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Interview with Lou Robin - Excerpt

You booked concerts for Johnny Cash in the late sixties and then in August 1972 you took over as John’s manager from Saul Holiff. Can you tell us more about the move from promoting his concerts to becoming his manager.

My company, ARTIST CONSULTANTS PRODUCTIONS had promoted most of Johnny Cash’s concerts from 1969 to the time that Saul Holiff retired in 1972. When he left we asked Johnny for the opportunity to manage him as we had observed Holiff’s activities and already knew about the subtleties and pressures of management. Johnny and June agreed to put their faith in my partner Allen Tinkley and me. We continued to promote Johnny’s concerts as well.

This professional relationship has lasted over thirty years and during that time you must have become very close to both John, June and all the family.

Yes, I have become very close to the Cash family as my duties deal with attending to non-business family needs as requested.

And you are still managing both Johnny Cash and June Carter-Cash’s careers.

I have worked with the Cash’s for thirty years without a contract.

Are they your only clients.

Yes. This is a full-time job dealing with record companies, commercial agencies, movie studios, T. V. programmers and the day to day requests for Johnny and June’s time and/or services, etc.

I understand that you are an admirer of big band music and in particular that of Ted Heath and his Band. Can you tell us a bit about your own musical tastes.

I saw Ted Heath and his band in the U. S. around 1952. They were wonderful. Although I was raised on jazz, I also enjoy opera, folk music, Latin music and of course country music.

What do think of the country music scene today.

Country music today is primarily faceless artists who the record companies try to separate from the others with some sort of gimmickry and 90% of these artists disappear six or eight weeks later after a so, so record debut. Then someone else comes along. Record companies admittedly can’t spend a lot of time developing talent anymore. The artists have to hit big immediately or they’re gone. That’s why people like Johnny, George Jones and Willie Nelson don’t release records unless they have something significant to say.

Do you prefer working out of California as opposed to Nashville.

I prefer the warm climate of California and this is the hub of the entertainment business where 70% of everything with which I’m involved happens.

You wrote a great foreword to my book on John. Do you have any other interesting stories about your time with him that you could tell us.

I’ll leave that for another time while I jog my memory.

John is loved and admired the world over. What is your personal feelings about the man.

Johnny Cash is a very complex person. He is a devout believer in family. He is the patriarch of a very large group of children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters. He is also a poet and a song writer, who shares his views of life and experiences, and as an entertainer who transmits these thoughts through various mediums. Johnny is fiercely honest in his work and personal life and as such he understands his responsibility to his audiences.

I know it is probably a difficult choice but do you have a favourite Johnny Cash track or album.

I really like them all as each album or song is different from the last one or next one. If I had to make a choice it would be I Walk The Line.

Do you think you’ll ever put pen to paper and write your own story recalling all the artists you have worked with over the years.

Probably not. Publishers want books that “tell the dirt” more than they want the historic or fun moments. I would betray a lot of confidences if I “told all” about the early rock-and-roll days, for instance.