03:41I think at the heart of it, June's story hasn't been told.
00:03:46Would you welcome June Carter Cash.
00:03:48June Carter Cash.
00:03:49June Carter Cash.
00:03:50June Carter Cash.
00:03:52Thank you.
00:04:14Everybody here but Marty.
00:04:16Oh, they are?
00:04:17Well, you might know Marty would be late.
00:04:19Part of what he does.
00:04:20Once you get to be a big star, you're really late.
00:04:23I'm late because of Johnny.
00:04:27Hi.
00:04:28Look at everybody.
00:04:29Feels like old times.
00:04:30It does.
00:04:39Well, here we are.
00:04:41Come on in.
00:04:45I'm excited, everybody.
00:04:47I often wondered how I'd ever do an album.
00:04:51And then I met this really wonderful girl named Vicki Hamilton
00:04:55who was mostly in the world of rock and roll.
00:04:58There was an urgency that she wanted to make this record.
00:05:04So I had shopped it around to all the major record companies.
00:05:11And everybody passed.
00:05:12I, like, couldn't believe it.
00:05:14There's no way we're putting out a record with a 70-year-old woman.
00:05:23I was kind of incensed.
00:05:26This is, like, country music royalty.
00:05:28How can you pass?
00:05:32So I decided, okay, I'm going to, like, start my own record company
00:05:36and raise the money to make this record.
00:05:39I think I've changed her whole life.
00:05:42So I'm hoping to make some history again this morning.
00:05:47That day, we just gathered around to sing the songs of her family
00:05:52and my mom's family and things that she'd written down through the years.
00:05:56I was looking for some of the good Carter family songs to sing on this album
00:06:00and Diamonds in the Rough, probably one of my favorites, Marty.
00:06:03So why don't you and I sing it?
00:06:06♪♪
00:06:14My mother was like a kid again.
00:06:17She was eager.
00:06:19It was as if she was ready to go get on a roller coaster.
00:06:25The day will soon be over
00:06:30And it again will be done
00:06:35No more gems be gathered
00:06:40So let us all press on
00:06:45I don't think I've ever really known a life that's any different than show business.
00:06:51My mother was Maybel Carter, who was a part of the original Carter family.
00:06:56This is my mama, Maybel, and then my aunt and my uncle, Sarah Carter, A.P. Carter.
00:07:01Yes, it is enough
00:07:05The diamonds will be shining
00:07:10The longer in the rough
00:07:15♪♪
00:07:19By the time that my mother was born,
00:07:22Maybel had been recording for a couple of years with the original Carter family.
00:07:26♪♪
00:07:32One day, we found a man that wanted us to come up and make a record.
00:07:36So we went up to Bristol and made our first record,
00:07:40and it's been going ever since.
00:07:44Oh, I'll twine with my mangles and waving black pearls
00:07:50The Carters, I mean, they were the beginning.
00:07:53That was the spontaneous combustion of country music,
00:07:57and June traces right into that.
00:08:00They had so many tunes that formed a basis for our country and western music as we know it today.
00:08:06And when people didn't know what kind of a melody to use,
00:08:09they just went back and grabbed an old Carter family melody and hung on to that.
00:08:14I will dance, I will sing, and my love shall be gay
00:08:20I will charm every heart in his crown, I will sway
00:08:26I just thought everybody had a Mother Maybel Carter that picked the wildwood flower on the guitar.
00:08:31I didn't really know she was different.
00:08:35Mother Maybel was one of the early female guitar players that actually slayed at guitar.
00:08:42Like, she could straight up play.
00:08:46My little fingers were so calloused learning to play the wildwood flower.
00:08:51That was one of the first songs, I think, that most country kids, boys or girls, you want to play.
00:08:56You know, I will dance, I will sing, and I'll play the wildwood flower.
00:09:06My father was instrumental in this too, Ezra Carter.
00:09:10Daddy was a wonderful influence in our life.
00:09:13Daddy was a brilliant man.
00:09:20She was very close to him.
00:09:22She'd ride his motorcycle with him.
00:09:25She saw herself kind of as a real rough and tumble little kid
00:09:32holding on to Daddy as he drove his motorcycle through that area.
00:09:38I think probably the lesson that my father taught, the most important one, was that we be ourselves.
00:09:44You develop what you have, you do that as a person.
00:09:51When you grow up like that, loving that place, knowing that's who you are,
00:09:55when you just become part of the woods and the bees and the birds
00:09:59and you're just a bunch of country little kids running around and that's your place.
00:10:03When you have to move away in order to do what you need to do, you carry that with you.
00:10:11I'm sure you're enjoying these good old songs.
00:10:13There's only the Carter family that can sing them.
00:10:15Now here's the three little Carter sisters, Helen, June, and Anita.
00:10:18What's it going to be?
00:10:19In the Highways.
00:10:20In the Highways.
00:10:22In the Highways, in the hills.
00:10:27In the Highways, in the hills.
00:10:32My sisters Helen and Anita and I went with my mother to the Texas border stations.
00:10:41That was the end of the world away from southwestern Virginia.
00:10:45Well, here's something that's mighty good.
00:10:47And that's a solo by June.
00:10:49What's it going to be, June?
00:10:50I'm going to sing in June 143.
00:10:53Along came the FFB, the Swift that's on the line.
00:11:01Riding on the skin of the line.
00:11:06Well, we get right on the stage and Mother Maybelle Carter, I guarantee you if she could hear us out of tune,
00:11:11she would just pop up and let us know about it.
00:11:14You're on holy ground when you're playing those songs.
00:11:17They'll live forever and ever and ever.
00:11:19Yeah, they do.
00:11:20But we're all found out.
00:11:22That goes right at the end.
00:11:23Oh, why don't we sing that one that we just tried?
00:11:26Which one?
00:11:27You have heard of little Moses.
00:11:31You have heard of fearless fidget and his ring.
00:11:35You have heard the story told by Bing and Joseph.
00:11:40It's time for the Carter sisters, Mother Maybelle, Chet Atkinson.
00:11:43We left those Texas border stations.
00:11:45And we worked a lot of shows.
00:11:47Helen and Anita and I with my mother, just the four of us.
00:11:51They drove for hours and hours and then did four shows a day sometimes.
00:11:57It was relentless and sometimes brutal work.
00:12:11Well, I hope you folks like that in there.
00:12:13I'm going to give you a little jolt now.
00:12:15I'm going to sing one that's awful corny here for you.
00:12:17It's going to be loud, and I reckon I'm mommy's loudest young.
00:12:20And that's all I can figure out for myself here.
00:12:35She was not the greatest singer in the whole Carter family.
00:12:39But her personality and her emotion made her part actually sometimes even more interesting.
00:12:45Because she just would get in there very much like I do
00:12:48and just sing right from the gut and the heart.
00:12:51Maybelle just turned Mama loose.
00:12:55Let her just be as zany and crazy and a kid as she could be.
00:13:00It's like she would do anything for a laugh.
00:13:03I think I tried to be funny when I couldn't think of what else to do.
00:13:07You didn't know what else to do, you just talked.
00:13:09And so I rattled away, boogity, boogity, boogity.
00:13:19There was no way that June was not going to be front and center.
00:13:23It's hard for her to stand still and not interject.
00:13:38We had come to Nashville, and we got a call to appear.
00:13:42And so we went down and went to work at the Grand Ole Opry.
00:13:46Grand Ole Opry, Grand Ole Opry, Grand Ole Opry.
00:14:02If you were going to Nashville, your dream was to be on the Grand Ole Opry.
00:14:07Because everybody all over the country listened to it, if you loved country music.
00:14:13We've got the girl here who can put an awful lot of humor in any program.
00:14:17Let's make welcome Miss June Carter.
00:14:22I'm going to sing if I can swallow before I get started,
00:14:25because this song ain't got no swallowing.
00:14:33Back in those days, Saturday night you'd turn on WSM Nashville
00:14:37and listen to the Grand Ole Opry.
00:14:42And June Carter was an all-around entertainer.
00:15:13Of all the knot-headed people, you are the knotty-headedest, knot-headest.
00:15:19Well, bless his heart. It's Carl, that's who it is.
00:15:23Hello, Carl.
00:15:24Hello, June.
00:15:25How you doing, old buddy?
00:15:27Good, that's gone good.
00:15:29I thought I had seen pretty girls in my time.
00:15:34But that was before I met you.
00:15:40I never saw one...
00:15:42Carl Smith was the preeminent honky-tonk singer of the day.
00:15:48He was a hot hunk.
00:15:50One of the handsomest men in country music.
00:15:54I heard what you were saying out here.
00:15:56What did I say?
00:15:57You said...
00:15:58I didn't think you heard me.
00:15:59You said you know me quite well.
00:16:02I just want you to know, Carl, that I know you quite well, too.
00:16:05Oh.
00:16:06And I don't like... I don't like what I know.
00:16:12No, I don't like it. I don't like it.
00:16:14Hush, we're on television. Look.
00:16:22And June Carter landed the star.
00:16:28Of all the women that wanted Carl, June is the one that got him.
