So you thought of Johnny Cash.
The first person I thought of was Johnny Cash. He was playing a dinner theater in Orange County. I went to see the show. He was great. Met him after the show, and I said, “Look, maybe we can make music together.” And he said, “You really want to do that?” I think he felt like he had absolutely nothing to lose. He had been dropped by his label. In his mind, his best work was 25 years before. He’d really given up on himself as a recording artist.
He just thought of himself as a touring act.
Go out and play the hits.
Some of the songs that you recorded were way outside of people’s idea of Johnny Cash. What about his own idea of himself? Were there any songs that he needed convincing about, that you felt really strongly about?
I felt really strongly about “Hurt.” I probably sent him 30 songs to choose from and he was not like, “I want to do that one.”
How was he convinced?
I said, let’s just listen to this song. Read the lyrics. Imagine how it might make you feel singing it. Could you relate to it? And he loved it. It wouldn’t have been a natural choice. But he wasn’t opposed.
Were there any songs in particular that he felt really strongly about recording?
On the last album there’s a song by Sheryl Crow that he really felt strongly about. It’s called “Redemption Day.” At the time we recorded it, he said he would give up all the other songs just for this one.
What do you remember most vividly about working with Cash?
On our first album, there was a song he wrote, I can’t remember which one it was, but I listened to it and said, “Do you think you could take some of the ‘I’s and ‘me’s out of it?” And he thought about it and he was like, “Yeah, I think I can do that.” And he did. So 10 years later, I’m visiting him in Nashville. He’s in a wheelchair. He’s blind, pretty much. It felt so awkward. So I said, “What have you been working on lately?” And he said, “I’ve been working on using ‘I’ and ‘me’ less.” And I said, “Really?” And he said, “Yeah. Remember? You gave me that comment on the song? That’s what I’ve been working on.” Incredible. He didn’t mean it in the context of songs. He meant it in the context of life.