HOME I THE FANZINE I THE CHRONICLE I LATEST NEWS I INTERVIEWS I DISCOGRAPHY

ARTICLES I PHOTOS I LINKS I ABOUT ME I CONTACT

Interview with John L. Smith - Excerpt

Can you remember the first time you heard Johnny Cash?

Oh yes, very well. I used to listen to a country radio station, KRNT, in Des Moines, Iowa while in high school. The dj was a man named Smokey Smith (no relation but we have since become very good friends) and my first introduction to Johnny Cash was hearing Smokey play Folsom Prison Blues. I was totally captivated by John from then on. I would make regular trips to my local record store and just hope there would be a new yellow Sun label with “Johnny Cash” imprinted on it.

And when did you first meet him?

Smokey Smith, mentioned above, also booked the country shows into the Des Moines area. I knew, of course, of John's interest in the Native Americans and so I approached Smokey one day in 1967 and asked if I could possibly meet John the next time he was in town. I did and the rest as they say is history. I talked about that first meeting in one of my discographies. Interestingly enough, John and I talked more about the Native Americans and the massacre at Wounded Knee than we did about his music. We visited constantly between the three shows he did that day and as we were leaving he asked if I thought he could accompany me to the reservation sometime. I thought "Oh sure...like that's going to happen!!!" But the next week I got a letter from John, he was in Pittsburgh, and he asked me again if he could go with me sometime. I had given him copies of the articles I had written and some photos of the Wounded Knee battlefield. A few months later I received a call from Saul Holiff, John's manager at the time, and he wanted to set up the trip. The first time we went to the reservation was in 1968 and we did it again in 1984, I think it was. In 1968 John wrote the song Big Foot in my car as we were leaving the battlefield and driving back to Rapid City, South Dakota.

Do you have a favourite Johnny Cash single and album?

John and I have a running joke...whenever he asks me that question I tell him my favorite song is See Ruby Fall and he proceeds to tell me how he and Roy Orbison came to write it. But to say I really have a favorite is difficult. Each single and each album holds something special to me as I'm sure they do for all the Cash fans. Big Foot is special because of when and why it was written; The Caretaker is special because when I first heard it I was in Germany and would have to walk by a grave yard to and from the Army base; Second Honeymoon is special...just because. But, no, I really have no standout “favorites.”

Your first Cash discography came out in 1984. How long did it take you to research and write?

Actually my first Cash discography was published in 1969 by the John Edwards Memorial Society at UCLA in California. As a collector and researcher I wanted to know as much about the material as I could and so started gathering the data with those first Sun releases. It started as just information for my own use but obviously expanded quite rapidly.

What sources did you access during your research?

My own record collection was the basis for the original research. I have been very fortunate over the years to have found the right people in the right places who realized what I was trying to do and sought to assist me in any way they could. In the early days the people at Sun Records were very helpful but their data was limited because of the lack of a good filing system. Columbia Records and their archives; the musicians union in Nashville, California and New York; the House of Cash; and the other labels John has been involved with. But, and I say with this in all sincerity, none of this could have been accomplished without the assistance of John, himself. From the very first I was never denied anything. John, and June, would take all the time I needed to answer question after question. And, of course, doing a discography on a living artist does have its advantages.

Did you get to listen to any tapes and if so are there any out-takes or alternate versions?

There is a certain level of trust that goes with working with an artist on a discography. And I have been very fortunate that I have maintained that trust over the years. And, I think, because of that I have had access to many different tapes of unreleased material, some studio recorded and some not. I have quite a collection of unreleased stuff that I have been given over the years as well.

The second volume detailed the material recorded for Rick Rubin although the live tracks taped at the Viper Room weren’t listed. Were these the only live ones recorded or are there more?

When they decided to tape the live performance it was more or less an after thought I think. I am assuming the entire performance was taped but only a few were chosen for release.

Your latest book Another Song To Sing is an incredible piece of work and one that I find invaluable during my research for the fanzine. It details the material on Unchained and a number of unreleased tracks like Addicted To Love – were these sessions similar to those for American Recordings, with a considerable number of tracks remaining unreleased?

There is a great amount of unreleased material from those "living room" sessions. And then John, himself, has a small studio on his farm where he has done some recording too. In The Garden, used on the soundtrack of the Robert Duvall film came from those 1993 sessions. Incidentally, thank you for the kind words about the latest book. Even though it numbers over 1,000 pages it was probably the easiest one to compile. Thank goodness for computers!!!