00:16:33I'll lose.
00:16:38They were the storybook romance of the Opry.
00:16:40They were like, oh, June Carter of the famous Carter family
00:16:44and Carl Smith, the biggest hit maker of the day.
00:16:46Like, wow, perfect chemistry, perfect timing, perfect everything.
00:16:50They were like the couple.
00:16:55There was a lot of joy, a lot of laughter.
00:16:58It sure had a beautiful outcome with my sister Carlene.
00:17:04No, June.
00:17:06See, Mom and Daddy look like they belong together, too.
00:17:11Because they had a very similar sense of humour.
00:17:13And they got a kick out of each other.
00:17:16I'm kind of interested in you, Carl Smith.
00:17:18You're quite a ladies' man, and I'm kind of...
00:17:20Is that right?
00:17:27Hey, don't kid me.
00:17:29If you close yours, I'm liable to fall in.
00:17:32You've got your big old ears that hold you out.
00:17:46The character you did, was it you or was it something you created?
00:17:49No, it wasn't me. I created her.
00:17:51She would do almost anything to get a laugh, and did.
00:17:54And I don't think it was sincerely me.
00:17:57No, it was just a crazy little girl I played.
00:18:00Get up and then it's time to lay down.
00:18:03Life gets tedious, don't it?
00:18:08Because she could do it so well,
00:18:10people believed that June Carter really was this uncouth hick.
00:18:19She made it seem effortless.
00:18:21It was not effortless.
00:18:24She had thick binders that had jokes and songs and routines
00:18:32that she had honed over decades.
00:18:36Miss June Carter!
00:18:41Nashville at the time was stuck in this image of the little homemaker.
00:18:47The opera was insistent that women should dress
00:18:51in those kind of gingham checks and be very conservative.
00:18:56I'm getting a cold in my nose.
00:18:58Life gets tedious, don't it?
00:19:12There was a difficult time in my life,
00:19:14and I wasn't very happy.
00:19:17It was during the time when I was in my first marriage.
00:19:21I was married to Carl Smith.
00:19:24My mother was working, and she was going on the road.
00:19:29And I think that Carl had a different vision
00:19:32of what a marriage was than my mom did.
00:19:36He wanted her to stay home and be more of a mom,
00:19:40and she could still go play the opera,
00:19:42but he didn't think that she'd be out on the road.
00:19:45And Mom always said that she was covered up with ambition,
00:19:49that she was absolutely filled with ambition,
00:19:52and she had all these things she wanted to do.
00:19:55I think she wanted to be, I think she just wanted to be a superstar.
00:20:03I detected a little sarcasm in that voice when I heard you putting me on.
00:20:07I said, what's the matter with you anyway?
00:20:09Well, you know what you've done to me, don't you?
00:20:11I don't know what you're talking about. Do you mean this morning?
00:20:14That's what happened to you, Carl.
00:20:16Yeah, you was helping me. Tell him what you've done.
00:20:19I was helping you, old buddy. You was in bad shape,
00:20:22and I was just giving you a little, well...
00:20:24I tell you what, I tell you what, he had a bad cold in his head.
00:20:28Yeah.
00:20:29It's not something that you really did in the mid-1950s.
00:20:33You really didn't get divorced.
00:20:37But by 1955, and we're talking less than three years,
00:20:42they've already decided they're going their separate ways.
00:20:45You may be a good old girl, but you don't look too good.
00:20:48Oh, is that so?
00:20:49No, you don't.
00:20:50You ought to put some lipstick on and bring your lips out a little.
00:20:53But they still worked together,
00:20:55where June and Carl are on stage doing banter.
00:20:59Bring your hair out a little, you know.
00:21:01Well, why don't you try sneezing, Nodhead,
00:21:03and bring your teeth out a little?
00:21:07I like that old Carl Smith. I got his picture at home.
00:21:09Yeah.
00:21:10I just give him...
00:21:11It's about all that's left, isn't it?
00:21:19You wouldn't know him.
00:21:21You ain't been around long enough to know him.
00:21:26Her divorce from Carl Smith was a scandal.
00:21:31Nowadays, nobody would bat an eye,
00:21:33but back then, it was a thing.
00:21:36In the conservative Nashville,
00:21:38she still bore a scarlet letter.
00:21:41We were like used goods.
00:21:45She don't love me anymore
00:21:51My eyes are filled with tears
00:21:55I think that she had an existential crisis.
00:21:58I think that, you know, the divorce put her in a tailspin.
00:22:02Tell me where I go from here
00:22:07She didn't think that anybody was ever going to love her,
00:22:10who, at the same time,
00:22:12would let her just be able to do what she wanted to do,
00:22:15because she just couldn't give it up.
00:22:22Later on in his life, right before he passed away,
00:22:25I said, so what happened with you and Mom?
00:22:27Mom always says, she loved you so deeply
00:22:30and was so heartbroken.
00:22:33And Daddy said, your mama never loved me.
00:22:36And I said, what?
00:22:38He said, she loved the idea of me.
00:22:41And I kind of understood that to a certain degree.
00:22:45The idea of him was,
00:22:47her idea was that they would just keep doing what they were doing.
00:22:57Alright, you don't sound like you're ready, huh?
00:22:59Sounds great.
00:23:00Yeah, you're just pressing right along.
00:23:06Just let me know when you're ready.
00:23:08Okay, John Carter.
00:23:10Okay.
00:23:12This song explains itself in a way,
00:23:14because I look back on the days when I was living in New York City,
00:23:18and for a while in my life, I was part of a rock and roll bunch.
00:23:22So this goes back to those years.
00:23:24Okay, here we go.
00:23:26Well, the place was New York City
00:23:29And the hours flew by
00:23:32And walked the streets of Harlem
00:23:35To the Greenwich Village Gate
00:23:38We were young and foolish
00:23:41And trying out for trade
00:23:43This was the time in her life when she was absolutely heartbroken.
00:23:47She was, you know, sort of asserting her independence.
00:23:50You know, like she always said, she wasn't the best singer or the best player.
00:23:54But she had something, and she needed to find that.
00:23:57And I think that that was partly why she ran away.
00:24:01She went to New York.
00:24:02Well, I used to be somebody
00:24:04Lord, I used to have a friend
00:24:07I'd like to be somebody again
00:24:12And so I went to New York, and just took my little girl,
00:24:15went to New York, took Carleen with me,
00:24:17and moved into an apartment, and I studied there.
00:24:21June and my sister, Rosemary, were studying with Sandy Meisner
00:24:26at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
00:24:29She wanted to be an actress.
00:24:31And the greatest teacher of all was Sandy Meisner.
00:24:36If you think about it, like, women just didn't do that at the time.
00:24:41Being this person on the road, who lived this life that was very unorthodox,
00:24:45especially for women at that time who had children.
00:24:48It was almost impossible.
00:24:51But June did it.
00:24:56She had this dual role that she was playing.
00:25:01She was still coming home on the weekends
00:25:04to work on the Opry on Saturday nights.
00:25:09And she would leave on Sunday
00:25:11and go to New York City and study all week,
00:25:14and then come back home.
00:25:16She was flying back and forth on propeller planes, people.
00:25:19There were no jets.
00:25:23And she was also working constantly then,
00:25:26filming television shows.
00:25:29I did several shows back during that time.
00:25:33Well, there's $100 in there.
00:25:35I want you to take it down to the jail and see what you can do for the count.
00:25:38I worked wherever I could.
00:25:40I just picked up what parts I could.
00:25:43She got on an episode of Gunsmoke.
00:25:54She's the dance hall girl, and she goes,
00:25:56He shot me, Marshall Dillon!
00:26:03She loved it.
00:26:05It was the time of her life.
00:26:07I mean, she met a lot of people.
00:26:09Jimmy Dean, Brando.
00:26:12Tennessee Williams.
00:26:14She was also traveling back and forth,
00:26:16opening for Elvis at the time.
00:26:22My mom would always get a twinkle in her eye
00:26:24when she talked about Elvis.
00:26:26You were a friend of Elvis Presley's?
00:26:28Yes.
00:26:34That's all I mean.
00:26:37Yes, we were friends a long time ago.
00:26:41Yeah, many times I said,
00:26:43Mama, come on, tell me.
00:26:45You slept with Elvis, right?
00:26:49She would giggle and she would blush a little.
00:26:52But she said, No, Elvis was just a nice young man when I knew him.
00:26:58A lot of women loved Elvis Presley.
00:27:02Well, I went with Elvis Presley to see Brando from afar.
00:27:07She told me that during that time,
00:27:09Elvis knew Mama was heartbroken,
00:27:12and so he would come to New York,
00:27:15and he was apparently pushing me around Central Park
00:27:18in a baby carriage.
00:27:21My mom had a sheet music that she had on the road.
00:27:24It was Carl Smith sheet music,
00:27:26and Elvis put a mustache on him
00:27:28and said, Painting by Presley, and signed it.
00:27:31And my mother tucked that away all those years.
00:27:40I think that was when she was emerging as a person on her own,
00:27:45and she was just becoming someone.
