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CASH IS GOD: JOHNNY CASH AND AMERICAN HEAVY METAL
By
Melissa K. Campbell
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Commonwealth Honors Program
University of Massachusetts Lowell
2014
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jonathan Silverman, Department of English
____________________________________________________________ Date: ___________
Author’s Signature
_____________________________________________________________Date: ___________
Advisor’s Signature
Signatures of Committee Members (at least one):
_____________________________________________________________ Date: ___________
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ABSTRACT
Title of Thesis: CASH IS GOD: JOHNNY CASH AND AMERICAN HEAVY METAL
Melissa Campbell, Bachelor of Arts, 2014
Thesis Directed By: Doctor Jonathan Silverman
Department of English
When I was younger, I was raised mainly by my grandparents as my parents were often
busy working late hours to support their newly started family. This allowed me to have more
exposure to things from decades past. One of the things that I came to know well was the sound
of Johnny Cash’s voice. My grandfather practically worshipped the man and saw him as a good
Christian but also someone who struggled along in life. As a result, my grandfather identified
with him deeply. As I grew up, I started to expand my musical tastes and found I really enjoyed
heavy music. At least half my wardrobe consisted of metal band tees by the time I was fifteen,
but Johnny Cash’s music was still in my mind.
It seemed natural to me and many of my musician friends that Johnny Cash and heavy
metal should go together. However, we did not know how to explain it to others who were not
into heavy metal. It was something that could be seen—concert goers sporting Johnny Cash tees,
bands doing Johnny Cash covers—but no one knew why. With that question in mind, I have
explored the relationship between the two. Cash appeared to be mentioned more often by
American metal bands or to have influenced them somehow. Metal music fans and musicians
said their reasons for loving Cash involved attitude, the color black, and his affiliation with
religion. Overall, the reasoning behind their respect for Johnny Cash is close to my grandfather’s
connection to him: he was the average American struggling with personal demons and religious
beliefs.

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Cash’s connection to American heavy metal is a matter of idea exchange especially in
terms of lyrical content. The connection is an example of the larger question of what connects or
divides the institutional and the personal. Both the concepts of genre and religion can be viewed
in terms of institutional and personal views. There is an exchange of influence in genres that are
supposed to be separate—in this case country and heavy metal—just as there is an exchange of
influence between the church and the mainstream. Heavy metal artists have not stated that they
first started to play music because of Cash, but they have acknowledged his influence in their
lives and music. The intent of this paper is to analyze how the personal and the institutional have
resulted in this mysterious connection between Cash and heavy metal.
At the same time, there has been no recorded “missing link” where a heavy metal artist
heard Cash and decided that heavy metal music would be their way to carry out their vision of
Cash. That does not mean that there are no connections. The relationship that I seemed to detect
throughout my youth is less tangible and more associative. The attitudinal and religious
structures are what connect Cash and heavy metal. By looking at the structures behind these
connections one learns that genre is not as definite in music as believed. As a result, connections
between seemingly disparate artists such as Cash and Danzig or Cash and Metallica, are more the
rule than the exception.
The relationship between heavy metal artists and Johnny Cash can be broken down in a
few ways. First, they see his performance at prisons and his ideas about the world more
generally. This is connected to their interpretation of his black wardrobe choice as definitively
important ways of being a musician in public. The second connection is one of a religious nature
and is intriguing too. While Johnny Cash’s religious history is often hidden or partially hidden to
his fans, it remains an important part of his own legacy. At the same time, many metal artists

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struggle with their own belief systems. They explore religion in either oppositional or embracing
ways and find it to be essential to their music. Because Cash’s religious history requires closer
observation influence might not be the word to use to describe the connections between him and
metal. But one can see how genre definition can obscure what might be interesting connections
between artists in different genres. That is what I think is the most interesting thing about trying
to make connections between Cash and metal.
Religion, Genre, Persona, andMusic
Although there has been little scholarship that talks about the relationship between
country music and heavy metal (let alone Metallica and Johnny Cash), there has been a good
amount of work describing the relationship between music and religion. The connection of these
two is essential to the understanding Cash’s Christianity and any religion related influence he
had. Research that explores the nature of persona and genre are also critical for understanding
how Cash’s own persona and genre influenced many musicians, including heavy metal ones.
Music is an old tradition that many religions continue in the present for a variety of
reasons. As Edward Dickinson suggests many faithful individuals see music as a way to give
praise to their God and express joy (4, 38). Dickinson states that “music, in issuing from the
bosom of the Church, has been moulded under the influence of varying ideals of devotion,
liturgic usages, [and] national temperaments” (vii). This gestures at how even though music
started to move out of the church years ago, there is still a tangible connection with modern day
music. There is a gospel music industry although it is smaller than most popular music. Besides
that, religious ideas—namely Christian ones—can still be found as themes in other music. Heavy

