I always loved Johnny Cash, when I was in grade school; he had a weekly variety show on TV that we always watched. In a pre-internet, pre social media era, Cash was everywhere. He was even the guest star villain on this 1974 episode of Columbo!
After watching the new documentary about 9 members of his family who all dealt with addiction, I love Johnny even more. He bailed out every one of them in one way or another, knowing as a recovering addict himself, that they would have to do the work of achieving sobriety themselves.
In this new hour-long doc, Johnny is still giving to them; after all, would I have been drawn to watch this doc if his name were not on it? Not as strongly.
But the daughters, nephews, nieces, and siblings he left behind following his death in 2003 are compelling interview subjects in their own right. Mark Alan Cash, the son of Johnny’s younger brother, Tommy, is a gifted storyteller and weaves in his own story of addiction, jail, and trying to be a musician in the shadow of his dad and uncle.
His deep, resonant voice bears the after effects of years of whiskey and, one supposes, countless Marlboro reds. When he first picked up his guitar to sing, my heart sank – I didn’t want this to be a showcase for the Cash family members who have tried, for better and worse, to have music careers to be the reason for the doc.
But it doesn’t take too long before you realize that these folks are baring their souls – most of them started down the dark road while still in their teens. Cash’s daughter, Cindy, now in her early 60s also had a harrowing journey – her interviews are informative, but her daughter’s point of view, a non-addict, Jessie, is even more revealing because you have an adult daughter giving the perspective of being the child of an addict.
There are a couple of side roads that feel a little clumsy, like a brief interview with the contractor who did the renovations on the family home (it feels very much like what we used to call a “trade out” in the TV business) and the visit with the surviving son of Carl Perkins, a great friend and fellow addict of Johnny Cash gives some terrific history ( I never knew Carl wrote Daddy Sang Bass) breaks the “family” format, but I’m sure it was hard to not use the historical context provided.
Notably absent is Roseanne Cash, who has spoken publicly about her father’s drug addiction in previous venues. I am not sure the reason.
For music nerds like me, it’s definitely worth a watch – for people struggling with addiction, I hope that viewing this will bring you some kind of comfort or aid.
You can watch Long Road Home: The Cash Family’s Untold Story starting this Friday, October 7th on https://locals.com/