00:27:49And all of these people were also just becoming someone.
00:27:53She was one of them.
00:27:55She was accepted as an actress, as a singer.
00:28:00She was June Carter, and she was making it on her own.
00:28:20She came that close.
00:28:22She was there. She was on the cusp.
00:28:25She was standing at the Greenwich Village gate.
00:28:32And then it slipped away.
00:28:45And here he is again to sing our closing inspirational,
00:28:49the Tennessee Warbler.
00:28:53You know, your life changes. You take a different course.
00:29:01I don't think she ever gave up her ambition.
00:29:05I think life intervened.
00:29:11She came home one weekend, if you will,
00:29:14and found herself pregnant,
00:29:17and that was the end of her movie career.
00:29:23So I called him Daddy Rip,
00:29:27and he was the daddy of my little sister Rosie.
00:29:31June and Rip Nix were married very, very quickly.
00:29:36He had nothing to do with show business.
00:29:40He raced speedboats.
00:29:43His daddy owned a garage,
00:29:45so he was always, like, building motors and hot rods,
00:29:49and he wanted to go fast.
00:29:52And now she had two daughters,
00:29:55both of whom were under 3 years old.
00:29:59And so something had to give.
00:30:09Come on, Rose.
00:30:11I'll go sit down.
00:30:13You're a whole singing bunch today.
00:30:18Okay, I'm going to talk a little bit.
00:30:21Mandy, you're kidding.
00:30:27Rosie and I wrote this song together,
00:30:29and this is my daughter Rosie.
00:30:31It's a tough story after you've been living in New York a long time,
00:30:34and you're just worn out.
00:30:36Okay, babies, here we go. Thump, thump, thump.
00:30:41Come on, Velvet.
00:30:45I got to learn New York City
00:30:47With a cyclone gazi
00:30:50So I caught myself a great big horse
00:30:52And I rode him down the street
00:30:54And then I hollered,
00:30:56Hi-ho, Silver!
00:30:58And get on my scale
00:31:01I think it was about 1956.
00:31:05I was coming home on the weekends
00:31:07to do that Randall Loughrie one Saturday night.
00:31:11I was backstage.
00:31:13I was just coming across backstage,
00:31:15and this big, tall guy stops me.
00:31:20And said, Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.
00:31:22Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.
00:31:27And I knew who Johnny Cash was.
00:31:30I'd had to listen to Johnny Cash a lot
00:31:33for the past two or three months before that
00:31:36because I had been traveling with Elvis Presley,
00:31:39and Elvis was a real Johnny Cash nut.
00:31:41He would always play John on the jukebox.
00:31:44He liked the song Cry, Cry, Cry.
00:31:48Cry, Cry, Cry was one that Elvis used to tune his guitar by,
00:31:51or I would tune Elvis's guitar when he would break the strings.
00:31:54The only way he could tune his guitar would go,
00:31:56Everybody knows where you go
00:31:58When the sun goes down.
00:32:00And Elvis would try to get the tune that way.
00:32:03So he told me an awful lot about Johnny Cash,
00:32:05and I kept saying, If I ever meet this fellow,
00:32:07I want to see what he looks like.
00:32:09What does he look like?
00:32:11Well, he did walk up to me backstage and just said that.
00:32:13And I said, Well, I'm Jimmy Carter.
00:32:15And he said, Oh, I know who you are.
00:32:20I met her in 56.
00:32:22She was a performer on the Grand Ole Opry at the time,
00:32:24and I was doing my first guest appearance there.
00:32:27He told me that I was his favorite entertainer
00:32:31at that time from the show.
00:32:34You have to put yourself in Johnny Cash's shoes.
00:32:37I mean, he was a very, very poor
00:32:40son of the soil from Arkansas.
00:32:43He ended up hearing June on his radio.
00:32:49She's been performing since she was 6 years old.
00:32:52She was with him down on those Mexican stations
00:32:54when she was a little girl.
00:33:00I remember on my senior trip in 1950,
00:33:03we went to the Grand Ole Opry,
00:33:05and I was sitting way up in the balcony,
00:33:07and there was June Carter down on the stage,
00:33:09and I said, One of these days, I'm going to get her autograph.
00:33:14applause
00:33:17Oh, he's handsome.
00:33:19And I imagine he sings pretty good, too.
00:33:21So good that he's one of the biggest
00:33:23new stars in country music today.
00:33:25Is that so?
00:33:26Yes, sir. Come on over and meet Johnny Cash.
00:33:34I stand still when you're waiting
00:33:37Sometimes I think my heart...
00:33:39At that time, air life took us somewhere else.
00:33:42One lonely hour seems forever
00:33:45I was living in Memphis,
00:33:47and I just didn't see her for about 5 more years.
00:33:50But I guess I'll keep waiting till you're with me
00:33:53He went his direction, and I went mine.
00:33:58How about that?
00:34:00By the late 50s, her options are not as wide open
00:34:07as they may have been just a couple of years before.
00:34:11She's got the girls.
00:34:15Now, Mom worked,
00:34:17and my stepdaddy, Rip, did not always have a 9-5 job.
00:34:22She used to write commercials for the Opry to make extra money.
00:34:26She'd say to me and Rosie, she'd say,
00:34:28Listen tonight, because that little commercial
00:34:31I wrote and made 50 extra dollars,
00:34:33it's going to be on there tonight.
00:34:35June Carter, June Buck.
00:34:37I like to sing old Carter family songs
00:34:39because I think I know them a little better.
00:34:41She always used to say to me, she said,
00:34:43Money ain't everything, but it sure as hell helps.
00:34:46June was working opening drugstores.
00:34:50June was playing in the milk aisle of the grocery store.
00:34:55If I was on some fog mountain top
00:34:59I'd sail away to the...
00:35:01She became known as somebody who was reliable,
00:35:07and when they would need the girl singer,
00:35:10that was always what the promoters were looking for,
00:35:13the girl singer.
00:35:17That's where June came in.
00:35:29So, just as it happened,
00:35:33Johnny Cash had an opening.
00:35:39I got invited to go on a thing with him.
00:35:43First, I think it was Dallas, Texas.
00:35:46June Carter!
00:35:53And there was a magic when they got on stage together.
00:35:56There was something that was unique that happened.
00:35:59Right now we'd like to bring out
00:36:01the flower of Clinch Mountain, Miss June Carter.
00:36:04Come here, June.
00:36:08Hey, will you do a song for us?
00:36:10So when they got to doing more and more dates together,
00:36:13John offered her a job as to be in his band.
00:36:16It goes, love is just a thing of beauty,
00:36:22and beauty is a blossom.
00:36:25If you want to get your finger bit, poke it at a possum.
00:36:29Sing one.
00:36:31It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
00:36:35It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
00:36:40By the time Johnny puts together his road show,
00:36:43he's a superstar.
00:36:45Hi, folks, this is Johnny Cash,
00:36:47and we're going to tear the place up.
00:36:49Y'all stick around with me.
00:36:51He's this man in black,
00:36:53this iconic figure who commanded a stage.
00:36:59When Johnny Cash came out, he just had that magnetism.
00:37:04It was, I don't know, there was just some kind of a magic.
00:37:20It just got to me, you know,
00:37:22and I got the biggest crush on him.
00:37:25You would not believe it.
00:37:27I hadn't thought about him when I was home,
00:37:30and when I was in the sleep bed or whatever,
00:37:33I'd think about Johnny Cash.
00:37:37His name is Johnny Cash.
00:37:39He and June Carter, they've been touring around the world.
00:37:43She's very good, Pete. I'm very proud of her.
00:37:46We went all over the Far East,
00:37:48and she's so homesick, I guess,
00:37:50that she asked me to go up to see her old home place
00:37:53up at Macy's Springs, Virginia.
00:37:56All right.
00:38:20This was a time, I woke up one morning
00:38:23and I came to the realization that I thought,
00:38:27oh, my goodness, I think I'm falling in love with Johnny Cash.
00:38:35Scared the daylights out of me.
00:38:37It was not an opportune time.
00:38:39I thought, this is not going to work,
00:38:41because we had two lives of our own going in other directions,
00:38:45and it wasn't convenient. It just wasn't.
00:38:49She was married, and he was married.
00:38:53He had four girls.
00:38:55My mom was truly in love with my dad,
00:38:59and they made a life together.
00:39:03My dad was gone all the time.
00:39:05June was there.
00:39:07They had this thing about being on the road in their blood,
00:39:10this constant motion, this striving.
00:39:13They were both artists.
00:39:15Won't you come, dear, and shed just one tear
00:39:21Everything was wrong.
00:39:23Everything was crazy.
00:39:25He was off on another planet somewhere.
00:39:30You were singing one back there in the dressing room
00:39:33about family.
00:39:35That's what I understood.
00:39:36Within three years, dear,
00:39:38I'll be back in a second.
00:39:39Oh, pardon.
00:39:40There we go.
00:39:41Your lighter, I'm sorry.
00:39:43Crumble, crumble, crumble
00:39:47By the time he and June were falling in love
00:39:50and she was traveling with him,
00:39:52he was a full-blown addict.