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metal music is notable in that religion is one of its main themes though not always in a positive
manner.
Marcus Moberg builds on Dickinson’s observations between the institutional and the
personal by stating that “different popular musical forms and their surrounding cultures,
subcultures, or scenes have themselves effectively come to constitute “religions,” or substitutes
or surrogates for religion or religiosity” (115). He agrees with Dickinson by stating “popular
culture as a whole has developed into an increasingly important medium and resource for the
dissemination and circulation of a wide range of different religious/spiritual beliefs and ideas”
(123). To him, both cultures of religion and music are when an individual finds themselves in a
space where they can come together with others, find meaning in their life, and construct an
identity. The individual is able to gain some sort of social understanding and belonging which is
a comfort that most human beings strive for (123).
Religious institutions find music useful especially when it comes to reaching the secular
sphere. Eileen Luhr sees the coming together of personal and religious as justified. In a sense,
“continuing to promote a separate space for Christian culture” is akin to “surrendering popular
music to the world” (105). The use of music is a common way to intervene in public life because
it is a way of “changing hearts…rather than votes” (106-107). Luhr states that those who tried to
bridge the gap between rock music and Christianity “received their harshest criticism from their
conservative brethren in the church” (120). She explains that Christians have been cautious to
accept these songs as many believe that rock and pop music are forms of corruption.
Christians have used various forms of music to carry their message in modern times. Jay
Howard expands that this mixture of modern music with Christianity comes in two forms:
contemporary Christian music (CCM) or Christian Rock (124). The ideals reflected in these two

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strains of music are representative of what Howard refers to as Christian counterculture. Those
who belong to this subculture feel they are not welcomed in the mainstream much like some
heavy metal bands. According to him, “through the creation of [Christians’] own institutions,
such as the Christian music industry, members of the Christian subculture are challenging the
dominant ideology of modern society” (124).
Howard expands on Moberg and Dickinson’s ideas that music is largely used in modern
society as a means of entertainment. He says that it has also been used as a way to get a message
out to society. This message can be a lamentation of the way things used to be or a proposal for
the way life should be. Perhaps most importantly, music serves as a forum for communication
between different groups of people to engage with larger issues such as religion (125).
People also often communicate their love of music through adherence to a particular
genre, whether it is religious or secular. The idea of musical genre is one than can be explored in
a variety of contexts including psychological, musical, and sociological. This reflects the breadth
of meaning that the term holds. For this article we will focus on its role in culture in a manner
similar to how we described religion.
The ideas behind music scenes and genres are something more readily observable than
personal tastes of individuals. Mike Savage states in The Musical Field that “[A]lthough we can
detect evidence that some people do have tastes which range across a variety of musical genres
and works, nonetheless, clear musical taste communities can be readily ascertained” (159).
Going forward we will see this observation of taste range become more evident in Cash, Danzig,
Slayer, and Metallica. That being said, the scenes or genres which these artists belong to appear
more rigid. Savage also outlines the more industry related reasons for genre’s existence,
“contemporary policy interests are less to support ‘establishment’ musical genres but rather

