“Like God Walked in the Room”: Johnny Cash’s Surprising One-Time Duet Partner Recalls Working With the Man in Black

Country legend Johnny Cash collaborated with countless duet partners over his decades-long career, but not all those songs saw the light of day. One such record was a never-released duet between Cash and actor Billy Bob Thornton of Cash’s 1958 heartbreak tune, “I Still Miss Someone.”

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In a January 2025 interview with The Guardian, Thornton recalls what it was like to work with the man in black (and what it felt like to be on the receiving end of his razor-sharp wit).

Johnny Cash’s Surprising One-Time Duet Partner

While we often associate Billy Bob Thornton with films like Sling Blade and A Simple Plan, the actor and filmmaker started on the music side of the entertainment industry. This branch of his professional path led him to a collaboration with the Man in Black, country icon Johnny Cash. Thornton and Cash turned the latter’s 1958 track, “I Still Miss Someone,” into a duet with a recitation by Cash. The song opened the B-side of Cash’s Columbia Records debut, The Fabulous Johnny Cash. The gravity of getting to perform such a classic song with its original songwriter was not lost on Thornton.

“I never got over being nervous around Johnny Cash because it was like God walked in the room,” Thornton told The Guardian. “I stayed at his house a couple of times. And I did not want to get caught in my drawers looking in his refrigerator. So, I just stayed in my room all night long. But he was very kind to me.” Despite their duet of “I Still Miss Someone” never being released, Thornton walked away with an unforgettable experience—made no less memorable by Cash’s razor-sharp wit when bantering with the actor.

“Cash said to me, ‘What’s your idea, son?’” Thornton recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, I thought we’d do the first verse and bridge, and then you could do your recitation.’ This was at a point where Johnny was in a little more ill health. And I said, ‘Then you do the recitation, and then we’ll come back and do the last verse and bridge.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, that sounds good to me.’ Then, he said, ‘I might even have an idea or two myself. After all, I wrote the f***ing thing.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, sir, sorry.’”

The Man in Black Left Him With a Parting Gift

Based on the context clues of Billy Bob Thornton’s story, it’s likely this collaboration between the actor and Johnny Cash took place sometime in the late 1990s. Cash died of diabetes complications on September 12, 2003, four months after his wife, June Carter Cash, died. Their recording session was likely one of the last times Thornton saw the country legend, but the Man in Black left him with a parting gift to remember him by (or sell for cash).

“He wrote a story about that day on four pieces of notebook paper,” Thornton said. “It was partly truth, partly fiction. And on the last page are three autographs by him: ‘John R Cash,’ ‘Johnny Cash,’ and ‘John Cash.’ I said, ‘John, why did you write three autographs on that paper?’ He says, ‘Son, if you ever get broke, cut those into three pieces, and you’ll be alright.’”

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