June Carter Cash’s Legendary Life in Music - And With The Man in Black

She was a superstar long married to another superstar, but June Carter Cash’s life was not always easy.

In this 1988 interview June Carter Cash talks about her memoir From the Heart.
Get your copy of From the Heart by June Carter CashAs an Amazon Associate, Now I've Heard Everything earns from qualifying purchases.

You may also enjoy my interviews with Loretta Lynn and Reba mcEntire

For more vintage interviews with celebrities, leaders, and influencers, subscribe to Now I've Heard Everything on Spotify, Apple Podcasts. and now on YouTube
#Johnny Johnny cash #country music # substance abuse # alcoholism

some rough times, but I've had some wonderful, good, great
years with Johnny Cash that I wouldn't trade my life.
Anyway. We must have done something
right. Country music singer-songwriter
June Carter. Cash today and now I've heard
everything. I'm Bill Thompson.

(00:25):
Back in 1939, Valerie June Carter, who's 10 years old, made
her professional music debut with her family, The Carter
Family. A few years later, when The
Carter Family became the Carter Sisters, June took on a bigger
role and started to emerge as a talent in her own right.
Then later, the Carter Sisters once again became The Carter

(00:47):
Family in the 1960s, and in 1964, June went into the studio
and recorded a song with anothercountry music star at that
point, a guy named Johnny Cash. Now June and Johnny collaborated
on several projects over the next few years, along with The
Carter Family many times. And in 1968, June and Johnny

(01:09):
collaborated on something else, Marriage.
It was his second marriage, her third.
As has been widely reported since then, theirs was sometimes
a rocky relationship. In 1987, June Carter Cash wrote
a memoir called From the Heart, and a year later, when the book
was republished in paperback, her publisher sat her out on an

(01:31):
author tour. And that's when I have a chance
to meet her in just a moment, our conversation.
We're about to take a step back and listen to an iconic voice
from our recent past. It's one of over 10,000
interviews noted radio personality Bill Thompson did
over a 30 year span. We think you'll enjoy it.

(01:53):
So here now from 1988 June Carter Cash.
I don't think I've. Read any book recently that fit
its title better than this book has.
The, the little, the little vignettes that you've that
you've given us in this book. The, the, the feelings from the
heart really are from the heart.I mean it it it's a very well

(02:16):
titled book if I do say so as a reader.
Well, thank you. This is not what I expected,
though. I don't know what.
I don't know quite what I expected, whether it was whether
I expected a more conventional autobiography or what.
But it was. It was very different.
It was a pleasant surprise. Well.
I've taken true things that havereally happened to me, and I

(02:36):
wrote the book very fast. I'm a very fast writer.
What you see there is as I wroteit, as fast as I could write it
down, as these things came into my mind that had happened to me.
And some of the things are very scary.
Some of them are funny. I hope some of them are tragic.
But most of all of them have some kind of a lesson.

(02:58):
I think there's a lesson to be learned.
And I, I, I haven't really called this book an
autobiography at once. I think I wrote one, but I
hadn't lived near all of my life.
And these are just little vignettes of my life.
They're things that happened to me.
I don't think I ever meant to tell these things, but somewhere
maybe I felt that if I did sharesome of these particular

(03:20):
incidences, that somebody might do better or have a better life
because of it. I tend to think that a book such
as this often is more telling than an autobiography that has
names, dates and places. This one is is unusual.
I've had people say that to me before.
It's not what I expected. The the 1st chapter is certainly

(03:41):
not what you expect. It's a it's very, a very scary
kind of a thing that happened tome.
And the I've I deal with a lot of things in this book, but when
you finish reading it, you know a little bit more about June
Carter Cash, her desires in life, her way of facing life.

(04:04):
I'm a mother. I have, I've had, I've given
birth to three children, but I'mmother to seven children.
I had two daughters when I married Johnny Cash over 20
years ago. And then Johnny Cash and I had a
son and now John Carter Cash is 18 years old and almost 6 foot 4
and wears a size 13 1/2 shoe. So time goes by.

(04:30):
I've been blessed with, with grandchildren.
I've been blessed with many things.
I've, I've suffered some in my life.
I've gone through some rough times, I think we all have, but
I've had some wonderful, good, great years with Johnny Cash and
I wouldn't trade my my life anyway.
We must have done something right.
We're still together and he's inwonderful shape.

