“Remembering Johnny”—the Eulogy Bob Dylan Wrote for His Dear Friend Johnny Cash

As known and recently depicted in A Complete Unknown, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan were thick as thieves. In the public eye, Dylan and Cash are mostly known for their collaboration on “Girl From The North Country.” Though, privately, the two were pen pals, confidants, and most importantly, friends. That being so, when Johnny Cash passed away in 2003, Bob Dylan wrote a few words for him.

Videos by American Songwriter

Published in Rolling Stone shortly after Cash’s death, Dylan’s eulogy is a remembrance of their bond and an homage to the Man in Black. In the piece, Dylan doesn’t use any ornate and poetic language. Rather, he says it all bluntly, honestly, and beautifully. Seemingly in the exact way Cash would have.

Bob Dylan Remembers Johnny Cash

At the beginning of the eulogy, Dylan rehashes when, how, and where he met Johnny Cash. Subsequently, Dylan alludes to a song he nearly wrote about Cash titled “Cash is King.” Though, that song never came to fruition. Following that remark, Dylan uttered, “In plain terms, Johnny Cash was and is a North Star.” “You could guide your ship by him—the greatest of greats then and now.”

After Dylan’s sentimentally sweeping line, he went on to acknowledge how he’d heard of Johhny Cash far before Cash had heard of him. He described Cash’s songs as summer anthems, his lines as “rich” and “mysterious, and his disposition as dauntingly admirable. And given Cash’s songs and character, Bob Dylan stated, “We can remember that and see how far we fall short of it.”

The closing portion of Bob Dylan’s eulogy is the portion that captures Cash’s life in the most majestic of ways. Between his paradoxical lines and sweet superlatives, Dylan sums up Cash by acknowledging that the man can’t be summed up at all. “I think we can have recollections of him, but we can’t define him any more than we can define a fountain of truth, light and beauty. ” “If we want to know what it means to be mortal, we need look no further than the man in black,” stated Dylan.

Bob Dylan finished his eulogy with a spot-on conclusion. He closed his piece by saying, “He rises above all, and he’ll never die or be forgotten, even by persons not born yet—especially those persons—and that is forever.” Johnny Cash is, and seemingly will always be, forever.

Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images