Johnny Cash Drawing

As a kid in the 70's, I grew up listening to what was then called Country and Western music.  I didn't want to, that's just what was on the radio my mom always had playing in the kitchen or in the car.  It was the era of "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," "Stand by Your Man," "The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A.," and "The Harper Valley PTA."  My dad and I used to joke that every country radio station should have the call letters, KRAP.  "This is Twangy Bob, your D.J. on K-R-A-P, country crap radio..."  My mom never thought that was funny.

Like it or not, that was the soundtrack of my childhood.  But there were some country songs I liked.  And then there was Johnny Cash.  He wasn't country, he was The Man in Black, a genre' all to himself in my mind.  I remember laughing to his song "One Piece at a Time," which was about a guy working in a car factory (back when those existed), and the guy stole a whole car from his job... one piece at a time.  I thought that was awesome when I was about 12.  Song after song, Johnny Cash created a huge collection of epic, working class music.

Years later, in Southern California, my friend Mike started introducing me to punk rock and alternative music, bit by bit.  The first couple of live shows he took me to gave me headaches.  Although the house band, a little group called Jane's Addiction, was pretty cool.  But at the third gig Mike introduced me to one of his favorite bands, Social Distortion.  It was pretty cool.  And then they broke into their cover of Johnny Cash's (actually it's June's song) "Ring of Fire."  I was hooked.  Social Distortion is still my favorite band, even though no one in the crowd that night seemed to know who Johnny Cash was.  I was really stoked that Johnny broke into a whole new generation with his cover of "Hurt" near the end of his life.

When I decided to start doing drawings that really got me stoked, drawing Johnny Cash drawing was inevitable.  Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24".  Drawing the feelings that came through "the mud, the blood, and the beer."

Johnny Cash just found a home, he'll be on that wall in Deli on Main in downtown Kernersville.

I've merged my ideas and blogs into a new blog:
The White Bear's Making a Scene
You can find my new stuff there.