(04:54):
He is in Vancouver today being Davy Crockett for Disney.
He's in a new movie, he's playing the older Davy Crockett,
and I think there's a younger guy that had to look a lot like
Johnny Cash to be the younger guy.
And it may be a series at some time, I'm not quite sure.
But John's having a great time. I didn't realize that I couldn't

(05:14):
be in Vancouver with him, but it's nice to be here with you
today. We got split one of those few
times. I do appreciate that.
That's why they have long distances.
You're right. Did I read correctly?
Tell me if I'm wrong. Did I read?
You quoted one time as saying that in all the years that
you've been married that Johnny has never given you one day of
heartache. I'm talking about John Carter

(05:37):
Cash, my son. Your son, OK.
It's my son, He. I've never had any heartache.
Well, we'll talk about the heartaches from your husband
later. Oh, listen, he's famous for
heartaches. That's what you're just for,
marrying a legend. I was just going to say, boy, if
you, if you can, if you can havea marriage that without any, you
should, you ought to write a book about that.
Listen, we had about 11 years when we were when we were first

(06:00):
married that I had no heartache,no heartache during that time.
But a person who is chemically dependent, my husband is a
chemically dependent person who as most alcoholic people or
chemically dependent people, he fights that battle every day.
And he he never hasn't intentionally given me any pain.

(06:20):
It's happened to me a few times.But chemical dependency brings
you pain. It brings you anger and the
whole family gets sick. And I think I was probably the
sickest of all. But John went to get help and
there's been a couple of times that he's had relapses, but he's
gotten a hold of himself right away because he's been educated
to the disease and he realizes that he will always have the the

(06:43):
disease. It's a compulsive disease.
It's a genetic thing. And it's not anything.
If some of you people who are listening think you might have a
problem with alcoholism or chemical dependency, it's not
anything that you can help. Please note that within the last
few years that they found out itthat it's genetic somewhere

(07:04):
you've inherited this and you cannot help it.
It's no different than is than if you had sugar diabetes and
you would sure go get help for that.
You would go to a doctor immediately.
So if you show any of the first signs like you might have
blackouts or you find yourself having to have over 3 drinks a

(07:25):
day or taking too many pills a day or whatever chemical that
you might be putting into your body, believe me, your brain
registers it all the same way. Even though you might take
alcohol and you would say this is OK, I can buy it down
Stewart, it's legal, it's fine. If it hits your brain and you're

(07:46):
chemically dependent, your brainregisters it just as if you had
had in the vein the toughest shot of heroin that you could
have had, or morphine, or the toughest thing that you could
put in your system. That's what your brain calls it,
and that's what your system thinks it is.
There's no difference. Were there times when you were

(08:07):
writing from the heart, when youjust had to it, it was too
painful. You had to stop and say no, no,
no. I I I can't go through with
this. I can't put this on paper.
Well, some of it was so painful that I felt like I like I
couldn't write it down. But this book helped me to get
rid of a lot of this. Believe it or not, my editor's
name is Bill Thompson, and he was with Simon and Schuster.

(08:29):
I met him on an airplane and he,he bought the first book that
I'd ever written, called Among My Cladiments.
And he said to a friend of his, this girl can really write.
I'd like to get her to write me a book.
And I told him, I said, I don't have anything to say because I
had a lot of hurt and anger at that time.
And it was, this is all history.John's talked about it.

(08:52):
So I feel that I may talk about it.
I don't think I would have if hehadn't have chatted about it a
lot himself. And he's not ashamed of the fact
that he has been to treatment. He Bill said, well, if you ever
get anything to say, let me know.
And all of a sudden, this book just started to pour out of me.

(09:12):
And for what it's worth, he leftit exactly the way I wrote it,
he said. It's the only book that he's
ever edited that he did not change one word in.
So it's a little visit with me. After this short break, June
Carter Cash reads a powerful passage from her book.

(09:33):
You know, AI is not just for 22 year old coders.
A lot of us older adults are drawing on our life experience
to find unique and creative waysto use AI at home or at work.
Got an AI success story you'd like to share?
Tap the link below to visit our YouTube channel, AI After 40 and

(09:53):
Let's Keep. Learning together.
Now back to my 1988 conversationwith June Carter.
Cash could. You read part of it.
Would you mind? Can I borrow your glasses?
I don't know if they go well with.
I'm going to tell you if if we can't, I'm going to read them

(10:16):
without them. Let me borrow your glasses.
OK? I'm going to read you a short
vignette of my life and this oneMercy.
I've never been drunk in my life, but I was for a couple
seconds there. I'm going to have to read
without them, but I will. This this particular chapter is

(10:36):
called It's All in Your Mind. And there's a picture here of my
good friend Stevie Goodman. Stevie wrote a wonderful song
called City of New Orleans. And there was a time we played
here in Washington that John andI did an HBO special that we
presented him and John Prine andour son-in-law, Rodney Crowell,
because we felt like they just nobody was getting to see them.

(10:58):
And I've and I had loved Stevie Goodman.
This is short, so let me deal with this.
People who are basically healthythink a toothache or tight shoes
are painful. You can be kind to them, be
forgiving, but you can't ever have to listen to them complain.
They were all lying. There was no such thing as pain.

