Rosanne Cash Goes Back To Johnny Cash’s Roots

Jun 21, 2020 by apost team

Roseanne Cash, daughter of country singer Johnny Cash and his first wife Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, speaks with Anthony Mason about her father's roots, starting with his childhood home in Dyess, Arkansas.

In this video, Mason and Roseanne, who saw success as a country singer herself in the 1980's, travel through the South, visiting numerous landmarks. Roseanne tells Mason about how her father had to walk two miles to school along a dirt road. His parents had been awarded a house in Arkansas by the government, given to farmers struggling during the depression. The land was empty, and there was no plumbing inside of the small house that, just a few years ago, was restored by Arkansas State University and added to the National Register.

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The first time Roseanne saw the house was in 1968 when her father returned to the little town of Dyess. At age 12, Cash sensed a sadness about the home but didn't understand it until much later. That sadness was due to the death of Johnny's brother and best friend, Jack.

Roseanne was born in Memphis and raised in California, but she left there for New York City. Going back to Arkansas, however, saw Roseanne embrace her Southern roots after fighting against it for decades. Roseanne and musician husband John Leventhal made a series of trips through the South, resulting in an album called The River and the Thread.

On the way to Money, Mississippi, Roseanne and Mason stop at the grocery store where 14-year-old Emmett Till allegedly flirted with a white woman behind the counter. Not far away is the Tallahasse Bridge, popularized by Bobbie Gentry in the song "Ode to Billie Joe". While passing through, Roseanne and Leventhal stopped on the bridge and played their guitars. Leventhal snapped a photo of Roseanne looking out at the water and decided then and there that was their album's cover image.

A mile from the bridge, Roseanne and Mason stop at Little Zion Church, where blues master Robert Johnson is supposedly buried. Rumors still swirl about Johnson making a deal with the devil at a Mississippi crossroads, trading his soul in order to become a guitar-playing legend.

Roseanne also traveled to Memphis, to the modest home she was born into. Roseanne recalls Vivian telling her about sitting on the porch and eating a huge bowl of cherry tomatoes every day during her pregnancy with Roseanne.

You can never quite escape where you've come from. Much in the same way most young people try to push their parents away and try to be original, Roseanne tried for years to push her Southern roots away. Now, after revisiting her family history, Roseanne Cash feels stronger and more complete for it.

How have you reconnected with your roots? Let us know in the comments and be sure to pass this article along to your friends and loved ones!