♥ Be-Love series: J ♡J ♥

I do love hearts engraved in the trunks.

♥ (Source)

That is the image which comes into my mind, when I am thinking about two people: Johnny Cash & Judy Carter. I always imagined them, running down the field, stopping and engraving J ♥ J in a tree. They were the main characters of a true romance: A rock'n'roll love story ;)

A rock'n' roll love story

Have you ever heard about it?

Johnny Cash, 'my tough guy', flirted with drugs and played with the law.

His Mugshot

There is a famous saying which says: 'Behind every great man there's a great woman', in this case a rocker. And there is a legend that goes like this: Johnny Cash met June Carter thanks to Elvis Presley, who introduced them in the Sam Records Company, where rock'n'roll was born.

This is probably the most famous shot of the couple (1969)

June Carter was a 'jack-ie of all trades': a singer, dancer, songwriter, actress, comedian and member of the Carter Family, the traditional American folk band. She could played the guitar, banjo, harmonica and autoharp, and as an actress she perfomed in several films and television shows. She had such a pastoral voice that she was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009. She was ranked No. 31 in Country Music Television's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music in 2002.

June Carter Cash

They got married in 1968 but they had been perfoming for many years before their wedding. 

Their wedding day

The couple put up with difficult situations: Johnny's amphetamine overdoses, drunkenness and tours by dusty roads and winter storms, however they remained married for 35 years.

Johnny and June, an Example to follow

The hit 'Ring of Fire' was sung by Johnny Cash and co-written by June Carter Cash and Merle Kilgore. The single appears on Cash's 1963 album, Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash. The song was originally recorded by June's sister, Anita Carter, on her Mercury Records album Folk Songs Old and New (1963) as '(Love's) Ring of Fire'.

Although 'Ring of Fire' sounds somewhat ominous or even some bad vibrations, but the term refers to falling in love – which is what June Carter experienced with Johnny Cash when they met. Some sources claim that Carter had seen the phrase 'Love is like a burning ring of fire' underlined in one of her uncle's books of poetry from Elizabethan era. She worked with Merle Kilgore on writing a song inspired by this phrase as she had seen her uncle do in the past. She had written:

'There is no way to be in that kind of hell, no way to extinguish a flame that burns, burns, burns'.

Love is a burning thing

and it makes a firery ring

bound by wild desire

I fell in to a ring of fire…

I fell in to a burning ring of fire

I went down,down,down

and the flames went higher.

And it burns,burns,burns

the ring of fire

the ring of fire.

The taste of love is sweet

when hearts like our's meet

I fell for you like a child

oh, but the fire went wild…

I fell in to a burning ring of fire

I went down,down,down

and the flames went higher.

And it burns,burns,burns

the ring of fire

the ring of fire.

Unfortunately June Carter Cash died in May 2003, Johnny Cash couldn't stand losing his lovebird and four months after he passed away too. The couple had only one child in 1970, have a look at his website: John Carter Cash.

Daddy and Mommy Cash :)

Daddy Cash :)

I recommend you the movie Walk The Line (2005), starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash, where John Carter Cash was the executive producer. In this interview, he talked about the film, his parents' faith, their relationship and their musical legacy: My father was a wildfire. 
This film gives a sorely accurate portrayal of the bad and turbulent times of Johnny Cash during his career leading up to his proposal to June Carter Cash. The perfomances are absolutely wonderful.

'Walk The Line' movie (2005)

To finish, I think they were like a couple of swallows. As far as you know, the swallows are an old sailor's tattoo, and I've always associated swallow tattoos with loyalty and fidelity - swallows choose a mate for life and will only nest with that bird and no other. So next image will be my little tribute to this lovely couple.

J ♥ J

I love this pic ♥

Love,

♡Lorena Be-Bop♡