J. R. Cash was born on February 26, 1932 in Kingsland, Arkansas, to Ray Cash and Carrie Cloveree (nee Rivers). He was the fourth of seven children, who were in birth order: Roy, Margaret Louise, Jack, J. R., Reba, Joanne, and Tommy (who also became a successful country artist). He was primarily of English and Scottish descent. As an adult he traced his surname to 11th-century Fife, after meeting with the then-laird of Falkland, Major Michael Crichton-Stuart.

Cash began performing concerts at prisons starting in the late 1950s. He played his first famous prison concert on January 1, 1958, at San Quentin State Prison. These performances led to a pair of highly successful live albums, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968) and Johnny Cash at San Quentin (1969). Both live albums reached number 1 on Billboard country album music and the latter crossed over to reach the top of the Billboard pop album chart. In 1969 Cash became an international hit when he eclipsed even the Beatles by selling 6.5 million albums. In comparison, the prison concerts were much more successful than his later live albums such as Strawberry Cake recorded in London and Live at Madison Square Garden, which peaked at #33 and #39 on the album charts respectively.  The Folsom Prison record was introduced by a rendition of his "Folsom Prison Blues," while the San Quentin record included the crossover hit single "A Boy Named Sue," a Shel Silverstein-penned novelty song that reached No. 1 on the country charts and No. 2 on the U.S. Top Ten pop charts. The AM versions of the latter contained profanities which were edited out of the aired version. The modern CD versions are unedited thus making them longer than the original vinyl albums, though they retain the audience reaction overdubs of the originals.  Cash performed at the Osteraker Prison in Sweden in 1972. The live album Pa Osteraker ("At Osteraker") was released in 1973. "San Quentin" was recorded with Cash replacing "San Quentin" with "Osteraker". In 1976, a further prison concert, this time at Tennessee Prison, was videotaped for TV broadcast and received a belated CD release after Cash's death as A Concert Behind Prison Walls.

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