On Meeting JOHNNY CASH by Frank Davis

On April 08, 1993 I attended the Highwayman Live concert at the Halifax Metro Center. The Highwayman Tour featured Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. They performed for two hours with no intermission and no warm up act.

When I arrived at the airport the next day to return home Johnny Cash was standing on the sidewalk signing autograph. I walked towards him and by then the women was walking away and he was left standing alone. When I reached Johnny, he turned around towards me ---I reached out my hand and said --"I've waited a long time to shake your hand..."...he gave a faint smile and shook my hand firmly. I asked him for his autograph and he consented and signed the back of the airline ticket. He then turned away without saying anything. He seemed to me to be a man in a daze, standing alone, waiting to be told what to do. He was wearing a black jacket and black jeans. His shirt was black and white. His boots looked very long and pointed and he had two carry-on bags -- a knap-sack and a soft sided brief case.

I then moved inside the terminal building and went to the Air Canada check-in counter. The attendant was talking to another one and I heard her say "... you will have to ask this man(me) to wait because Johnny Cash is here to check-in. I spoke up and suggested to her that I would gladly step aside now if she wanted to look after Mr. Cash. She said that was OK, since to her, I was just as important as him!

I finished checking in and by this time John had come into the building and was standing against the wall by the door, alone. I walked over to him and asked him where the tour was going next and he said Augusta, Maine tonight. He also said they were going to be in Toronto on April 21. I then asked him if he was appearing at his music theatre in Branson, Mo. He said..." I don't have a music theatre in Branson...ah...but I will be appearing at the Wayne Newton Theater there during this year". An Air Canada rep arrived and was introduced to John and she told him that she would be taking him to a VIP lounge to wait for his flight.

After I was in the lounge for a few minutes, Johnny Cash came in with the Air Canada rep and sat at a table a few feet away from me. The lounge attendant came over to him and introduced himself and offered him a cup of coffee. He was sitting there alone but didn't seem to make any eye contact with anyone except the lounge attendant.

He took a large bottle of pills out of his carry on bag and shook a few of them into his hand. A few minutes later he placed some eye drops into his eyes. At this point the two men came into the lounge and sat with him. John got up and came back with a newspaper and found a review covering the concert the evening before. He tore the picture from the paper and folded it into his carry on bag. He and the two men talked and I heard John say in his deep voice..."I was talking to Ed McCurdy(??) the other day and he said that he told Kris that his singing isn't as bad as he thinks it is ... Kris said he still thinks that it ( his singing ) isn't very good." I (John) said to Ed ... "You know Ed, he may be right!!" All three of them laughed out loud.

At this point one of the men came over to my table and asked if he could use the telephone that was there. I pushed the phone towards him and he made some calls. After he was finished, in order to strike up a conversation, I asked him if he was with the Highwayman tour. I told him I was at the concert and had really enjoyed it very much. A few minutes later he asked me how I found the sound. I told him that I was sitting high up in section 41 at the side of the stage and that the sound was a bit thin at the beginning but seemed to improve later. He seemed to be interested in the comments about the sound and said that it was difficult to get the sound right because the sound check was made during the afternoon when the building was empty. Sometimes when the building fills with people, things change. I told him that I really enjoyed the concert and that it was good value for the money and that I would have paid more to see it. He said it was a unique concert as it is very difficult to schedule the four stars to appear together because they are so busy. He said the current tour is only for two and one half weeks, ending April 21 in Toronto. He told me that John doesn't have a theatre in Branson because the guy who was building it ran out of money. "We didn't own the theatre we were just giving John's name to it ...you know..."

At this point he wanted to make some more calls and I had to leave for my flight... His name was Lou Robin Johnny Cash's Manager for many years. I gave him my business card and asked him to give it to Johnny.

It seemed to me at that time that John was not in the best of health - he looked very haggard and moved very slowly. He picked a table as far away from the people in the lounge as he could get and didn't appear to be fully aware of things going on around him. On stage however he sang very well and appeared to be in total control.

Frank Davis
(Orgionally written 93 04 09)