Only June Carter Cash could tame the man. But for all his deep faith and conviction, he could never be the pious type, and maybe that’s why so many are drawn to him. If gospel music has a joy that in some hands comes off as sentimental, a sweetness that can turn saccharine, with Johnny Cash you always felt the angels were just around the corner from the devils. He’d made his choice to pitch his tent “at the gates of Sheol.” Johnny didn’t sing to the damned; he sang with the damned, and sometimes you sensed he might prefer their company.