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embrace more variegated objectives, often to promote more popular forms of music” (161).
Genres have allowed for an easier way in which to market music. It essentially boils down to
music being a sort of advertisement science. It in turn reinforces that an artist must satisfy certain
conditions to “belong” to a genre. With the examples in this paper, I propose that artists do not
pay as much attention to genre as producers and record companies do. Many of these artists,
especially Cash, have been seen as dabbling in other music forms and often received criticism for
it.
Crucial in many genres of music are ideas about persona and authenticity. Having a
persona is one way of enabling fans to identity with an artist, and perceived authenticity is often
important as a way of marketing one’s self within a particular genre—something that both
plagued and benefitted Cash. Persona—or in this context authenticity—in popular music has had
a more complicated history. In the early days of rock, authenticity was less of a concern than
appreciating it as a form of pop art. By the time punk and glam took over in the 70s, authenticity
had grown into a larger issue. The punk scene was focused on picking out the “posers” while the
bigger bands like the Sex Pistols were concerned on not becoming posers. The glam scene
appeared to have the same issue of being inauthentic. In the 80s being inauthentic was more done
on purpose which led to “authentic inauthenticity” with artists such as David Bowie and
Madonna (Weisethaunet and Lindberg 474). There are supposedly different forms in which
authenticity can manifest: the body, transcendence of the everyday, and experience. The body is
outlined as being “the impact of a performer’s physical presence” and “the physical impact” of
the rhythm and sound (Weisethaunet and Lindberg 475). The authenticity that focuses on the
transcendence of the everyday is about “enhancing the present moment” (Weisthaunet and
Lindberg 476). Finally, experiencing authenticity is when “the recipient decides that there is an

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Other present who means what he/she says” (Weisethaunet and Lindberg 477). This
phenomenon also has to do with the audience identifying or seeing themselves in the artist. This
authenticity, whether real or not, is what causes the individual to enjoy the artist regardless of
genre. It suggests that maybe authenticity is not as relevant to the appreciation of music as
believed. This may partially explain why Cash appeals to so many people especially as he is
being posthumously rediscovered by new generations. This may also explain why I am able to
feel a strong connection with both Cash and the heavy metal genre. I was able to identify a part
of myself in Cash’s music in much the same fashion as my grandfather. The same can be said
about the music of many metal artists in relation to me. It was not a matter of the artists meaning
what they said so much as it was a feeling that they were talking to me.
What can be gained from the overview of authenticity is that it is not an easy aspect of
music to pin down. It may not also add to a discussion on whether or not the music is any good.
The same goes with genre as a classifying tool. From the examination of genre we learn that it is
not a strict as one might believe. It is more of a construct of the music industry than it is a natural
occurrence. Finally from the analysis of the relationship between the personal and the religious
we learn that they have more of an exchange of influence than meets the eye. This exchange
manifests in both positive and negative ways.
Religion, persona, and authenticity are tied together by the categories each seem to
impose on those in the discussion. These imposed categories are something that Cash himself
attempted to avoid throughout his career. Some metal musicians also seem to value not being
categorized to a certain extent. More importantly, challenging categories as they apply to
musicians and their songs, one’s discussions about comparing artists in different categories
widens.

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Johnny Cash and His Perceptions
There are a number of ways in which Cash is perceived in popular culture. These
perceptions seemed to have changed a bit since his passing and the continuation of his legacy in
the forms of new music, movies, and museums, but there is a consistent general idea of who he
was. Understanding how he is perceived is crucial in making sense of his relationship to genres,
as well as the perception of his authenticity.
First and foremost Cash has been viewed as an individual who defies any category. Over
the course of his career he dabbled in many genres including “gospel, folk, rockabilly, rock,
blues, bluegrass, and country” (Edwards 19). He also participated in many cultural forms
including “popular music, oral narrative, popular literary genres…Appalachian and other folk
cultures, film, documentary, and music videos” (Edwards 20). This does not even begin to touch
upon how Cash seemed to defy political affiliation of any sort through his support of seemingly
contradictory movements such as prison reform and U.S. nationalism (Edwards 20).
There is yet a section of his audience who does not realize that he did other religion
related projects. As Leigh Edwards puts it, “[H]e famously sang ‘I shot a man in Reno, just to
watch him die,’ and, less famously, wrote a novel about St. Paul and religious faith titled Man in
White” (20). Some scholars, such as Jonathan Silverman, have speculated that it may have been
Cash’s intention to “keep his religious and secular paths distinct” (171). Cash appeared to carry a
sort of sinner-saint complex around with him. This has been interpreted as being a large them of
American cultural identity and possibly why so many Americans have come to treat him as a
national symbol. Edwards states, “Cash’s songs…express his ceaseless tensions and religious
questioning, just as his forays into film and literature do. Joining with his saint-sinner
touchstone, these tropes combine in Cash’s work to voice the contradictions of religion in

