There's been very few times in my life where someone famous, someone I never knew personally, never even shared a concert hall with, has died and I've instantly cried. Well that happened today.

Johnny Cash has died, aged 71, having survived his wife June by less than four months. He had, from all accounts, thrown himself headfirst into his work since her passing, creating a prolific amount of songs in the time since her death. A recent hospitalisation for a stomach problem was a major alarm bell, but it was the complications from his diabetes that was the end of him.

I remember as a young'un, my dad playing me a little 45 by Johnny Cash called 'What Is Truth?'. It's still one of the most profound songs I've ever heard and it's intimately woven into the fabric of my life.

Lately, the Cash resurgence had been strong. Recent albums were powerful, containing much fantastic material, albeit some of it cover versions. And in one of these covers, his epitaph. The video for 'Hurt' made me cry before, it's going to be about unbearable now.

Let's hope he still flips the finger at the assholes in Country heaven. God bless a truly unique genius, a man of the people with a voice like a god.


"The old man turned off the radio
Said, 'here did all of the old songs go
Kids sure play funny music these days
They play it in the strangest ways'
Said, 't looks to me like they've all gone wild
It was peaceful back when I was a child'
Well, man, could it be that the girls and boys
Are trying to be heard above your noise?
And the lonely voice of youth cries
'What is truth?'

A little boy of three sittin' on the floor
Looks up and says, 'Daddy, what is war?'
'son, that's when people fight and die'
The little boy of three says 'Daddy, why?'
A young man of seventeen in Sunday school
Being taught the golden rule
And by the time another year has gone around
It may be his turn to lay his life down
Can you blame the voice of youth for asking
'What is truth?'

A young man sittin' on the witness stand
The man with the book says 'Raise your hand'
'epeat after me, I solemnly swear'
The man looked down at his long hair
And although the young man solemnly swore
Nobody seems to hear anymore
And it didn't really matter if the truth was there
It was the cut of his clothes and the length of his hair
And the lonely voice of youth cries
'What is truth?'

The young girl dancing to the latest beat
Has found new ways to move her feet
The young man speaking in the city square
Is trying to tell somebody that he cares
Yeah, the ones that you're calling wild
Are going to be the leaders in a little while
This old world's wakin' to a new born day
And I solemnly swear that it'll be their way
You better help the voice of youth find..
'What is truth.'"

Johnny Cash 'What Is Truth?'

The Guardian's Obituary.