Inspiring person: Johnny Cash

It is time for another blog about an inspiring person. Today, I would like to talk about the late Johnny Cash.

Ever since I was a little girl, my dad made me listen to his music. He was a huge fan of Johnny Cash, mainly because of his attitude and the fact that the only thing the man was interested in was play his guitar and sing his songs. It is true that he wasn't the best singer around, but his voice had a raw edge to it and the imperfection made it stand out from his peers. He was known as a story-teller. His songs are all tales about his life or fictional characters and I have always been attracted to singers who are able to tell a story.
He was the man in black, always dressed in this colour during live performances. He would always start his performance with the same phrase: "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." He performed in the Netherlands once and I asked my father why he didn't go, as he was part of the fan club and all. He said that there wasn't really anything interesting to see as he just stood there with his guitar singing songs. It might be boring in comparison to the massive productions nowadays, but I think it is interesting to see an artist with just his instrument, performing his songs.

Apart from his music career, I find the story of his love life very touching. He was first married to someone else, until he met June Carter, the love of his life. They were inseparable and she helped him kick off from his many addictions. June died in 2003 and only 4 months later, Johnny passed away as well. They say it was caused by complications caused by diabetes, but the general opinion is that really, he died because of a broken heart.

One of my favourite quotes of his is:

"You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space."

As someone who is prone to stress, this is very inspiring to me and it tells me to let go of all worries because you can't change the mistakes you make.

Now I would like to share some videos with you:

With June Carter:

My favourite song:

His very last song: