Johnny Cash plays a concert at San Quentin State Prison - January 1st, 1959

On this day in 1959, musician Johnny Cash rang in the new year by performing live at San Quentin State Prison in California.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Happy New Year, and Welcome to This Day
in History Class, a show that belts out the greatest
hits of history one day at a time. I'm Gay Bluesier,
and today we're talking about the concert that turned Johnny
Cash into a champion of prison reform and set one

(00:23):
talented inmate on his own path to country music fame.
The day was January one, ninety nine. Musician Johnny Cash
rang in the new year by performing live at San
Quentin State Prison in California. The maximum security penitentiary just

(00:48):
outside of San Francisco was the second of more than
thirty prisons the singer performed at in his lifetime. The
concerts were held at various correctional facilities throughout at least
ten states, sometimes at the direct request of the inmates.
The show's eventually inspired the recording of two live albums,

(01:10):
Johnny Cash at Fulsome Prison, released in nineteen sixty eight
and Johnny Cash at San Quentin, released in nineteen sixty nine.
Although it wasn't recorded, the New Year's concert at San
Quentin was historic in its own right, not only for
the positive effect it had on Cash's career and public persona,

(01:31):
but also for its impact on another country music legend
who happened to be in the audience that day. Cash
performed at San Quentin for the first time as part
of a seven hour entertainment extravaganza which the prison held
for the inmates on January one of each year. Cash's
performance was the standout of the nineteen fifty nine show,

(01:55):
beating out other popular acts like a women's dance troupe
and a seven in teen piece jazz band. The prison
had its own inmate published paper called the San Quentin News,
and for the January ninth edition, the headline was quote,
gigantic review, Harold's new year, three thousand, San Quentin Men,

(02:17):
cheer stars and Johnny Cash. The singer had never been
imprisoned himself, except for one night at a time whenever
he was arrested for public intoxication. Nonetheless, he felt a
special connection or kinship with those behind bars. As Cash's
younger brother Tommy later explained, quote, he always identified with

(02:41):
the underdog. He identified with the prisoners because many of
them had served their sentences and had been rehabilitated in
some cases. But we're still kept there. The rest of
their lives. He felt a great empathy with those people.
As someone who wrestled with alcohol and substance abuse, Cash
empathized with those who had made bad choices or given

(03:04):
in to their own worst impulses. His prison concerts, which
he always performed for free, were a way to offer
comfort and maybe even the hope of finding another better
path for the prisoner's own lives. That turned out to
be the case for at least one of the inmates
at San Quentin that day, the future country music star

(03:26):
Merle Haggard. In nineteen fifty seven, Haggard had been arrested
for burglary at age eighteen. He was sentenced to fifteen
years in prison, but wound up serving a little less
than three. Cash's performance occurred about halfway through his stint,
and Haggard later cited it as a life changing moment,

(03:47):
one that inspired him to pursue his own career in music.
He got to work as soon as he was released
on parole in nineteen sixty, and eventually he rapped up
thirty eight number one hit on the country charts, including
songs like sing Me Back Home and Okie from Muskogee.
Years later, Haggard reflected on why Cash had been received

(04:11):
so enthusiastically by he and the other inmates. He said, quote,
Johnny Cash had the right attitude. He chewed gum, looked arrogant,
and flipped the bird to the guards. He did everything
the prisoners wanted to do. He was a mean mother
from the South who was there because he loved us.

(04:32):
When he walked away, everyone in that place had become
a Johnny Cash fan. The two singers reunited in nineteen
sixty nine. On an episode of The Johnny Cash Show
on ABC. The host mentioned that he didn't remember Merle
being part of the concert that day, to which Haggard quipped, well,

(04:53):
I was in the audience. Johnny Cash went on to
perform dozens more prison concerts, including at least two more
at San Quentin. During each visit, he made time to
get to know the inmates. He would sit down with
them and listen to their stories, what had led them
to be incarcerated, and what they hoped to do when

(05:14):
or if they were released. These stories would later inform
Cash's songwriting, which frequently took the perspective of outlaws and outsiders.
Following his messy public struggle with drug addiction. The prison
concerts and the albums they inspired helped jump start Cash's career,

(05:35):
but it's clear that the cause always meant far more
to him than money. Providing entertainment and a listening year
was already beyond what most prisoners would expect from a celebrity,
but Cash didn't stop there. The time he spent within
prison walls led him to advocate for the rights of
prisoners and to use his power to push for prison reform.

(05:58):
He donated a portion of the sale from his live
prison albums to reform campaigns, and in nineteen seventy two
he got involved directly by testifying before Congress about prison conditions.
Appearing before the Senate Subcommittee on National Penitentiaries, Cash said quote,
I have seen and heard of things that some of

(06:20):
the concerts that would chill the blood of the average citizen.
But I think possibly the blood of the average citizen
needs to be chilled in order for public apathy and
conviction to come about, because right now we have nineteen
seventy two problems in eighteen seventy two jails. People have

(06:41):
got to care in order for prison reform to come about.
Johnny Cash continued to perform at US prisons until at
least nineteen eighty, and as he grew older, he stayed
in touch with prisoners he had met, and visited some
of the ones who lived near his home in Tennessee.
To the United States, incarceraates more people per capita than

(07:04):
any other developed country in the world. As of one
the number stands at roughly two point three million people
in jail, which breaks down to six hundred and thirty
nine out of every one hundred thousand American citizens. There
have been many victories for the cause of prison reform

(07:25):
since Cash's New Year's concert at San Quentin, but the
rate of incarceration has kept right on growing. Over half
a century later, the need for prison reform remains a
vital issue. That means that, for better or worse, the
music of Johnny Cash and the stories that inspired it

(07:45):
are just as relevant now as ever. I'm Gabe Lousier
and hopefully you now know a little more about history
today than you did yesterday. If you want to keep
up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at t d i HC Show, and if

(08:06):
you have any comments or suggestions, you can always send
them my way at this day at i heart media
dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,
and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back
here again tomorrow for another day in history class. For

(08:32):
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