Johnny Cash Wrote This Song To Alleviate His Wife’s Fears of Infidelity

When Johnny Cash recorded “I Walk The Line”, he was two years into his marriage to his first wife, Vivian Liberto. He was also quickly becoming famous, thanks to two early hits, with “Cry! Cry! Cry!” and “So Doggone Lonesome”.

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“I Walk The Line” says, “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine / I keep my eyes wide open all the time / I keep the ends out for the tie that binds / Because you’re mine, I walk the line / I find it very, very easy to be true / I find myself alone when each day is through / Yes, I’ll admit that I’m a fool for you / Because you’re mine, I walk the line.”

“It was kind of a prodding to myself to play it straight, Johnny,” Cash tells NPR.

At the time, Cash had no idea that he was about to become a country music legend. But the early taste of success left him at a crossroads, especially with his new wife at home.

“Fame was pretty hard to handle, actually,” Cash concedes. “The country boy in me tried to break loose and take me back to the country, but the music was stronger. And the temptations were women, girls, which I loved, and then amphetamines not very much later.”

Women weren’t Cash’s only temptation. He also found solace in drugs, mostly to deal with his growing career.

“Running all night, you know, in our cars on tour,” he recalls. “And the doctors got these nice pills that give us energy and keep us awake. So I was taking the pills for a while, and then the pills started taking me.”

What Happened to Johnny Cash’s Marriage to Vivian Liberto?

“I Walk The Line” became Cash’s first No. 1 hit. Cash may have vowed to stay committed to Liberto, but their marriage did not last. In 1966, the couple divorced. Two years later, Cash married June Carter. Cash wrote “I Walk The Line” about Liberto, but Carter later penned “Ring Of Fire” about her attraction to Cash.

In 1956, Carter met Cash backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. It’s an encounter she recalls in the liner notes of Cash’s 2000 album, Love, God, Murder. At the time, they were both still married to other people.

“It took such a long time of praying and walking away when I knew from first looking at him that his hurt was as great as mine,” she says. “And from the depths of my despair, I stepped up to feel the fire, and there is no way to be in that kind of hell, no way to extinguish a flame that burns, burns, burns. And so came the idea for the song ‘Ring of Fire’. I was ashamed to tell John that I had always cared, that I couldn’t get him off my mind.”

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