Trains, Jesus, and Murder: The Gospel according to Johnny Cash

by Richard Beck

Concerning “I Walk the Line,” Mikal Gilmore observes that the song “claimed an impossible ideal for Cash. He was not an unswerving man. In fact, he strayed a lot—into rebellion, into abject addictions, into faithlessness of many sorts.”[3] Cash’s close friend Merle Haggard agrees: “Johnny Cash was out of line all his life. ‘I Walk the Line’ was kind of ludicrous for him to sing. . . . He never walked any line.”