On this day (August 22) in 1964, Johnny Cash took out a full-page ad in Billboard to take disc jockeys, as well as the managers and owners of radio stations across the country, because they refused to play his single, “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.” The lyrics told the story of Ira Hayes, a United States Marine from the Pima (Akimel O’odham) tribe, who was among those who raised the flag on Iwo Jima in February 1945.
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Written by Peter La Farge, “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” does more than pay tribute to a war hero. It also shines a light on the plight of Indigenous Americans. The lyrics discuss how a dam diverted the water that fed the tribe’s ancestral land and the hardships it caused. It ends with a man who was a part of one of the most-depicted moments of World War II dying with “Two inches of water in a lonely ditch” serving as his grave.
It wasn’t a happy song, but it was a true story. Cash, a lifelong advocate for the downtrodden and marginalized, released “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” in 1964 as the sole single from Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian. Only a year removed from the smash hit, “Ring of Fire,” radio stations were initially more than happy to play his new single. However, that changed quickly. Many radio programmers, station owners, and disc jockeys boycotted the song due to its content.
Johnny Cash Takes Country Radio to Task
This didn’t sit right with Johnny Cash. So, he wrote an open letter to country radio stations across the United States and took out a full-page ad in Billboard to ensure that everyone read it.
“It is an astounding experience, the power that touches everyone who walks around the gigantic statue of the WWII flag-raising based on that classic picture from Iwo Jima. There are five Marines and one Navy Corpsman depicted in that bronze giant at Arlington National Cemetery,” Cash began. “I ‘chilled’ like that recently, then went to Columbia Records and recorded ‘The Ballad of Ira Hayes.’”
Then, the Man in Black took the gloves off. “DJs, station managers, owners, etc., where are your guts?” he demanded. After saying that “a few” of those in the business could “disregard this ‘protest’ and that is what this is,” he continued his message. “I think that you do have guts… that you believe in something deep down. I’m not afraid to sing the hard, bitter lines that the son of Oliver La Farge wrote,” he added.
It Was a Hit Despite Not Getting Airplay
Johnny Cash went on to point out that the sales for “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” more than classified it as a “big country hit.” He also admitted that, despite being classified as such, it wasn’t a “country” song. This, he said, was “a fine reason, though, for the gutless to give it thumbs down.”
He wasn’t wrong about “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” being a hit. It entered the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart on July 11 and peaked at No. 3 on September 19.
Then, he recalled spending time with the likes of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and the group Peter, Paul & Mary before taking the stage at the Newport Folk Festival. “’The Ballad of Ira Hayes’ stole my part of the show. And we all know that the audience (of near 20,000) were not “country” or hillbillies. They were an intellectual cross-section of American youth–and middle age,” he wrote.
“As an American who is almost half-breed Cherokee-Mohawk (and who knows what else?)–I had to fight back when I realized that so many stations were afraid of Ira Hayes. Just one question: WHY???” he concluded.
This just goes to show that you should always be yourself unless you can be Johnny Cash.
You can (and should) read the full letter on Cash’s website.
Featured Image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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