Johnny Cash has a lengthy caeer as part of the Grand Ole Opry. But for Cash, his history dates back to long before anyone knew who he was, and before he ever stepped on the hallowed stage.
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Cash, who was 71 years old when he passed away in 2003, knew while he was still in high school that he wanted to someday play the Grand Ole Opry.
"It's always a country boy's dream," Cash says in an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. "As a child, I listened to the Grand Ole Opry. And then, when I graduated from high school, it was on the agenda of our senior trip, to go to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and to the Smoky Mountains. When I sat there in the audience that night, I was 18 years old, I knew one day I was going to be on that stage. I just had to be, with all of the rest of the country singers and musicians. And I finally made it in 1956. I was a guest on the Grand Ole Opry."
Cash was 24 years old when he debuted on the Grand Ole Opry. But his debut is part of history for another reason. It was backstage at the Opry for his debut when he first met June Carter Cash. The couple married in 1968.
Johnny Cash's Complicated History With the Grand Ole Opry
Cash always loved the Grand Ole Opry, but the Grand Ole Opry didn't always love him. In fact, in 1965, he was banned from the Opry, after he smashed all of the lights in front of the stage, while drunk.
"I don't know how bad they wanted me in the first place," Cash later said (via Taste of Country). "But the night I broke all the lights on the stage with the microphone stand, they said they couldn't use me anymore. So I left and used that as an excuse to really get wild and wound up in the hospital with my third time I broke my nose."
Fortunately, Cash's ban didn't last forever. He eventually mended his ways, and was permitted to return to the Grand Ole Opry. He remained welcome until his death.