00:39:55I tried to encourage him to get clean.
00:39:58He would try, and I wouldn't see him for a long time.
00:40:02He'd come back on the road, and he'd be using again.
00:40:05When they nailed him to the cross
00:40:10It was a terrible cycle that he was in.
00:40:14Rosie and I would say our prayers every night,
00:40:16and Mama would always say,
00:40:18Don't forget tonight, pray for Johnny Cash,
00:40:21because he's a good man.
00:40:23So these little girls are praying for Johnny Cash,
00:40:25who's not their daddy.
00:40:33I didn't want to fall in love with him,
00:40:36didn't mean to fall in love with him,
00:40:38but I was scared to death of him.
00:40:40So I did a lot of just running
00:40:43and trying to sit in the corner by myself,
00:40:46because I wouldn't even admit it to myself for a long time.
00:40:50Johnny Cash in the Tennessee Free!
00:40:52I didn't want to hurt anybody.
00:40:54I didn't want to do anything that would hurt him
00:40:58or his family or me or my family.
00:41:01And I'd always been raised a real religious girl.
00:41:05June was a good Christian girl.
00:41:09I mean, you didn't go to bed with somebody
00:41:11unless you were married.
00:41:14And I had never in my life
00:41:17meant to be married more than once.
00:41:21Mr. Johnny Cash!
00:41:27And yet she was deeply, deeply, fiercely in love with John.
00:41:36So there was a real conflict going on there.
00:41:42I tell you, you can't kill people like me
00:41:45when something like this happens.
00:41:49One night, I know I woke up in the middle of the night,
00:41:52and I was crying when I woke up,
00:41:54and I thought, I can't do this.
00:41:56I can't. This is driving me crazy,
00:41:59because all I could feel was pain.
00:42:02And I'd been writing songs with a guy named Merle Kilgore,
00:42:06a great songwriter, and he had encouraged me to write.
00:42:10Okay, we're ready? Give me a minute.
00:42:13The next morning, Kilgore came in, and I said,
00:42:15we've got to hone a little bit on this,
00:42:17but I really think I've written a great song.
00:42:21Here we go, now.
00:42:23All right, we're just pressing on.
00:42:26I'm going to sing this song for you,
00:42:28and I'd like to try my version
00:42:30of the way it was written in the beginning.
00:42:34Love is a burning thing
00:42:39And it makes a fiery ring
00:42:44Bound by wild desires
00:42:49I fell into a ring of fire
00:42:53You know, I don't know if a lot of people know
00:42:55that she wrote Ring of Fire.
00:42:57I know Johnny Cash wrote Ring of Fire,
00:42:59but June wrote Ring of Fire.
00:43:01She wrote Ring of Fire, okay!
00:43:03And the flames went higher
00:43:05And it burns, burns, burns
00:43:08The ring of fire
00:43:11My father heard this beautiful song.
00:43:15And the story goes, he had a dream
00:43:18that he heard Mexicali trumpets on the Ring of Fire.
00:43:21trumpets play
00:43:29Love is a burning thing
00:43:35And it makes a fiery ring
00:43:42Bound by wild desires
00:43:45There is no country song better known than Ring of Fire,
00:43:48I don't think.
00:43:50It's a song that is everlasting.
00:43:53I mean, Ring of Fire, when Johnny recorded it,
00:43:57you're talking about this thing that came from this,
00:44:00this really deep, like I'm going to hell, I'm in a ring of fire,
00:44:04I'm going to burn in hell because of what I feel.
00:44:07And then you have this angelic chorus
00:44:10of these Carter girls up there.
00:44:13The ring of fire, the ring of fire
00:44:17There's just so many things that shouldn't work,
00:44:21and yet it works because it is unusual.
00:44:25That's the wonderful thing about music,
00:44:27sometimes those things that seem like they don't fit
00:44:31are what make the magic of the music.
00:44:34I fell into a burning ring of fire
00:44:39Went down, down, down
00:44:41And the flames went higher
00:44:44And it burns, burns, burns
00:44:48The ring of fire, the ring of fire
00:44:56She felt like the world was just going to swallow her up
00:45:00during that time period.
00:45:04So many religious people think,
00:45:06well, you stay married is what you do,
00:45:09and I'm thankful to them if they can manage to do that.
00:45:13But that time came in my life when I couldn't manage to do it.
00:45:21She took me and Rosie to New York to see the World's Fair,
00:45:25and she told us that when we went home
00:45:28that Daddy Rip wouldn't be there anymore,
00:45:30that he was going to be living somewhere else.
00:45:34I got a divorce, and I got it so quietly
00:45:38that I didn't tell John or any of them
00:45:41that I was divorced for about two or three months.
00:45:43They didn't know it. I was very ashamed of it.
00:45:47She was following her heart, having the courage,
00:45:50when back then, I'm sure people thought she was a whore, you know.
00:45:56I understand him. We understand each other.
00:46:00I understand his pain.
00:46:04Well, she had fought that pill habit that I had.
00:46:07She had fought it with everything she knew.
00:46:09I had that demon in me.
00:46:13I thank God for people like her
00:46:15that still believe that there was a little good in me.
00:46:19I flushed things down the commode.
00:46:21I flushed down his amphetamines and his barbiturates.
00:46:24I did everything that I could,
00:46:26and I did things that I would have never done ordinarily,
00:46:29but I think I did it only because I didn't know what else to do.
00:46:32I thought he would die.
00:46:35There were people that said to me
00:46:38that the only person in the 1960s
00:46:42who believed in Johnny Cash was June Carter,
00:46:47that there was no one else,
00:46:49that no one saw any light at the end of Cash Tunnel
00:46:56except for June.
00:46:59June believed.
00:47:05I just never did let go.
00:47:08I think if you really feel that way about somebody,
00:47:12you just cannot leave them.
00:47:14How can you leave them?
00:47:16You don't care if it hurts.
00:47:18You go on through it, from my point of view,
00:47:22because I loved him.
00:47:25And I told him,
00:47:27if he could stay clean for six months,
00:47:30then I would consider marrying him.
00:47:34When my father turned his life around in the late 1960s,
00:47:38he went to the Carters for help
00:47:41because they had so much love to lend.
00:47:45He loved my grandma and grandfather.
00:47:48He stayed at Grandma and Granddaddy's house.
00:47:50He had his own room there.
00:47:52And they were just trying to get him straight
00:47:54and keep him straight.
00:47:57My mother and father and a couple of other friends,
00:48:00we did a lot of praying and fought a lot of demons.
00:48:07During that time, her deep faith
00:48:10was something that she communicated a lot to Johnny.
00:48:16In my troubles, in my sorrows,
00:48:18and in my confusions in life,
00:48:21I've looked to that higher spiritual plane.
00:48:31I'm the luckiest man alive.
00:48:34I don't think there'd be another man alive
00:48:37that's as lucky as I am to come through.
00:48:44I would like to introduce to you
00:48:46a family that I'm very close to
00:48:48and they're very dear to me.
00:48:50Let's make welcome Mother Maybel Helen June
00:48:52and Anita the Carter family.
00:48:54Hi, Mama. Come on up. How you doing?
00:48:57Hi, girls.
00:49:00I was standing with my family
00:49:02in front of about 7,000 people
00:49:04in London, Ontario, Canada.
00:49:10He walked up to the microphone
00:49:12and said, Will you marry me?
00:49:14Just like that?
00:49:15Like that on the stage.
00:49:16What did you say?
00:49:17I choked.
00:49:18I said, You've got to be kidding.
00:49:20I said, Quit.
00:49:21This is not happening to me.
00:49:22Shut up.
00:49:24I wanted to answer with some kind of glamour,
00:49:26but there's no glamour to it.
00:49:28It's yes or no,
00:49:29so the show must go on,
00:49:31and I said yes.
00:49:49Well, I got married in March 1, 1968.
00:49:52Here's your lovely wife, June Carter.
00:49:58June Carter sings that love.
00:50:06June, you've been a guiding light
00:50:08and inspiration in John's life.
00:50:10I had the two daughters,
00:50:12Carlene and Rosie,
00:50:14and we took our suitcases
00:50:16and we went out to live with John.
00:50:18June's daughters, Carlene and Rosie.
00:50:22When Mom and John got married,
00:50:24Rosie and I were grooving.
00:50:26We were really excited about having some sisters.
00:50:29We were going to have four sisters,
00:50:31and it was like, yeah.
00:50:34And God loved them.
00:50:35They were not that thrilled,
00:50:37and I don't blame them.
00:50:40I remember at 12 when that happened.
00:50:43It broke my mother's heart.
00:50:45In some ways, I think it broke my dad's heart.
00:50:48It was giving up a certain idea of his life.
00:50:52I think there's times in your life
00:50:54where you know that this is the fork
00:50:56you're going to take and that you have to take.
00:50:58It doesn't mean there's not grief for what you lose.
00:51:01Your four daughters are in school in California,
00:51:04and they wanted to say hello to their daddy.
