On May 16, 2003, one day after losing June Carter Cash, his wife of 35 years, Johnny Cash called his producer Rick Rubin. He was not calling to cancel sessions or to ask for time alone. He wanted to keep working, and over the four months he had left, that work ended with one last song he wrote himself: “Like the 309,” a train song about his own final ride.
“I’m Going to Die”
June had died on May 15 from complications after heart valve surgery. She was 73. Johnny was 71, nearly blind from diabetes, and dependent on a wheelchair.
Rubin later told Rolling Stone what Johnny said on the phone that day:
“I have to get to work. If you don’t have something for me to do every day, I’m going to die.”
Rubin believed him. In his words, Johnny saw music as the only thing he had left to live for. Rubin also said that after June died, Johnny was prepared to die. He did not think Johnny wanted to, but he believed Johnny had reached a calm acceptance of whatever time he had left.
A Studio in the Bedroom
Johnny could no longer travel to a studio, so Rick Rubin brought the studio to him. He set up recording equipment in a bedroom of the Cash home in Tennessee and sent an engineer who stayed on call for most of the rest of Johnny’s life.
Sessions were booked for every single day. If Johnny woke up feeling strong enough, he called and said, “Let’s do it.” If he didn’t, the answer was simply, “Let’s do it tomorrow.” Rubin spoke with him every day during those final months. By one count, he recorded about 30 songs in those four months.
One Last Night at the Carter Family Fold
On July 5, 2003, Johnny Cash made one public appearance. He went to the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia, a music hall founded in 1974 by June’s cousin Janette Carter to keep the old Carter Family songs alive. Janette introduced him. He was too frail to walk to his chair unaided and had to be helped into it.
He played for about 30 minutes. At one point, he got a laugh by retelling Janette’s old joke about the Fold’s rule against electric instruments: June had told her that Johnny Cash was already plugged in when she met him.
Then he spoke about June directly:
“The spirit of June Carter overshadows me tonight with the love she had for me and the love I have for her.”
He told the crowd she had come down from heaven for a short visit to give him courage and inspiration, the way she always had, and he thanked God for her. Then he sang “Ring of Fire,” the song June co-wrote with Merle Kilgore about falling for him years before they became a couple. He also sang “Angel Band,” and explained that Emmylou Harris had sung it at June’s funeral. He closed with “Big River” and “Understand Your Man.” It was the last time he performed in public.
The Last Song Johnny Cash Wrote
After that night, Johnny went back to the bedroom studio and kept recording. Among the songs from those sessions was an original called “Like the 309.” It is the last song Johnny Cash