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Southern white working-class culture, and some of its tensions in American culture more
generally” (182). Building off of Silverman’s earlier speculations, it may be that certain
audiences choose to only see one part of him—his dark side or his religious side—because of the
inability to reconcile the two (172). I contend that the two sides are more reconcilable than they
appear because of heavy metal’s themes of both darkness and religion.
Johnny Cash and Religion
While his rebel persona is apparent to observers, only some people understand the depth
of Johnny Cash’s religious faith. It is this faith that somewhat surprisingly forms a basis for
comparison with heavy metal artists. Although Cash was best known for his music, he also had a
preoccupation with religion, especially as a barrier against what he saw as the immorality of the
entertainment business. He was often concerned about being too distant from God and believed
that this is what caused him to stray into “darkness” including his development of a drug
addiction. He spoke of the struggle to stay true to his religious roots in connection with the type
of music he created: “I have a feeling my record company would rather I’d be in prison than in
church…It’s a money game…A number-on-the-charts game. It doesn’t matter to [the record
company], for the most part, what the subject of the song I, just so it sells” (Cash 17). Cash felt
that he was not able to make the religious music he wished to because the industry did not see it
as something lucrative. When beginning his career at Sun Records he attempted to record some
gospel tunes but was instead encouraged to do more rock songs as it was a new genre and a big
market. Columbia Records allegedly resisted Cash’s religious projects. Alongside Columbia,
Cash was recording gospel music with Word-Nashville. (“Columbia Label Drops Johnny Cash”).
Of course, this view of events came from Cash himself as told in his autobiographies and the

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Walk the Line movie (which was based off his autobiographies). Therefore, personal bias must
be taken into account when analyzing this kind of event. As evidenced by his discography, there
were many times where he did record gospel songs. Any indications of resistance from his
employers are his statements.
Outside of his music recording career, Cash did a number of projects involving religion.
He wrote Man in White (an obvious allusion to his song, autobiography, and identity as the Man
in Black) which focused on the life of St. Paul. He wrote and narrated the film Gospel Road
along with an eponymous album that reached number twelve on country charts. According to
Edwards, “The movie amplifies and deepens the themes evident in his music. A film he financed,
co-authored, and co-produced, Cash’s ‘labor of love’ was re-released on DVD by Twentieth
Century Fox in 2005 to coincide with the theatrical release of Walk the Line (2005)” (175). He
recorded a spoken word version of the New King James Version of the New Testament which is
also now available on DVD. He eventually even became a biblical scholar and an ordained
minister (Chuffo). Again Cash seems to be positing himself as a religious crusader in a corrupt
industry. Cash furthered the concept that the secular bleeds into the personal by acting in this
way.
Cash appeared to attempt to circumvent what he saw as the industry’s standards and
spreading the Word by speaking directly to his audience. He often spoke of his religious life on
stage, in interviews, and in his books. For example, he professed his Christianity on his own
show with some consequence. Edwards recalls, “To the chagrin of network executives, Cash
introduced the hymn ‘I Saw a Man’ at the end of one episode by saying, ‘I am a Christian’ and
citing his struggle between God and the devil…Cash believed that this profession of his faith
was unpopular enough to cost him revenues and to contribute to dampening his career in the

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1970s” (21). He saw that using his music and his appearances to get people interested in him
might also serve as a way of getting them interested in religious ideas. Writing songs with non-
religious material served as a motivation to listen to more of his material which included
religious songs.
Even in the latest part of his career, Cash saw a representation of religion in everything
he produced. On his album cover for American Recordings, he is pictured with a dog at each of
his sides. As he explained to Jancee Dunn of Rolling Stone: “You know my album cover with the
two dogs on it?...Their names are Sin and Redemption. Sin is the black one with the white stripe.
Redemption is the white one with the black stripe. That’s kind of the theme of the album, and I
think it says it for me, too. When I was really bad, I was not all bad. When I was really trying to
be good, I could never be all good. There would be that black streak going through.” Not only
does this say a lot about his connection with faith, but it embodies a main struggle in American
heavy metal.
As mentioned previously in this section, most of Cash’s accounts of his religious
experiences come from him. This being said, it is reasonable to believe that there is some bias.
There is a certain way in which Cash wished to present himself. Whether or not it is authentic is
a different matter. It may be that Cash chose to present himself as a more religious person in
order to fit the standards of Southern country music where religion is a strong force. Posing as a
religious crusader against the immorality of the entertainment industry may have won him some
fans in that area as well as made old ones stay.