(11:21):
I knew that. You see, it was only a word that
was in the dictionary that you used for an excuse to take dope.
All the world operated that way except me, and I never hurt.
I never had pain. They were all lying.
I knew they were. I never took dope, you see,
until I was 45 years old. I now find myself better
qualified to talk about this subject.
I took the highest point out there at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and

(11:43):
I skied all the way down to the right, to the left, around that
tree, around that log jump, thatlittle hill, bend, bow, burn
that hill. I did.
I skied all over that dude. I did.
I skied on that stuff like a pro.
All over that snow. I was wonderful.
I was past moving, but I'd done all this before, you see, But
always on water in a lake, neveron snow.

(12:06):
I am now in a position to talk of pain.
I had to have a pill every day for pain.
One from my back, one from my legs, one from my head, all
being aspirin. Becoming an expert on pain, I
come to grips with life now and the years trickle by, but the
good old pain stays with me. All the muscle, joints and bones
are now in sympathy with my poorold apron back and now the front

(12:28):
part of me hurts. Operation is the only way.
Doctors Mayo Clinic hysterectomycomplications.
Operation again. Intensive care, no female parts
left. Depression, 94 lbs and two
hospital later, two hospitals later, a staph infection and a

(12:50):
hole in my stomach. I got out my Bible.
I prayed to die. I would have felt better.
I went to our home in Florida. I had this hole that just would
not heal in my stomach and my good friend Stevie Goodman had a
hole in his head and in his chest where he applied medicines
daily. Stevie had leukemia.

(13:11):
We sat on the dock and soaked upthe sun.
I read my Bible. We walked, I prayed, we waited
for the holes in our bodies to heal.
I lived. Stevie died, and I am ashamed to
speak of pain. Wow, that's a little bit of pain

(13:36):
that's in the book. There's a lot of laughter in
this book. It's not all pain, but I deal
with a lot of my friends in here.
I share a lot of times from someof my special babies like Waylon
Jennings when he was 17 years old, has been one of my babies
from that time until today. Waylon has over 4 years, almost

(13:59):
five years of sobriety. My baby, he's not really, he's a
full grown baby, but it many, many years.
Kris Kristofferson, Larry Gatlin, Joe S They were always
people that I always believed inbefore they were really ever
anybody than anybody else ever knew.

(14:21):
And then John had to listen to me telling him how I love these
people and how I adored them. And it's been wonderful to see
that they've succeeded. And I am really happy right now
when I had my first book party for my first when my book was

(14:41):
released and I hadn't seen Joe, SI was sure they were all sober
except Joe. And I wasn't sure if Joe was
sober or not. But I prayed religiously for
these guys because they were dear to me.
But Joe showed up at the party and he said I wanted you to see
my bright shiny eyes and how sober I am.

(15:03):
And they sang and we had a wonderful time together.
It's just it's neat to have a a conviction in your heart to pray
for somebody. And I mean, they're all these
are not my book is not all aboutpeople that are famous people.
I have a a special place in my heart for Hank Williams junior

(15:23):
because I was close to his mother and daddy.
And it's like I'm self appointedgodmother to Hank Williams
Junior. John and I both Godfather,
godmother. John's new record is with Hank
Williams, Junior Call This old wheel will roll around again.
And it happens that way. But there's people in this book

(15:44):
that are just people you never heard of that are dear to me.
Like the little chapter about Violet Topian.
Has anybody ever seen Violet Topian?
There's people who who you wouldhave never heard of that are
just as dear to me. Thank you so much for coming in
today. It's been a pleasure to meet
you. Listen, I've loved being here
and thank you for inviting me. June Carter Cash was

(16:07):
posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this
year. She died in 2003 at the age of
73. Now you can get your copy of
From the Heart by June Carter Cash by tapping the link in our
show notes by clicking the link in the description below.
If you're watching this on YouTube or by going to our
website heardeverything.com, we may earn an Amazon Commission if

(16:28):
you make a purchase. Heard everything.com is where I
can also find my 1994 conversation but the great Reba
McEntire. People say, well, once you have
a number one record, boy, it's easy.
That's when the work begins it. Was the hard part.
It was the hard part getting it,getting another #1 record.
I didn't think I was ever going to get another.
One and my 2002 conversation with legend Loretta Lynn.

(16:51):
You know, I was in Nashville 10 years before I started making
$600 a day, and when I got $600 a day, I bought the old bus that
George Jones had shot through the ceiling now.
And of course, we post new episodes of Now I've Heard
Everything every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
And you can find us everywhere you find podcasts.
And thank you so much for listening Next time on Now I've

(17:13):
Heard Everything as we wrap up Season 7, a double header 2
Hollywood legends, both I met in2005, Jane Fonda.
For us to play in the movie characters, father, daughter,
that's so paralleled our own real life experience was, I
mean, it just doesn't get any better.
I've worked with Charles Laughton, Edward G Robinson,

(17:37):
Henry Fonda for two years, Walter Matthau and each one has
enriched my life. That's next time on NOW.
I've heard everything. I'm Bill Thompson.