On This Day in History: January 13

Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison

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Country singer Johnny Cash cultivated a bad-boy image and was so good at it many thought he was a hardened criminal who did time behind bars. He was a guest at a few different prisons, but as a performer, not an inmate. And while prison destroys many lives, it was the performance at California’s Folsom Prison that saved Cash.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: January 13, 1968--

Cash wrote the song Folsom Prison Blues in 1955 after watching a documentary about the place, and had pondered the idea of recording a performance at a prison. But it was the ‘50s and people were really fucking uptight, so it was another 13 years before the album finally happened. And when it did, ol’ Johnny was circling the drain.

Like a lot of musicians, Cash was frequently drunk and drugged up. He popped uppers and downers like they were Skittles (except those wouldn’t exist until 1974). In 1965 he was on a fishing trip and was so baked off his ass he started a campfire that burned down 500 acres of California forest. Cash blamed it on his truck’s exhaust system.

He never spent more than a night in jail for various misdemeanors, but he nurtured the outlaw narrative. He’d played prisons before, including Folsom, but never recorded it. On January 13, 1968, he performed for some actual outlaws at Folsom and turned out a live album.

At the time of the recording, his addictions were spiraling out of control, his record label was threatening to punt his ass, and he considered taking his own life. But Folsom turned things around. He performed two shows that became the 17-track Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. The following year he did another live prison album titled Johnny Cash at San Quentin. Both albums hit #1 on the Billboard country chart.

The Folsom performance took place in the prison cafeteria, with the stage set up behind death row. There had been trouble at the prison recently, with a guard taken hostage, and during the concert guards carrying rifles walked above on ramps. The inmates were sternly warned to remain in their seats. Despite the tense atmosphere, Cash connected with them. His performance was a hit.

Afterward, Cash would become a champion for prison reform. He continued to battle his addictions, but with the help of his new wife June Carter, whom he married just a few months after the Folsom show, and his strong faith, his career flourished for decades. June Carter Cash died in 2003, and Johnny followed her four months later.

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