4. The Song: Johnny B. Goode
Today is 36 days from the first anniversary of Dad’s passing. I’ve committed to writing 40 stories about him as that day approaches. Forty Steady Stories.
While Elvis is my first musical memory of Dad (see yesterday’s post), the most enduring and prominent memory is Dad playing “Johnny B. Goode.” That’s his song, period. It’s the one he loved to play the most, and the one that really made him smile. Even up until the end last December, when his body couldn’t play the guitar anymore, Dad would play air guitar when that song came on or someone in the family played it for him.
In 2007, My brother Scott’s band was playing at Young Life’s Lake Champion camp. Scott brought Dad up on stage at age 65 in front of a bunch of teenagers, and he brought the house down with “Johnny B. Goode.”
Someone videoed the performance and posted it on YouTube. Back in 2007 that was a big deal to Dad. He was SO excited and watched it several times a day. He was particularly happy when his version of JBG got more views than Elvis’ did — which at that time was only a few hundred. My brothers and I told Dad that it didn’t really count since 375 of the views were him watching it himself.
I loved watching that video, because you can see moments of joy when Dad’s Bristol accent really comes out in the lyrics. That’s when I knew he was really having fun. Unfortunately, whoever posted that video took it down many years ago, and it was lost. Then, in early 2020, I found a copy that I’d ripped off YouTube on an old hard drive. I was so glad to have that video back. We hadn’t seen in about 5-7 years. Scroll down if you want to watch it. Best three minutes you’ll spend today. :)
In 2008, “The Cash Family Band” got to play for the first time ever on a stage, and it was a big stage. We played for the Young Life All Staff Conference (ASC) in Orlando in front of several thousand people. There was no question which song we were leading off with: JBG with Steady Cash on lead guitar and lead vocals. Rehearsal that afternoon is one of my favorite memories of Dad. He’d played JBG thousands of times by then, and we had several other songs to rehearse in a limited amount of time. But Dad insisted on going through his ENTIRE spoken intro to the song each time we went through JBG. The last line of his intro was something like, “So y’all better fasten your seat belts, because we’re getting ready to rock ’n’ roll in here…” and then he took off on the guitar. But he nailed the intro and the song that night and the Cash Family Band was born.
We got to play it again at the next YL ASC in 2012. We played at Sea World in Orlando at Shamu Stadium, and it was the most fun I’ve personally ever had on stage. Those are great memories for our entire family and Dad had the time of his life playing “Johnny B. Goode” for the crowd.
At Dad’s funeral, I said to my friend and Mom and Dad’s pastor, Chris, “Would it be OK with you if we start off with Johnny B. Goode?” He smiled and gladly obliged. So that’s what we started Dad’s funeral with after Chris’ welcome. It’s not a religious song, but it was real and relevant to the man we were there to honor, and that was enough in that moment.
Music creates moments and reminds us of the moments in our lives that we’d love to experience again. Every time I hear Johnny B. Goode, I think of Dad and his smile and the joy music brings to all of us. We’ve lost the leader of the band, but his music lives on in each of us. Rock on, Dad. You nailed it.