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Religion in American Heavy Metal
To casual observers, metal’s connection to religion is not apparent. Similar to the way
that Cash’s religious background is somewhat hidden but definitely present, so is the genre’s
connections, particularly in the personal lives of individual musicians. There are two types of
ways that religion is regarded in heavy metal music. One side of musicians and fans see
Christianity and other organized religions as something to be rallied against. The other side
consists of musicians and fans who believe that bringing religion into the mix is the only thing
that can redeem heavy metal. This section is mainly an examination of why the latter group
believes that heavy metal can be redeemed and what other Christians think of this attempt.
As it currently stands and has stood in heavy metal’s history, pro-religion bands
constitute a smaller percentage of the metal scene but it is still a significant presence. It is a very
clear example of how institutional music still has a mark on mainstream music and personal
influence. Some of these groups have become very popular such as the more recent As I Lay
Dying. Others have died out such as Stryken from the ‘80s. What these bands have in common is
that they are and were not afraid to make their religious beliefs a core part of their identity.
Anyone who has heard of them knows that they are intent on getting God’s message out there,
whatever the band believes that message is. What separates the bands is how they have
represented their faith and how they have been accepted, or in the case of Stryken, rejected.
Stryken was active in a period where pro-religion bands infiltrating something as
religiously taboo as heavy metal was a fairly new concept. In a sense, bands like Stryker were
often treated as outlaws in the heavy metal scene. There was an instance at a Motley Crue show
where Stryken crashed the concert and was removed for erecting a cross onstage while preaching

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to the audience: “…by getting removed from the concert, the band successfully positioned itself
as the persecuted minority—the authentic outlaws of American music in the 1980s” (Luhr 103).
The 1980s were a time in general where Christian music was not very popular except
among specific audiences. It is still something that is on the musical outskirts. A great deal of
Christian music made then and today is ambiguous rather than specifically referencing religious
works or individuals. This hints that although the secular has an influence on the personal, it is
not something that can be completely accepted in the mainstream.
Pro-Christian heavy metal bands attempt “to redefine ‘rebellion’ as resistance to sin”
(Luhr 118) and it is fair to speculate that was Cash’s intention as “the Man in Black.” He often
spoke of how stereotypical rebellious means such as drug use were a devil to him and how he
would not have gotten through his addiction had it not been for his faith. What he may have been
doing is urging his fans to rebel against Satan.
Johnny Cash and Heavy Metal
The Shadow of Cash
In addition to constructing an identity as a religious individual, Cash also became an
outlaw figure in some respects. He seemed to stay in the country tradition that idealized the Old
West with songs such as “Ghost Riders in the Sky” and albums such as Sings Ballads of the True
West. Metal musicians and fans seem to identify with this image as they often feel they are on
the outside. This sort of image in heavy metal music often translates to being a tough and dark
individual.
Two of Cash’s most popular albums were his prison ones, At San Quentin and At Folsom
Prison. Although Cash had not been to prison he sounded as though he had and people believed

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that about him (Edwards 20). The song “San Quentin” has become one of his most well-known
songs. Cash used “San Quentin” as a way to criticize the prison system and throughout the song
compares the location to hell. The prisoners in the song see themselves as victims of something
much greater than them. They do not see their punishment as fair even though they may have
seen it coming. The singer describes his soul as having been affected by his time there and cries
out against the injustice done to him.
One can see Cash’s ideas at play in the heavy metal artist Glenn Danzig, who is a popular
artist in both the heavy metal and punk worlds. He started his music career with the Misfits and
later moved onto a solo career. Danzig may be viewed as a modern day Johnny Cash with a more
sinister edge. His vocal style and habit of wearing all black appear to be based on the original
Man in Black. The way Danzig borrows from Cash reflects the way the personal borrows from
the institutional. People often view heavy metal and country as restrictive genres, yet here we
have an example of a heavy metal artist who has taken a great deal of influence from a country
artist. According to David Wild’s 1994 interview with Danzig, “[W]hen he recently met Johnny
Cash—for whom he has written a new song called “Thirteen”—told the original man in black,
‘Believe me, I don’t like many people, but I like you’.” Danzig is often portrayed as being very
picky or at least not giving any indication of interest when it comes to any kind of music so it is
nothing short of impressive that he would compliment Cash like that. It was through producer
Rick Rubin that the two came together.
Danzig is essentially a loner figure, who seems to borrow his strength from Cash’s
outlaw image. “Thirteen” is thematically similar to Cash’s prison songs without explicitly
mentioning any sort of prison. Although it was written by Danzig, it is condensed version of
what Cash believed the effects of a prison were: to break a man spiritually as well as physically.

