Johnny Cash released plenty of gospel songs throughout his career, which spanned more than 50 years. For Cash, it was gospel music that started his career, and also gospel music that helped keep it moving forward. Although vocal about his beliefs, Cash says he never wanted to be a minister, but rather wanted to share the message in his music.
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"I've never been ordained by God to preach the gospel," Cash says in a resurfaced interview on Blank on Blank. "I have a calling; it's called to perform and sing. I think gospel songs are ministry in a way. Gospel music is so ingrained into my bones. I can't do a concert without singing a gospel song. It's what I was raised on."
Gospel music became the soundtrack to Cash's childhood, when life was anything but easy.
"It's gospel music that inspired me as a child, growing up on a cotton farm, where work was drudgery, and it was so hard," the "I Walk the Line" singer reveals. "When I was in the field, I sang all the time, usually gospel songs, because they lifted me up above that black dirt."
How Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley Bonded Over Gospel Music
Like Cash, Elvis Presley always included gospel songs when he performed. It was what bonded the King of Rock and Roll and the Man in Black, more than almost anything else.
"It's all we talked about. Well, I wouldn't say all - we talked about girls too," Cash says with a laugh. "Elvis and I, a lot of shows we would sing together in the dressing room. And invariably, we'd go to Black gospel. We knew the same songs. We grew up on the same songs."
Cash and Presley were good friends, but Cash was also a big admirer of Presley as well.
"Elvis was so good," Cash says. "Every show I did with him, I never missed the chance to stand in the wings and watch. We all did. He was that charismatic."
Cash released several albums about his faith, including Hymns From the Heart and The Holy Land, among others. He also released songs like "Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)" and "In the Garden," among others.