00:51:06The family is really important to me,
00:51:08all of the girls.
00:51:09Hi, Daddy.
00:51:10We love you very much,
00:51:11and we hope you have a wonderful...
00:51:13Roseanne and Kathy and Cindy and Tara
00:51:15are all John's girls.
00:51:16So long for now, Daddy.
00:51:18It took a little time for us all to become family,
00:51:22and it was kind of decided amongst everyone
00:51:24that it was too complicated to say,
00:51:26this is my stepsister.
00:51:28This is my sister.
00:51:29It seemed like the most normal thing.
00:51:31On the far end is our daughter, Rosie.
00:51:34Over there, then our daughter, Carlene.
00:51:36Our daughter, Roseanne.
00:51:37Because people want to ask,
00:51:39well, whose kid is that?
00:51:41Carlton!
00:51:44Miss June Carter!
00:51:47Whoo!
00:51:50There's a dark and a troubled side of life
00:51:54There's a bright and a sunny side, too
00:51:58And though we meet with the darkness and strife
00:52:03The sunny side we also meet
00:52:05My mother was told that she could not have another baby.
00:52:09But by 1969, she's 40 years old,
00:52:14and she's pregnant.
00:52:16We'll have this very day
00:52:17It will brighten all the ways
00:52:19It will keep us safe
00:52:21And they saw that as a miracle in itself
00:52:23that I was able to come into the world.
00:52:25On the sunny side of life
00:52:29You're in June.
00:52:31That's my son, John Carter.
00:52:33John Carter.
00:52:34Hi, John Carter.
00:52:35Hi, sir.
00:52:36There's your son, John.
00:52:37Hi, sir.
00:52:38John Carter.
00:52:39How you doing?
00:52:40All of us felt like we were having that baby, too.
00:52:43It was like, oh, John and June are having a baby together.
00:52:46This is so wonderful
00:52:48because it was like the icing on the cake somehow.
00:52:59You had so many things going for your career
00:53:02when you and John got married,
00:53:04and I realize your career has gone on in its own right,
00:53:08but do you ever think that perhaps
00:53:10if you hadn't married John Cash,
00:53:12you might be a bigger star individually?
00:53:16Well, I think I had to make a decision
00:53:19when it came to John,
00:53:21and when I decided that I wanted to marry John,
00:53:24that that's what I wanted to do,
00:53:26I did make a decision that where he goes, I will go,
00:53:30and what he does, I will do.
00:53:42If I were a carpenter and you were a lady
00:53:47Would you marry me anyway?
00:53:50Would you have my baby?
00:53:53If you were a carpenter and I were a lady
00:53:58I'd marry you anyway
00:54:01I'd have your baby
00:54:04If a tinker was my trade
00:54:07Would I still find you?
00:54:09I'd be carrying the pot you made
00:54:12Following behind you
00:54:16Save me not through loneliness
00:54:19Save me not through sorrow
00:54:21Would you folks here at Opryland join me
00:54:23in welcoming Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Cash
00:54:26to Pop Goes the Country.
00:54:28During the time she was married to Carl Smith,
00:54:30she didn't take on the name June Carter Smith.
00:54:33The same when she married Rip Nix,
00:54:35she did not take on Rip's last name.
00:54:38On the song you're shining
00:54:42Save me not through loneliness
00:54:44She becomes officially and commercially
00:54:48and makes a statement to the world
00:54:51that I am June Carter Cash.
00:54:54I'm very pleased to be any place that my husband is
00:54:58because I've been completely, totally happy,
00:55:01and I guess the word is liberated
00:55:03since I've been married to Johnny Cash.
00:55:08She felt that when she gave up her independence,
00:55:12things were different then.
00:55:14I mean, she even, like, would change her voice.
00:55:16Since I've become Mrs. Johnny Cash,
00:55:18I've been happy since I've come to that conclusion in my life.
00:55:22I used to have great ambition,
00:55:24and I used to want to be this or want to be that,
00:55:27and now I'm just happy being Johnny Cash's wife.
00:55:29She would say, I just paddle around after Johnny now,
00:55:33and it's like, what?
00:55:36No.
00:55:37Well, go on down to Jackson
00:55:40Go down to Jackson
00:55:41Go ahead and wreck your head
00:55:44Don't play your hand, you talky man
00:55:48Make a big fool of yourself
00:55:50And I'm not going to feel bad about the situation at all
00:55:53because by the time I came into his life,
00:55:55he had so many miles on him,
00:55:56there's no way I'll ever catch up with him.
00:55:59laughing
00:56:02June understood that she was very important
00:56:05to holding him up,
00:56:07and that Johnny Cash was not Johnny Cash
00:56:11without June Carter.
00:56:13I think she was his lifeline, and he knew it.
00:56:17I'm going to Jackson
00:56:19You turn the loose of my coat
00:56:22Honey, I'm going to Jackson
00:56:25When I was born, my father was at the very top of his career.
00:56:29Well, he'll laugh at you
00:56:31They had the live television show.
00:56:33Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.
00:56:35They were on the tongue tip of everyone in America,
00:56:38and Dad could also go to Germany, England, Ireland, Australia,
00:56:42and sell out many, many tickets.
00:56:44At one time, he was the 5th most recognizable human on this planet.
00:56:49Oh, you big talky man
00:56:51And so they decided they would just take me with them.
00:56:55Well, now we got married in a beach
00:57:00He was a good traveler, too.
00:57:02He loves airplanes, sleeps on planes, sleeps in cars.
00:57:05He had no trouble.
00:57:07And we traveled the world together.
00:57:09Ever since the fire went out
00:57:12I'm going to Jackson
00:57:14We even went to the White House.
00:57:18Yeah, we're going to Jackson
00:57:21Ain't never coming back
00:57:26If I ever have a boy, I think I'm going to name him John Carter.
00:57:31Yeah, John Carter, that's what we named him.
00:57:34John Carter Cash, think about it.
00:57:39There wasn't a time that I didn't go on stage and perform
00:57:43or that I was on stage as part of a performance.
00:57:47It was just part of family. It was part of what we did.
00:57:51Mr. Marshall is blue.
00:57:58Thank you very much.
00:58:00And my mother, what she told me when I was a kid
00:58:03was that when you walk up on that stage
00:58:06and you stand in front of that audience
00:58:09remember they already love you.
00:58:12It's not as if you have to prove it to them.
00:58:15Good afternoon and welcome to the home of Johnny Cash.
00:58:24We moved and suddenly we're in this giant house
00:58:28that we're not used to.
00:58:30And we had all these people hanging around outside
00:58:33and we had guards.
00:58:35And me and Rosie are on one end and they're on the other end.
00:58:39It was just so different.
00:58:43What else do you do at home when you're not on the road?
00:58:47We do a lot of different things.
00:58:50We sometimes have friends in when we get a chance.
00:58:53June made their house a North Star
00:58:57for the music community in this city.
00:58:59It was a tradition that they would have
00:59:02other musicians over for an evening.
00:59:05You would go downstairs and there was this blue velvet
00:59:10rock and roll, big sofa.
00:59:13Almost always Roy Orbison was there
00:59:16because he was our next door neighbor.
00:59:18George and Tammy would be there, all done up like George and Tammy.
00:59:22And you'd sit around and pass the guitar around
00:59:25and sing your newest song.
00:59:28Shel Silverstein showed my father the lyric for Boy Named Sue.
00:59:32Graham Nash played Marrakesh Express for the first time ever.
00:59:36And the same thing with Bob Dylan with Lay Lady Lay.
00:59:40So I got the bug to write songs.
00:59:43I cut my teeth in front of a lot of really cool people.
00:59:47I had to follow Paul McCartney one night.
00:59:51That's a lot to do with good friends of ours,
00:59:54and some of them are people who've made it.
00:59:57A lot of them are young artists who haven't made it yet,
01:00:00who are struggling, and there's been several struggling people
01:00:03in our house singing at some of these pickin' sessions
01:00:06who have made it since then and that we're proud of.
01:00:09She was really good with young music people
01:00:12and allowing them to bloom and wanting them to bloom.
01:00:16June heard me sing a song called Help Me,
01:00:20and she wrote my name down on the back of a blank check.
01:00:24And I became one of her babies.
01:00:28Larry Gatlin!
01:00:36Larry Gatlin, Chris Christopherson,
01:00:39and of course Waylon would come over.
01:00:41Waylon Jennings.
01:00:43I have known Waylon since he was 17.
01:00:46She would be championing them,
01:00:48you know, like slipping tapes to John from Chris Christopherson.
01:00:52We'd like to sing a song for you.
01:00:54It's a brand-new Chris Christopherson song.
01:00:56I'd like to dedicate this to my daughter Cindy,
01:00:59who is here tonight.
01:01:00Chris Christopherson.
01:01:01He's one of my babies.
01:01:02He's one of those that was poor and trying to make it,
01:01:06and I felt that he had a real talent,
01:01:08and I talked to a lot of people about him.
01:01:15It's part of what we do.
01:01:17They hold up my arms and let me be Moses now and then.
