LEAD ME GENTLY HOME - Johnny Cash

Cash – the Autobiography of Johnny Cash

The most significant instance was when I made a public profession of faith on my network TV show.

It wasn't something I was driven to do by an urge to convert anybody or spread the word of the Lord; I did it because people kept asking me where I stood, in interviews and letters to the network, and I thought I ought to make it clear that yes, I was a Christian. I sang those gospel songs on the show not just because I liked them as music (which I surely did) and definitely not because I wanted to appear holier than thou, but because they were part of my musical heritage - our musical heritage - and they were part of me.

Yes, in short, I meant the words I was singing.

When I actually came out and said the words 'I am a Christian' on TV, that was the context: introducing a gospel song.

ABC didn't like it.

I had one of the producers come up to me and tell me that I really oughtn't be talking about God and Jesus on network television.

I didn't like that. .

’Well, then,' I told him, 'you're producing the wrong man here, because gospel music - and the word “Gospel" means *the good news about Jesus Christ" - is part of what I am and part of what I do. I don't cram anything down people's throats, but neither do I make any apologies for it, and in a song introduction, I have to tell it like it is. I'm not going to proselytize, but I'm not going to compromise.

‘So don't you worry about me mentioning Jesus, or God, or Moses, or whoever I decide to mention in the spiritual realm. If you don't like it, you can always edit it.' They never did edit me that way, and I never made any big fuss with them about it after that; I just went on doing what I was doing.