- Title: USA: TRIBUTE TO COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND JOHNNY CASH
- Date: 9th April 1999
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES (APPRIL 6, 1999) (RTN) EXTERIOR CONCERT VENUE
- Embargoed: 24th April 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVADPPO4NSTR3W62YQ36BTYZ8EX1
- Story Text: Country music legend Johnny Cash was the guest of honour at a concert tribute to him on Tuesday night (April 6) in New York.
Country music star Johnny Cash took the stage in New York Tuesday evening (April 6) for the first time in more than a year and said it "felt good."
Cash was among family, wife June Carter Cash and daughter Rosanne Cash, and very good friends who had come to perform in Turner Network Television's "All-Star Tribute to Johnny Cash."
As a roster of country music stars sang songs written and performed by Cash over the last 40 years, it became apparent that Cash had touched the lives of many people, including some who went on to come first-rate musicians.
Among them was Willie Nelson, a contemporary of Cash's, who was a fan before he was a popular songwriter and singer himself.He chalks up the wide appeal of Cash to the fact that, "he's a real person talking and singing about real things and people can see that."
Pop music sensation Sheryl Crow performed with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Emmylou Harris in the Cash tribute and told Reuters TV that she rejected country music until she began to write songs herself, at about age 17.Then, she says, she realized that her songs were about real people, too.
Mary Chapin Carpenter said what she liked best about Cash was his humanitarianism.She said, "Well, yea, if you know anything about him you know that he's always championed people who need champions, everything from people in prisons to native Americans....I think they should put Johnny Cash on Mount Rushmore.He's that kind of icon."
Kris Kristofferson sang Cash's "Ballad of Ira Hayes," which defends the cause of Native Americans and then told Reuters TV, "The thing that John gives to all his music is..just the integrity and the honesty that comes across in his every performance....You know he's telling the truth, and that he means what he's saying.And it's like Gary Cooper.
Cash himself delivered the show's finale with a performance of songs he is synonomous with -- "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line."
He was tanned, evidence of time in Jamaica, where his wife said he has been recovering from an undisclosed illness.
The Cash performance seemed tempered by his illness, but it was classic and inimitable, and the audience thundred its approval and affection with a long standing ovation. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None