01:01:20That's true. It's a highly spiritual time.
01:01:22But there are other things, too, that come along at Christmas time.
01:01:25Yeah, like Christmas presents.
01:01:27Just kind of sitting around by the fire, you know.
01:01:29And Christmas presents.
01:01:30And Christmas presents, yes.
01:01:32I stood over on the side, and I watched, and I learned,
01:01:38and was grateful for it.
01:01:43And there again, were it not for June.
01:01:48So it really comes back to the matriarch.
01:01:52And any hairy-legged man who says it ain't true,
01:01:57he's lying his ass off.
01:02:11So I remember one day June said,
01:02:13Well, come on, honey. Let's do some Christmas shopping at Steinmark.
01:02:16So we got in her blue Rolls.
01:02:18She took Janine off in her new Rolls Royce that John had just bought her.
01:02:23Left me with John. Barely knew him.
01:02:26So I had played some of Ronnie's songs for them,
01:02:29and she said, Well, I'm just going to tell you.
01:02:33He's pretty good.
01:02:35And she'd go like this.
01:02:38He might have a couple of hits.
01:02:42He might.
01:02:44And she says, Honey, I just need you to understand.
01:02:50It just seems like the ones that really make it,
01:02:56they're all a little crazy.
01:02:58In other words, don't do it, you know.
01:03:01Don't do it.
01:03:02And Janine comes back after a few hours,
01:03:05and she was just kind of pale, you know.
01:03:09I don't think, Oh, God, she spent a lot of money or what.
01:03:13No, it was that June had read her the right act about dating a musician.
01:03:20It was just funny.
01:03:22She was right, though.
01:03:24There.
01:03:27That's it, ladies and gentlemen.
01:03:29Thank you very much, and good night.
01:03:38The rigors of the road are difficult for a couple.
01:03:45And when you work together and live together, it's a lot.
01:03:50Plus the constant glare from the public
01:03:55and the projections on them to live up to some kind of myth,
01:04:00I mean, that's almost impossible.
01:04:03It was like a religion.
01:04:09I said, I don't know who this man is.
01:04:11Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.
01:04:13I love it.
01:04:15Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.
01:04:16Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.
01:04:18We had one of those storybook kind of marriages in the beginning
01:04:21that just was unbelievable.
01:04:22We had no problems for the first 10, 12 years of our marriage.
01:04:26I mean, it was like something you would read about in books.
01:04:31The first 10 years they were together, they were never apart.
01:04:34Ever.
01:04:35Ever.
01:04:37If she went shopping, he went shopping with her.
01:04:41And I just was like, I would shoot myself.
01:04:47The home I grew up in, there was a beautiful, intimate relationship
01:04:50that was going on.
01:04:51My father was clean.
01:04:53He wasn't on anything in the early 1970s.
01:04:56It was very peaceful and very together as a unit.
01:05:01Up until I was eight or nine years old,
01:05:04when their relationship changed a great deal.
01:05:09By 1980 or so, my father rekindled an addiction.
01:05:16It would sneak up on him.
01:05:17Something would trigger him, or he'd get hurt.
01:05:20And you gave John a bottle of anything
01:05:23and didn't monitor him on it, he's going to take it all.
01:05:27June did not save my dad.
01:05:31You can't save another person from their own addiction.
01:05:36Thank you very much. I'd like to do my new record.
01:05:38Feels love infusing, drinking wine and song.
01:05:45June really struggled to keep him looking good
01:05:49when he was in public, you know,
01:05:51guarding him from people who might be disappointed
01:05:54if they saw him in that shape.
01:05:57He chose to, you know, just give himself to people.
01:06:00God bless you. Good night.
01:06:05There were a lot of characters around him
01:06:07who were there for the wrong reasons.
01:06:10June was kind, but she could be ruthless.
01:06:13It took a lot, but if it was clear
01:06:17that you were not trustworthy, she'd cut you out.
01:06:23Their relationship suffered greatly.
01:06:27They were fighting every day,
01:06:29they were very angry with each other,
01:06:32mostly my mom angry with my father.
01:06:35I knew that they were having trouble.
01:06:37My mother, my sister and I were having lunch
01:06:39at a restaurant in New York, and she was there.
01:06:42And she said, there's a problem.
01:06:47Either he gets straightened out
01:06:49or I have to leave and I don't want to leave.
01:06:52She just was at her wits' end.
01:06:55So whatever happened, it must have been something horrible.
01:07:02I was traveling with them,
01:07:04and, you know, I remember one night
01:07:06hearing my dad's breathing being very labored.
01:07:11He would breathe all the way out,
01:07:13and then his breath would stop.
01:07:15And then after a little bit, he'd start breathing again.
01:07:20Well, at one point, it stopped and he didn't start back.
01:07:26Scenes of my life passed before my eyes.
01:07:30I saw myself at my peaks, and I saw myself
01:07:33walk through my deepest, darkest valleys.
01:07:38I ran in and I got my mother.
01:07:41And we got him up and we put him in the bathtub
01:07:44and we poured water all over him.
01:07:47I remember hearing him say,
01:07:51I remember he woke up, and he was very incoherent.
01:07:56I was afraid. I was overwhelmed.
01:07:59I was crying my eyes out. I mean, I was a kid, you know.
01:08:03And it wasn't long after that that many changes began to occur.
01:08:09There was a time
01:08:13There was an intervention. We had an intervention.
01:08:16We all wrote letters to my dad.
01:08:19It was very hard for me to do that.
01:08:21We read them all to my father,
01:08:23and he agreed to go to treatment at Betty Ford Center.
01:08:28When I saw him again in California,
01:08:30that person was back.
01:08:32My old dad was back again.
01:08:35Hey, Willie Wollecky, hey, John Doogalee,
01:08:37that glory should be new, new, new.
01:08:42New, new, new.
01:08:47Have I told you lately that I love you?
01:08:54And at that point, there was a great forgiveness in place.
01:08:58But my mother was like, it's hard to be Johnny Cash.
01:09:02How did she forgive him?
01:09:05She had a way of forgiving as if it was from east to west.
01:09:13And maybe a lot of times they did buy into their own myth.
01:09:17For better or for worse,
01:09:19maybe that kept them going at a time
01:09:21when they could have broken up, you know.
01:09:23It's like, well, we have this thing together
01:09:25that's bigger than us.
01:09:28I mean, that's what it looks like from the outside.
01:09:31And you never know what goes on in people's marriages anyway.
01:09:36It's really easy.
01:09:38I don't know if you can learn it fast enough or not,
01:09:41but we might get it down.
01:09:43It's one I wrote just before I sent him to Victor.
01:09:47It's, um...
01:09:50Bear me up on wings of angels
01:09:54Let me hear the choir sing
01:09:57Let me see the angels sing
01:10:01Let me hear the choir sing
01:10:04Let me see the faces of the cherubim
01:10:13Lift me up on wings of angels
01:10:16I was in the lobby at the Betty Ford Center.
01:10:19We went back there to visit them,
01:10:22and John was in rehab,
01:10:24and June was at the codependency center.
01:10:29Jesus, I'm trying to get to you
01:10:34When she went into Betty Ford Center,
01:10:36there was an education that happened in her life
01:10:39of what codependency is
01:10:41that she had never conceived of before.
01:10:44She said to me, oh, honey, I just learned
01:10:47I'm going to die before John.
01:10:50I said, why?
01:10:52She goes, well, because codependency's really, really hard.
01:10:55We become super parents.
01:10:57She goes, we paint, we play with clay, we fly kites,
01:11:02we learn to be kids again.
01:11:04And I'm telling you this because you need to know this.
01:11:08Being codependent, which means sometimes
01:11:11you're too good for your own good,
01:11:14where you put others too much ahead of your own needs.
01:11:19You helped him to heal a lot of those scars.
01:11:22Well, that would be nice if I could say I did that.
01:11:25I think all of us girls would like to be able to claim
01:11:28that we healed our husbands.
01:11:30You know, if it doesn't work,
01:11:32you just pop them in the head and holler heal.
01:11:35It doesn't work.
01:11:37You sound like you kind of regret
01:11:39some of the things that go along
01:11:41with the status you've achieved in the business.
01:11:44Oh, I don't regret any of that.
01:11:46There is pain in everybody's life.
01:11:48It's something we all are confronted with.
01:11:51Every one of us has pain, and it helps us.
01:11:54It'll push you.
01:11:56It'll stick you right through the rest of the world
01:11:59if you'll stick it behind you.
01:12:01Don't let it hang with you.
01:12:03Don't put it in front of you.
01:12:05That's what I say.
01:12:17There comes a point in every entertainer's life,
01:12:22you're faced with the mortality your own
01:12:25and the mortality of your career.
01:12:28And it happened to John in June.
01:12:31In the early 1980s, my father didn't have very many hits at all.
01:12:36And 1984, after, he sort of picked back up his life again.
01:12:41He was actually dropped by his record label at the time.
01:12:45It was a dramatic slowdown.
01:12:48You know, I saw Johnny and June the first time
01:12:51playing for 16,000 screaming fans,
01:12:53and in the 80s, we would sometimes go to clubs with 300 people.
