HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In the home of country music history, it was only natural that Johnny Cash's Tennessee Music Pathways marker was unveiled outside the House of Cash Building on what would have been his 90th birthday.
The marker is part of a program connecting visitors to music landmarks across the state.
You can find it outside the former "House of Cash" on Johnny Cash Parkway — Cash's office and recording space, which he eventually turned into a museum.
"So it was a tourist mecca of sorts because you might get a glimpse of Johnny here," said Louis Oliver, chancellor for the Eighteenth Judicial District of Tennessee.
Cash called Hendersonville home, living on Old Hickory Lake for 35 years with his wife June Carter Cash. To the world he was the "man in the black." To the Hendersonville community, he was a neighbor.
"I saw Johnny another time at Kroger," said Oliver. "It was on a Sunday morning, there wasn't a lot of people in Kroger. I look up and there's Johnny Cash."
But to John Carter Cash he was "dad."
"He would have called me on his 90th birthday and say 'Will you bring me some fried chicken?'" he said. "He always liked really crispy, super hot fried chicken and he loved it with the crispy skin and all that."
Although the building is now an office space, the sign above the door is a reminder of what it once was and the new marker out front pays homage to how it will always be remembered.
"My father fell short, you know, many many different ways and he would have been he first to tell you so, but he always got back up again and he kept fighting and kept making music and he kept giving love where there was love to give every day of his life," Cash said.
The new marker's unveiling makes it the fourth marker in Hendersonville. The others are dedicated to Taylor Swift, The Isaacs, and Bill "Hoss" Allen.
