It’s New Year’s Day, 1959 (although the year is often debated), and Johnny Cash is playing his first-ever prison concert at San Quentin in California. There, Cash played through a set of his songs, including “Folsom Prison Blues.” In the audience of thousands of men was a 20-year-old Merle Haggard, who was serving a 15-year sentence at San Quentin for attempted burglary.
Haggard was transferred to San Quentin after his previous botched attempt at escaping his jail in Bakersfield, California. (He only ended up serving two years of his sentence.)
Cash’s concert changed Haggard’s outlook on life. The future country outlaw credited Cash for helping inspire him to pursue a music career once he got out.
“He had the right attitude,” said Haggard of Cash’s first prison show. “He chewed gum, looked arrogant, and flipped the bird to the guards. He did everything the prisoners wanted to do. He was a mean mother from the South who was there because he loved us.”
He continued, “When he walked away, everyone in that place had become a Johnny Cash fan.”
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Cash’s Performance
The night before performing, Haggard said Cash had been to a party in San Francisco and had lost his voice and could barely speak. At first, the audience was skeptical of the country artist.
“I thought ‘This guy’s in trouble,'” said Haggard in a 2013 interview with Dan Rather. “There’s 5,000 men here, and he can’t talk, can’t sing. I was engrossed with wondering how he was going to pull this off.”
Haggard continued, “Country music was not like it is now. Country music was down your nose at that time compared to what it is now, so the visit of Johnny Cash was not all that cool in the joint.”
Before Cash started the show, he asked for a glass of water, Haggard remembered, but was ignored by a guard standing nearby chewing gum. “When he asked for the water of course he had everybody in the audience looking at him,” said Haggard, pretending to chew gum like Cash did mocking the guard, “and he mocked that guard. Well, he won the whole audience.”
When Cash left, there were inmates all around the prison yard playing guitar, said Haggard.
“I was the teacher,” said Haggard. “They all knew that I played. There must have been 20 [guys] who come up to me and said ‘Can you show me how he did that intro to ‘Folsom Prison Blues?'”
He continued “All of a sudden we were more popular. We had more clout because we understood what that guy did.”
[RELATED: The Meaning of Merle Haggard’s 1969 Protest Song “Okie From Muskogee”]
1960
Once released from prison in 1960, Haggard began turning his life around and released his debut album, Strangers, by 1965.
Throughout the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, Haggard produced 38 No. 1 country hits, including “Okie From Muskogee,” “Working Man Blues,” “Sing Me Back Home,” “The Fightin’ Side of Me,” “Today I Started Loving You Again,” and “Mama Tried.”
Haggard continued releasing music through the 2010s, including on his final album, Django and Jimmie, a collaboration with Willie Nelson, which was released in 2015.
Cash Returns to San Quentin
On February 24, 1969, Cash returned to San Quentin, and the concert was recorded for his 31st album, Johnny Cash at San Quentin.
This time the concert was filmed, and Cash played through a 22-song set, which included “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Ring of Fire,” and the premiere of a new song, “San Quentin,” about an inmate’s hatred of the prison.
San Quentin, you’ve been living hell to me
You’ve blistered me since 1963
I’ve seen them come and go and I’ve seen them die
And long ago I stopped asking why
San Quentin, I hate every inch of you
You’ve cut me and you’ve scarred me through and through
And I’ll walk out a wiser, weaker man
Mr. Congressman, you can’t understand
San Quentin, what good do you think you do?
Do you think I’ll be different when you’re through?
You bend my heart and mind, and you warp my soul
Your stone walls turn my blood a little cold
Johnny Cash at San Quentin was the second in line of Cash’s prison albums and followed his iconic At Folsom Prison in 1968. Cash also released På Österåker, a live album recorded in Sweden, in 1973, and A Concert Behind Prison Walls, recorded at the Tennessee State Prison, in 1976.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Editor’s Note: We initially reported that the Cash show at San Quentin witnessed by Haggard occurred on New Year’s Day 1958. This historic happening has inspired a great amount of conflicting information, but upon further review, the majority of reputable sources appear to conclude the show took place on January 1, 1959 (which definitely aligns with Haggard’s time at San Quentin). Apologies for the initial error; thanks to reader Kevin Simme for the heads-up!