01:12:57They'd been the biggest stars in the world for 6, 8, 10 years,
01:13:03and then it started not being that way.
01:13:08Good night. Good night.
01:13:10I think June was unsettled by that.
01:13:13At the same time, she was so strong,
01:13:16just like, he's going to be okay, you're going to be okay.
01:13:27We went to Montreux, Switzerland,
01:13:30at the invitation of John and June.
01:13:33They decided they wanted to do a Christmas special
01:13:36with their best friends.
01:13:38Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.
01:13:41Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.
01:13:44Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.
01:13:47Hello, I'm Willie Criss.
01:13:50Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Chris Christopherson and Waylon Jennings,
01:13:55all of whom were on the downside of fame at that time.
01:14:00You know, living with the likes of good old boys
01:14:03like John and Willie and Criss and Waylon,
01:14:05well, it's just not that easy.
01:14:07You don't know all we know,
01:14:09cos these are a bunch of wives that have a lot to do.
01:14:12We're married to a star, yes we are.
01:14:17Our men are legends in their time.
01:14:22All these guys have been real close to us.
01:14:26We were all sitting around in the room and they were all singing
01:14:29and they decided this really shouldn't stop right here,
01:14:32we should do something else,
01:14:33and that's when they did their first Highwayman album.
01:14:38I was a highwayman.
01:14:41Along the coach roads I did ride
01:14:45With sword and pistol by my side
01:14:47And they reawakened all their careers.
01:14:50Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade
01:14:53And then it just evolved to a ten-year touring.
01:15:00On the road with the Highwaymen,
01:15:02my mother would have been me, a resounding matriarch.
01:15:05She was tough and she was funny.
01:15:08And, you know, if you're married to Johnny Cash,
01:15:10you gotta be tough.
01:15:12I'll fly a starship
01:15:15Across the universe divine
01:15:19And when I reach...
01:15:21I'm good friends with all the wives.
01:15:24The highwaymen.
01:15:25The highwaymen.
01:15:26The highwaymen.
01:15:28It was just the highwaymen,
01:15:30and they didn't know how to add the highwaymen and June.
01:15:34There was some discussion whether
01:15:36John and June could do a song together,
01:15:38and it just, nobody knew quite how to work it out.
01:15:41June Carter, who wrote Ring of Fire,
01:15:43my wife is here tonight.
01:15:44Stand up and take a bow, will you?
01:15:46Cheers & applause
01:15:48Come on, baby.
01:15:50Hey, here she is, back over here.
01:15:53All right.
01:15:54It ended up that June, during every show,
01:15:58would stand up in the audience,
01:16:00and they put a spotlight on her,
01:16:02and she would look around at everybody and wave.
01:16:05It's been the one time in my life
01:16:07when I've got to sit and enjoy it, kind of.
01:16:10Really have enjoyed the time with the boys
01:16:14and with their wives as well.
01:16:25There's an awkwardness,
01:16:26and I don't understand because I'm not an artist,
01:16:29how that decision is made.
01:16:30So how June ended up never being on stage during those years,
01:16:34I really don't know.
01:16:36But it probably was hard on her.
01:16:41That's part of the thing that's hard about her ego,
01:16:45because that ambition was there,
01:16:48and she had to kind of squelch it.
01:16:52She didn't know what to do with herself.
01:16:54You can't be on the road all your entire life
01:16:58and suddenly not have it anymore.
01:17:01I have heard of a land on the faraway strand
01:17:06Is a beautiful home of the soul
01:17:11Built by Jesus Christ
01:17:13She started going back to Virginia a lot.
01:17:16She started spending a lot of time in the home
01:17:19that she grew up in as a little girl.
01:17:22She was experiencing memories
01:17:24of what the fire smelled like in the fireplace,
01:17:27of which flowers in particular
01:17:29grew in the woods in the backyard.
01:17:32She got back in connection with those things
01:17:35from when she was at a period of innocence and beauty.
01:17:39June started to look at her life
01:17:42to sort of remind herself, I think, of who she was,
01:17:46and to remind everybody else, you know, here's who I really am.
01:17:50I'm not Mrs. Johnny Cash, I'm June Carter,
01:17:53and this is my story.
01:18:00He said, you need Vicki's what you need, and I said, okay.
01:18:04Anyway, she's got this new record company that she started.
01:18:08I would have never thought in a million years
01:18:11that I would, like, make that record with June.
01:18:14But she started, like, calling me.
01:18:17You know, June said she had to get this music out.
01:18:21She had a legacy to leave behind, you know.
01:18:24That was what she was trying to accomplish.
01:18:29I didn't know how I was going to pay for it or anything like that.
01:18:33But June had more faith than anybody on the planet.
01:18:37She was always optimistic.
01:18:40You know, something really terrible could happen,
01:18:42and she would figure out a way to take lemons and make lemonade out of it.
01:18:46That's it to it.
01:18:48She would always say, it's okay, we'll get through this.
01:18:52Just press on, honey, just press on.
01:18:55And that was her philosophy in life.
01:18:57Those two words are absolutely how I would and do remember June.
01:19:03Press on.
01:19:04Okay, let's press on.
01:19:10June and I, we put on the blinders, and it happened.
01:19:15We made the record.
01:19:18All right, Marty.
01:19:23My mother came to me and asked me if I would co-produce the album Press On.
01:19:29I was nervous in a certain way,
01:19:31because this was one of the first things that I had ever recorded.
01:19:37But she gave me the energy.
01:19:38She gave me the strength.
01:19:39She's like, oh, you can do this.
01:19:41Oh, yes, you can do this.
01:19:43Go back to the top of that verse, that different verse,
01:19:46because everybody's still working on that.
01:20:10It was my mother's time to shine.
01:20:12It was as if every dream that she had,
01:20:14when she went to New York City in the 1950s,
01:20:18they were all coming back real.
01:20:20When are you coming back?
01:20:22Around that time, she did The Apostle with Robert Duvall.
01:20:26I'm just a little chilly.
01:20:28Hold on now, hold on.
01:20:31We did the way we were taught from Sandy Meisner,
01:20:34who was both of our teachers in New York at the neighborhood playhouse.
01:20:40Hello?
01:20:41She was always ready.
01:20:43She was great to work with, just wonderful.
01:20:46She had her own sense of being strong-willed.
01:20:50She can't do that, son. You know she can't.
01:20:53She was so excited to be in that film with him.
01:20:57She just adored Robert Duvall and had become good friends with him.
01:21:02I just wish he had given me another part.
01:21:05Why did he have to give me one where I'm older than he is?
01:21:09When he's older than I am.
01:21:14Good sense of humor. Good sense of humor.
01:21:28Johnny's with me now. He goes wherever I go.
01:21:31He likes to be where I am, and I like to be where he is.
01:21:38My steps are growing weary.
01:21:44During the recording, Johnny's health was pretty fragile.
01:21:50So John was in intensive care literally the day before the first day of recording.
01:21:56He was very shaky. His hands were shaking.
01:21:59And he didn't have much energy for it, but he said, you know, he...
01:22:03I was amazed by the professionalism of this guy.
01:22:08Quick, I got it settled out for you.
01:22:11He wanted to play backup guitar and sing harmonies with her.
01:22:16He wanted to be there for her as she was for him in so many different ways.
01:22:22I believe my steps are growing weary.
01:22:26He comes up there to do Farside Banks and Tulips.
01:22:29Got another journey on my mind.
01:22:33That song meant so much to them.
01:22:35They sang that every night on stage from the late 1970s
01:22:38until the end of their performance career.
01:22:42And my one regret is leaving you behind.
01:22:49But if it proves to be his will that I am first to cross
01:22:56And somehow I've a feeling it will be
01:23:02When it comes your time to travel likewise don't feel lost
01:23:09For I will be the first one that you'll see
01:23:15And I'll be waiting on the Farside Banks of Jordan
01:23:23People have come to me and said,
01:23:25what's it like to be the product of the greatest love affair that ever was?
01:23:29Evidently, they were not there, right?
01:23:32Because they had struggles.
01:23:34But by the end of their life,
01:23:37my mother and father were more in love than they ever had been.
01:23:41They loved each other and they were great friends.
01:23:45They both loved what the other did.
01:23:49Love is what made their relationship.
01:23:53It wasn't fame. It wasn't power.
01:23:55It was what love really is.
01:23:57And people forget what love is.
01:24:00It's patient, it's kind, it's long-suffering.
01:24:04But the beauty is what stands out.
01:24:07And what's so great is to get a window into that strength
01:24:12and into that beauty we have but to listen to the music.
01:24:16And I'll be waiting on the Farside Banks of Jordan
01:24:24I'll be sitting, drawing pictures in the sand
01:24:31I'm here mostly because my life, the way it's turned around in the last little bit.
01:24:36For the past several years, I just followed Johnny Cash around the world, wherever he went.
01:24:41I've worked a whole lot harder than he did, but you all didn't know that.
01:24:45So I'm glad you had the opportunity to tell me.
