Pardon Johnny Cash – Flower Pickin' Festival

Comments from Lou Robin, Johnny Cash’s manager from 1973 to 2003:

Your plans for the weekend of November 2 guarantee that everybody will have plenty to entertain them. I have spoken to members of Johnny’s family and they are all supportive of getting Johnny pardoned and, at the same time, raising funds for the Museum and the Boys and Girls Club… I’m sure that Johnny would have been the first visitor in town on Nov. 2, had he been able.

Here’s looking forward to what we hope will become a yearly event.

Background on Johnny Cash in Starkville and the festival

Starkville, Miss., and the country music legend Johnny Cash have a unique history that has become local folklore for more than four decades. The legendary country music singer performed at Mississippi State University, in Starkville, on May 11, 1965. That night authorities arrested Cash for “pickin’ flowers,” according to the singer of such hits as “A Boy Named Sue,” “Walk the Line,” and “Folsom Prison Blues.” Oktibbeha County Justice Court records show Cash was arrested for public intoxication. Cash later sang about the experience while performing at San Quentin Prison in California. The song was recorded as “Starkville City Jail.”

Residents of Starkville and other parts of Mississippi, as well as many Cash fans have appreciated how Cash and the law met in the sleepy city in the 1960s. For many people throughout the world, Cash, who died September 12, 2003, remains a musical icon and national treasure, a less than perfect man who looked out for the downtrodden of the world. Cash’s hard-living lifestyle became legendary, as did his story of redemption.

As a tribute to Cash, many dedicated Starkville fans have organized a festival in his honor the weekend of November 3, which will include the city of Starkville issuing a symbolic, posthumous pardon to Cash for his indiscretion in Starkville in 1965.

The pardon will not suggest anyone condoned Cash’s behavior. It symbolically recognizes Cash an imperfect human who made mistakes but gained insight and wisdom by learning from his indiscretions. It’s not about Johnny Cash getting arrested; it’s about what his life symbolized to so many people—that no matter what happens in life you can redeem yourself. (more…)

Marshall Grant, bassist of Johnny Cash’s backing band Tennessee Two and former tour manager for Cash, agreed today to speak during the Nov. 2-4 Johnny Cash Flower Pickin Festival in Starkville, Mississippi.

Grant will speak about his book, “I Was There When It Happened: My Life With Johnny Cash,” published in 2004. The book tells about Cash and Grant’s beginning and experiences together and was inspired by Grant’s eulogy at Cash’s funeral.

Grant was an important part of the boom-chicka-boom sound of Johnny Cash that changed country music. He recorded with Cash from 1954-1980 and later managed the Statler Brothers until he retired in 2004. Before Grant played bass with Cash, he worked as a mechanic in Memphis, Tenn.

Grant lives in Hernando, Miss.

This shows the “Starkville City Jail,” as it’s known to Johnny Cash fans throughout the world in a photo taken by Skip Descant of the Columbus, Miss., Commercial Dispatch Newspaper. While Johnny nicknamed the place the “Starkville City Jail,” everybody in the area knows it as the Oktibbeha County Jail. Sheriff Dolph Bryan had the drunk-tank key used to lock Cash up for the night mounted on a plaque and displayed in his office. He recently donated the plaque to the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum, where the key and other Cash/Starkville memorabilia are on display.

For years now, the “Johnny Cash Suite” has been retired. Now it’s used as a storage area, although people can still see the small dent from when Cash kicked the steel door during his stay. He broke his big toe that night.

You can see it for yourself at the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin Festival November 2, 3, and 4. See the news release further below.