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The subject of the song is condemned to lead a miserable and damned existence that they were
not responsible for; they were given the number 13 when they were young. The message of the
song appears to be that a person can still be imprisoned in a spiritual sense. The singer seems to
understand that although they may not be behind bars, they will still have to pay for “the list of
lives” they have broken that “reach from here to hell.” The song plays on the outlaw image that
Cash is known for and is otherwise not exactly associated with heavy metal.
Much like what happened to Nine Inch Nails when Cash covered “Hurt,” Danzig’s
version of “Thirteen” sounds like it is the cover. Danzig sounds somehow less believable than
the original Man in Black. Again, this may be to the song’s striking similarity to Cash’s prison
songs such as “San Quentin.”
Whether or not Danzig intended to sound like Cash is almost irrelevant to the
understanding of the song. What can be observed is that Danzig manages to fall under the
shadow of the original Man in Black. It is hard to look at Danzig’s career and presentation of
himself and not observe the similarities. Danzig’s carefully constructed image of being an
outcast loner is a heavy metal interpretation of Cash’s outlaw image. Perhaps this is why Rubin
saw their collaboration as a natural step in their respective careers.
Religious Tensions in Bands
As observed in the religion and heavy metal section, the relationship between the
institutional and the personal is not always an agreeable one. Cash wanted his audience to
believe that he too struggled with his “good and faithful” side and his “darker” side. He also
wanted them to believe that although journeys to find and keep religious faith could be arduous,
they would have a positive end result. The religious experience and its implications have become

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a theme in many heavy metal bands’ music. Heavy metal is known for not being afraid to cross
the line into blasphemy and examining the journey more closely.
One band who is associated with blasphemy in the metal world is Slayer. The group often
uses crosses on their stage and sometimes even set them on fire. What is interesting in this
example, however, is that Slayer’s singer, Tom Araya, identifies as Catholic, while guitarist
Kerry King is an atheist. Araya does not seem to see anything wrong with what they do on stage
and rather sees it as nothing more than entertainment. King however seems to do it with a more
offensive intent (Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey). The group is a very clear example of how the
secular joins with the personal in a confrontational way. By introducing religion into their music
they are analyzing the role the secular has in the personal and whether religion truly results in a
positive ending personal journey.
The tension between Araya and King’s respective beliefs can be best observed in their
song “Disciple” off of God Hates Us All. The song deals with the problem of evil: the
questioning of why God allows us to live in a world where there are things such as homicide and
drug abuse. The individual in the song is trying to get people to wake up to the fact that God
does not care about anyone as evidenced by lyrics such as, “What if there is no God would you
think the fuckin' same / Wasting your life in a leap of blind faith / Wake the fuck up can't ignore
what I say / I got my own philosophy.” King expressed that the song came from wanting to write
a more realistic song that also had a metal theme to it: “I definitely wanted to put more realism in
it, more depth. God Hates Us All isn't an anti-Christian line as much as it's an idea I think a lot of
people can relate to on a daily basis. One day you're living your life, and then you're hit by a car
or your dog dies, so you feel like, ‘God really hates me today’” (Diehl).