01:24:49You know, June, it's been many years since she has had a new album out.
01:24:52It's called Press On.
01:24:54First solo album in 25 years.
01:24:57She was one of the stars in Robert Duvall's film The Apostle
01:25:00and now with a brand new CD called Press On, here is June Carter Cash!
01:25:12This is the June Carter Cash album right here and I listened to this this afternoon
01:25:16and my goodness, what a lovely, touching, sweet collection of music this is.
01:25:22Press On, I think, caught everybody by surprise.
01:25:26That is true timeless music.
01:25:28It was never trend-based, it never chased anything.
01:25:31June's songs are just based on basic human emotion, things that everyone could relate to.
01:25:38It is a privilege to introduce the great June Carter Cash.
01:25:41Here's June Carter Cash.
01:25:42Here she is, June Carter Cash.
01:25:44The only June Carter Cash.
01:25:48Thank you very much. This is a big night for me.
01:25:54It is the true spirit of American music.
01:25:59And it won her a Grammy.
01:26:07Press On won a Grammy.
01:26:09It was, like, really surprising. I mean, I had no idea.
01:26:12And it was just such an honor that that happened.
01:26:17Yeah, I mean, she was very, very proud of that.
01:26:19You know, Johnny had countless Grammys and this was her own Grammy.
01:26:23So, yeah, she was really proud of that.
01:26:25Everybody poo-poos it. Everybody goes, oh, pfft, Grammy award.
01:26:28But you know what? When you get one, it means something.
01:26:31It really means something. It's like, it's music's highest accolade.
01:26:35And you might not think you wanted it, but, you know, you really did.
01:26:40Please give a grand Ole Opry welcome to June Carter Cash.
01:26:47And then they would start shouting for June.
01:26:56You know she had to feel vindication.
01:26:59Oh, thank you.
01:27:00You know that she, in her final years, people are screaming for June.
01:27:07Oh, thank you.
01:27:09You almost made me cry.
01:27:13She is standing up there giving us a life lesson of what it means to stick it out.
01:27:29Okay, son.
01:27:30Let's do one more.
01:27:31Here we go.
01:27:32Press on, Norman.
01:27:37And then she was back in the studio again.
01:27:43In Virginia, at the house where she was raised.
01:27:47Forgive me.
01:27:51She gave it every bit of energy she had.
01:27:54Fourteen songs within three days.
01:27:58But I will dance, I will sing at my last show.
01:28:03You know, Moss did not grow on my mama's feet.
01:28:06She had a lot of energy.
01:28:08Her work ethic, period, was like, she was like a superwoman to me.
01:28:13But I'm longing to see him and regret the dark hour.
01:28:18He's gone and he left me.
01:28:21Okay, I'm ready to press on, son.
01:28:25One second.
01:28:26Okay.
01:28:31I'll tell you how it is.
01:28:33I'll just tell you again.
01:28:37We don't want to think about death, but sometimes I do.
01:28:41Sometimes I feel like I'm on a hill and it's John's grave I'm kneeling on.
01:28:46And if you can imagine me just sitting there trying to talk to him.
01:28:52When death shall close these eyelids
01:28:57And this heart shall cease to beat
01:29:03And they lay me down to rest
01:29:09In some flowery, boundary tree
01:29:18Will you miss me?
01:29:23Miss me when I'm gone
01:29:26Will you miss me?
01:29:30Miss me when I'm gone
01:29:33Will you miss me?
01:29:36I remember my mother was coming out the door.
01:29:40And I remember seeing her get in the car.
01:29:45And her telling me, I've got to go to the hospital.
01:29:48I look back now and I remember the look in her eye.
01:29:51It was this joy, but such sadness and weakness at the same time.
01:29:59And she went to the hospital.
01:30:03And come sit alone beside me
01:30:08When I got the phone call, I was shocked because John had been the one.
01:30:15I think everybody kind of expected John from his illness over the last ten years.
01:30:20That he would be the first to go.
01:30:23Will you miss me?
01:30:25Miss me when I'm gone
01:30:27Her death was sudden, and it hit all of us really hard, the whole community.
01:30:34It was just confusing. It was like, oh no, there goes the tent pole for everybody.
01:30:40It was a hard one. It was a hard one.
01:30:45But I could not hide my sorrow
01:30:49When they laid her in the grave
01:30:55It's hard even now, remembering that whole few days.
01:31:05When we went to June's funeral, Johnny Cash was so sad, oh my God.
01:31:10He just could hardly sit there.
01:31:15I just remember him saying, I put her in a blue dress because of her eyes.
01:31:23And then when I walked past him in the church, he said, is that Katie?
01:31:40It was agonizing to watch him go through that experience.
01:31:48It was really tough.
01:31:52She was so full of life.
01:31:55We wave to her from this shore as she drifts out of our lives.
01:32:03What a legacy she leaves us.
01:32:07It still, to this day, kills me for her to be gone.
01:32:15She was my dearest friend and my mommy.
01:32:20Under a June blue sky, waving her scarf to greet us.
01:32:24I just had this vision of June.
01:32:27I heard almost her whole life flash before me.
01:32:30And I almost felt like this song, she just dropped it in my lap as she was flying over.
01:32:38Like, here, I'm going to give you one more thing.
01:32:42And I wrote this song called The Strong Hand.
01:32:51I was standing next to John Carter, and I had my arm around him.
01:32:56Lisa Christofferson was there to support me.
01:32:59At one point, his knees were collapsing, and he's a large man.
01:33:03It's like she could tell right when I emotionally cracked, because I did emotionally crack.
01:33:08And I heard June say, I'm right here, son.
01:33:21And I had this super strength. I held up this huge man.
01:33:25Lisa held me with such love.
01:33:29Lisa held on to me like a mother.
01:33:33As they walked this world together.
01:33:36She was a holder-upper in that moment, you know, in a dimension that I don't really know or understand.
01:33:42But there's no doubt in my mind that it was real.
01:33:47After June died, John would call me a lot.
01:33:50And he was really down, and I could tell.
01:33:54And, you know, we'd talk about this thing or that thing.
01:33:59But what he was really wanting to do was get somebody to take his mind off of the whole thing.
01:34:07He really struggled.
01:34:09I mean, all of his children were holding our breaths, like he's not going to last long without her.
01:34:14And he didn't. He lasted four months.
01:34:19One of the last things he wrote on a plain piece of paper was,
01:34:24I love June Carter.
01:34:27She is an angel.
01:34:30I am not.
01:34:42She was very special.
01:34:45And, you know, there's nobody that could replace her.
01:34:55She was a very free spirit.
01:34:59There was a great depth of love of people.
01:35:03At the heart of it, there is this enduring personality that is there
01:35:11of a young girl riding on the back of a motorcycle.
01:35:17When you look at little girls, they're capable of so much more.
01:35:23And life is a series of girdles and corsets and bras and straitjackets and gingham.
01:35:33And sometimes it takes that little girl out of you.
01:35:39But June was able to tap into that.
01:35:42And so she kept that little girl growing and going.
01:35:48But I think a lot of times we don't see that in women,
01:35:52and we don't give them the opportunity to continue to develop all those dreams
01:35:58and wonderful things that they thought as young girls.
01:36:03I'm going to shout and sing until heavens ring
01:36:08when I'm bidding this world goodbye.
01:36:13It has 580 verses.
01:36:16It's the way my family always wrote songs.
01:36:18Just in case you wanted to go sing two or three days without stop,
01:36:22that's what you did.
01:36:24Okay, we're pressing on.
01:36:28Well, I might have gone fishing.
01:36:30Might have gone fishing.
01:36:31I got sinking it over.
01:36:33Sinking it over.
01:36:34The road to the river.
01:36:37It might be a long way.
01:36:39It might be a long way.
01:36:40It must be the season.
01:36:41It must be the season.
01:36:42No rhyme or no reason.
01:36:43No rhyme or no reason.
01:36:44I'm just taking it easy.
01:36:48I'm just taking it easy.
01:36:51I'm just taking it easy.
01:36:54I'm just taking it easy.
01:36:56It's my lazy day.
01:36:58It's my lazy day.
01:36:59I'm finding it easy.
01:37:01Finding it easy.
01:37:02To mind my own business.
01:37:03Mind my own business.
01:37:04I'm keeping my nose down.
01:37:07I'm everyone's slave.
01:37:09Everyone's slave.
01:37:10Just to kind of look stupid.
01:37:11Kind of look stupid.
01:37:12Don't want to meet Cupid.
01:37:14Don't want to meet Cupid.
01:37:15Just taking it easy.
01:37:18It's my lazy day.
01:37:19It's my lazy day.
01:37:26Ain't asked no questions.
01:37:31Ain't asked no questions.
01:37:35Ain't giving advice.
01:37:40Ain't giving advice.
01:37:45Ain't doing no safety.
01:37:47Ain't one to blame.
01:37:50Ain't one to blame.
01:37:52Just to kind of look stupid.
01:37:55I don't want to meet you, just taking it easy.
01:38:25I don't want to meet you, just taking it easy.