Your next stop holds the world's most comprehensive collection of Cash artifacts and memorabilia: the Johnny Cash Museum, a private institution that opened in 2013. Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas in 1932, but his relationship with Nashville defined his career — and his complicated relationship with the Nashville music industry is as interesting as his music. Cash first recorded for Sun Records in Memphis, crossing over between country and rock and roll in the mid-1950s.
He moved to Columbia Records and to Nashville in the early 1960s, becoming one of country music's biggest stars while simultaneously challenging its conventions. His prison concerts at Folsom and San Quentin, his friendships with Bob Dylan and the counterculture, his outlaw persona, and his later American Recordings with producer Rick Rubin all positioned him as a figure larger than any single genre. The museum's collection — costumes, instruments, letters, photos, tour memorabilia — traces that arc from rural Arkansas poverty to global icon.
His voice, his guitar, and the image of the man in black are among the most recognizable in American music history.