Bob Dylan’s High Praise for Johnny Cash Proved Their Close Friendship
The music was always the most important thing for country music star Johnny Cash. His famous songs made him a legend, but Johnny Cash wasn’t even his real name. Regardless, his name lives on thanks to a long list of hit songs. Cash’s influence on music in the second half of the 20th century was so significant that Bob Dylan praised and admired him the way some do Dylan.
Bob Dylan’s musical influence rivaled Johnny Cash’s
Dylan remains one of the most influential songwriters ever. He became a popular folk musician, broke with folk tradition by playing electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, and got high with The Beatles, all within the span of a few years.
Dylan was one of the first people to enter the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His loaded 1988 enshrinement class, the third overall, included The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and folk legend Woody Guthrie. Cash, who performed 40 top-10 Billboard country hits (and 42 charting singles), entered the RNR HOF in 1992.
George Harrison once said he couldn’t imagine a world without Dylan. When the world lost Cash, Dylan didn’t shy away from giving The Man in Black the highest praise.
Dylan praised Cash as ‘the greatest of the greats’
Dylan stands as one of the greats of any generation. Yet his high praise for Cash when he died proved his admiration was genuine. Dylan calls The Man in Black the north star, according to the book Johnny Cash: The Life and Legacy:
“Johnny was and is the north star. You could guide your ship by him — the greatest of the greats, then and now. Listen to him, and he always brings you to your senses.”
Dylan’s high praise was genuine. He befriended Cash thanks to a fan letter, and they remained close over the years. Dylan performed on Cash’s TV show in May 1969, which came several months after they recorded several songs together during a recording session in Nashville. Cash was one of the performers at Dylan’s 30th anniversary celebration concert in 1992.
The young Dylan made several influential contributions to music and rightfully earned compliments for them. Yet Dylan saved some of his highest praise for Cash, whom he called “the greatest of the greats” of all time.
Only one song the musicians wrote together was released when Cash was alive
Dylan and Cash gained fame separately for their stoic personalities and story-like song lyrics. They seemed like the perfect pair to record together multiple times (a la Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty), but the 1969 Nashville sessions were the only time Cash and Dylan shared a studio.
Only one Dylan-Cash collaboration saw the light of day while both were still alive. The song was “Girl From the North Country,” the lead track from Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album. Luckily for music fans everywhere, Dylan released the songs he made with Cash on 2019’s The Bootleg Series Vol. 15: Travelin’ Thru, 1967-1969.
Both songwriters are among the greatest of any generation, but Bob Dylan saved his highest praise for his friend Johnny Cash.
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