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What is not mentioned in the song is why the individual feels this way about God. A
deeper reading of the lyrics suggests that the singer may have been faithful at one point but
experienced enough negativity in the world to renounce their faith. The individual seems to still
feel some religious burden though: “I never said I wanted to be God's disciple / I'll never be the
one to blindly follow / I'll never be the one to bear the cross.” They sound as though they are
trying to escape some role and that they must convince themselves that they are truly free of any
internal religious struggle. Araya has brushed off the notion that God hates anyone in Metal: A
Headbanger’s Journey. He states that as a Catholic he believes it is simply not true and that it is
just a song but does not offer any real reason as to why there is no weight to it.
Although Cash never wrote anything as religiously antagonistic as “Disciple,” he did
speak often about how he felt far from God during his battles with drug addiction. He also spoke
about how things like skipping church while out touring would weigh heavily on his mind. He
felt a religious struggle that the singer in “Disciple” tries to make disappear. It is apparently
something that occurred throughout Cash’s life. As Edwards says about one of Cash’s more
personal religious projects, Gospel Road, “[I]t also incorporates Cash’s more distinctive
elements, for example, his intellectual questioning of religious bases and interpretations” (178).
The farthest Cash ever felt from God was when he attempted suicide in Nickajack Cave.
After passing out, he saw a faint light and felt God’s presence and managed to escape. Cash
considered this an important spiritual epiphany. The fact that God was there for him while he
was at his lowest seemed to indicate that God was not the kind of deity that “Disciple” makes
him out to be.
It is a spiritual epiphany that is different from the individual in “Disciple” but it seems to
come out of the same journey. Drug abuse is a test put forth by God not as a sadistic way of

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treating human beings. This is the kind of lesson that Cash would try to preach to his audience
such as the prisoners. Although they may have felt that God had forgotten them in San Quentin
or Folsom, it was God’s intention that they should learn the error of their ways and realize that
he would always be there for them. What both “Disciple” and Cash’s personal stories both show
is that faith cannot have substance unless it is brought into question. It is important to note that
the concept of genre did not get in the way of these bands examining the same issue.
Tensions BetweenFaith and Artist
Religious tensions between separate members of one band are similar to how religious
tension manifests itself in an individual artist. James Hetfield is a part of a bigger band,
Metallica, but has a deeper connection to religious struggle than any of the other band members.
Much like Cash, his experiences with religion have appeared to color most of his musical work.
He also seems to adopt an attitude similar to what was described in the Danzig section; one of a
dark and brooding loner. Hetfield has been fairly open in his admiration of Cash. He once said of
Cash, “He's speaking for the broken people — people who can't speak up or no one wants to
hear. And when you hear, ‘Hi, I'm Johnny Cash,’ that's all you need. It's him and his guitar
speaking from the heart, in black, not flashy, not anything. He's just there putting his heart out
through his music” (“Artists on Cash”).
Hetfield grew up in a home just as religious as Cash’s although his parents were strict
Christian Scientists. Hetfield suffered a fair amount of trauma and pain at his parents’ religious
beliefs. His mother died from cancer when he was in his teens since their faith forbade them
from using any form of medicine. It is at this time that Hetfield renounced any sort of religious
belief due to the loneliness his mother left him with. Hetfield’s connection to Cash seems to be

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based off of a slight misinterpretation of him which is different from how Slayer confronts the
question of religion. He sees Cash as talking about how religious struggle can be unfair but
misses that Cash moves past that into religious redemption. Cash is a personal influence in the
sense that Hetfield talks about religious beliefs and their consequences through the medium of
music therefore making the personal influence the same as the secular influence.
Although Hetfield is not a religious individual and Metallica is not a religious band, a
number of songs have been produced by the band that draw inspiration from religion. The most
notable one is perhaps “The Four Horsemen” on their debut album Kill ‘Em All. The song is a
reworking of a song written by guitarist Dave Mustaine who was fired from the band before the
record was released. The lyrical content of the song was changed to be religious which suggests
that Hetfield’s early religious upbringing had significant impact on him.
“The Four Horsemen” comes from a passage in the Bible describing the apocalypse. In
the song, they are named as Time, Pestilence, Famine, and Death which differs slightly from the
passage (the actual fourth is War). The song describes how each Horseman will end its victim
but also talks about bigger religious themes such as judgment and deliverance: “The quartet of
deliverance rides / A sinner once a sinner twice / No need for confession now”. This appears to
be a direct reference to Hetfield’s religious upbringing. His parents viewed Death as something
that was not to be fought with medicine because it would come for a person’s deliverance.
Cash also referenced the Four Horsemen, specifically in “The Man Comes Around.” The
spoken word beginning and ending are where Cash references them: “And I heard, as it were, the
noise of thunder. One of the four beasts saying, 'Come and see.' and I saw, and behold a white
horse" as well as “And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts. And I looked, and behold a
pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him." These passages

