When Johnny Cash died in 2003, Bob Dylan wrote the following, “If we want to know what it means to be mortal, we need look no further than the Man in Black. Blessed with a profound imagination, he used the gift to express all the various lost causes of the human soul. This is a miraculous and humbling thing. Listen to him, and he always brings you to your senses.” The two were of course good friends by then, with Cash even appearing on Nashville Skyline, but back in the 1960s, Dylan was really excited to meet his idol, and had the reaction to prove it. This comes from son John Carter Cash’s Reddit AMA:
Your father’s collaborations with Bob Dylan on songs like “Girl from the North Country” are some of my favorite songs. The two of them both seem legitimately happy in photos and videos that they appear in together, which is something of a rarity for Bob. Do you have any knowledge of their relationship and whether they stayed in contact through the years?
My father told me he met Bob Dylan in a New York City hotel room in the early 1960’s. They had corresponded, writing letters back and forth, dad said that when he met Bob that Dylan rushed into his room, jumped on the bed, and began bouncing up and down chanting I met Johnny Cash, I met Johnny Cash. They had a dear friendship. And although they didn’t spend a lot of time together in the last part of my dad’s life, they never ceased being friends. (Via)
And that was the last time Bob Dylan would feel anything other than general annoyance.
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash – Girl From The North Country from brilliant orks on Vimeo.