21. 21
are also from the Bible, specifically Revelation 6. The song itself does not talk about what each
individual horseman will do but does engage the same themes of judgment and deliverance that
“The Four Horsemen” does. Cash has the same tone of inevitability throughout the song that
Hetfield does in “The Four Horsemen” but in a calmer one. He does not see it as a punishment as
a result of blind faith like Hetfield does but instead sees it as God’s will and what is right.
Although Hetfield appears to identify with Cash’s struggle with faith there seems to be some
misinterpretation of that struggle in how he perceives and relates to it.
Hetfield’s perception of religion being a mindless thing to put one’s faith into seems to
culminate in Metallica’s biggest single, “Enter Sandman.” The track starts off with a typical
religious bedtime routine: “Say your prayers little one / Don’t forget my son / To include
everyone / Tuck you in, warm within / Keep you free from sin / ‘Til the Sandman he comes.”
However, it is evident from the rest of the nightmarish lyrics that Metallica does not believe that
such prayers will protect an individual from harm.
About three quarters of the way through the song there is interlude where a young boy
recites “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.” The lyrics following this interlude talk about beasts
under the bed, in the closet, and in one’s head and end with the young boy being taken off to
Neverland by what is presumed to be the Sandman. It is this sequence of events that suggests
Hetfield perceives God as the Sandman. Much like the Sandman, God puts humans through
nightmarish trials in order to prove their faith and takes them off to a sort of Neverland where
they are tried for their sins. Here is where the ties between Christianity and heavy metal began to
break. Christianity uses religious figures and the threat of hell to scare individuals into being
good. Heavy metal uses this imagery to simply scare.

22. 22
Cash had gone through what may be called a trial of faith with his drug addiction and
believed in a place where mankind would be judged for their sins. The key difference between
him and Hetfield his that he views this in a positive and rewarding light. Despite their difference
in how they perceive faith, Hetfield sees enough of himself in Cash to speak highly of him and
aspire to be him. It is interesting to note that Cash may have also seen something worthwhile in
Metallica’s music as he took his son John Carter Cash to one of their concerts willingly
(Silverman 206).
Conclusion
Looking at both the longevity of Cash’s career and the history of heavy metal it is
difficult to figure out where the similarities end even if the focus is limited to America. This is
especially true since the relationship between music and religion continues to evolve over time as
does the genre of heavy metal. With what I have examined so far one thing comes through:
genres may not in fact be as distinct as audiences think. Crossover is not uncommon in the
present and the lines between genres continue to be blurred.
As mentioned earlier, Rick Rubin was a central figure in the careers of all the artists
examined. Rubin has worked with groups of many genres and has been hailed as a great
producer by various musical institutions for his successful records. Rubin had signed Danzig and
Cash for identical reasons. Both artists were in search of creative freedom. Why did Rubin see
potential in their collaboration? It appears that he did not focus on the fact that both artists
identified as different genres but focused on their lyrical content and dark image.
It can be said that the relationship between Cash and heavy metal is not a genre one but a
lyrical one. Both relate in how religion is talked about. Cash did obscure to a certain degree the

23. 23
fact that he was a Christian man who had religious ideals. Heavy metal bands likewise do not
hide their ideals. Cash brought religion into the mainstream musical sphere and let his audience
know that the religious journey had its dark patches. Heavy metal engages with that theme and
sometimes questions whether that journey is worthwhile or true.
Although I had started out searching for a concrete connection between heavy metal and
Cash to explain why so many individuals enjoy both of them, what I discovered was a more open
exchange of influence that mirrored the relationship between the institutional and the secular.
Looking at the relationship between Cash and heavy metal without the restrictions of genre
proves to be an enlightening examination. These musicians are not as concerned with staying in a
certain genre as audiences would believe. In fact, they are willing to borrow ideas from other
genres as they see fitting to their outlook. It relates back to being able to identify with certain
parts or traits of a genre while not necessarily being concerned with the authenticity of an artist.
My grandfather was able to relate to what he saw as Cash’s struggle between faith and sin.
Similarly, I was able to identify with both heavy metal and Cash’s exploration of religious faith.
While the concrete links between Cash and American heavy metal still seem murky, my own
sense of their connections is clearer: both seek to take influence from outside sources including
religious material and artists of other genres. In doing so, both defy the genre structure and create
more fluid exchanges of influence.

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