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Interview With Jay Orr

Aired September 12, 2003 - 15:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the passing of a music legend, Johnny Cash, the Man in Black. President Bush called him an American icon whose career spanned decades and genres. Cash died early today after complications from diabetes. He was known for country but he was at the forefront of developing rock and roll, as well.
CNN's Ed Lavandera live at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. Johnny Cash a beloved man here in this town of Nashville. Here at the Country Music Hall of fame, his plaque inside draped in a black cloth this morning. Also, with red roses next to it.

Several hundred people have been coming by throughout the day paying their respects. Also signing a book that is there in front of the plaque that later will be forwarded onto the family, as well, as fans here have come to pay their respects.

We are joined by Jay Orr who's the senior music editor for the Country Music Hall of Fame, an historian, if you will, for the Hall of Fame.

It's hard to talk about Johnny Cash in two minutes, but we'll give it our best shot. What does he mean to country music?

JAY ORR, COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME: Johnny really was a pacesetter. He started with a minimalist style, instrumentation was spare. But he had a voice that was completely distinctive, you know, that gravlly rumbling voice that could be any man's voice, any woman's voice. And he sang songs about people that were oppressed, downtrodden, or songs about boys name Sue, dirty old egg-sucking dogs, welfare line Cadillacs and so forth. He songs people that could relate to.

LAVANDERA: He was born in 1932, a child of the Depression Era. How does that influence what he wrote and what he sang?

ORR: I think that shaped him significantly. I think that he himself identified with the people he was singing to with his fans. You know, songs about the Mississippi flood, songs about hoeing cotton in Arkansas were second nature to him. He had lived in that culture, and he understood people he was singing who also came from that culture.

LAVANDERA: I read today that in the '50s and '60s he had much more mainstream music. In the '70s he kind of changed, became a little more progressive. Do you agree with that (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

ORR: Well he always sort of was ready to reach out to other kinds of music. He embraced Bob Dylan early in Dylan's career and Dylan felt that passion influenced him.

He also championed writers here like Kris Kristofferson, he championed the writer Peter Letharge (ph), Mickey Newbury (ph). There were lots of song writers who didn't write in the traditional country mold that he found material from. Shel Silverstein would be another example of the.

So early on, I think he was fairly traditional. As his career went on, he became even more expansive.

LAVANDERA: Jay Orr, thank you very much. Just kind of a quick way of trying to put Johnny Cash's career into perspective here. He died midnight with his family by his side. And we are waiting word on when funeral arrangements will be made as this city prepares to pay their final respects to this country music legend -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, CNN's Ed Lavandera in Nashville

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 12, 2003 - 15:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the passing of a music legend, Johnny Cash, the Man in Black. President Bush called him an American icon whose career spanned decades and genres. Cash died early today after complications from diabetes. He was known for country but he was at the forefront of developing rock and roll, as well.
CNN's Ed Lavandera live at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. Johnny Cash a beloved man here in this town of Nashville. Here at the Country Music Hall of fame, his plaque inside draped in a black cloth this morning. Also, with red roses next to it.

Several hundred people have been coming by throughout the day paying their respects. Also signing a book that is there in front of the plaque that later will be forwarded onto the family, as well, as fans here have come to pay their respects.

We are joined by Jay Orr who's the senior music editor for the Country Music Hall of Fame, an historian, if you will, for the Hall of Fame.

It's hard to talk about Johnny Cash in two minutes, but we'll give it our best shot. What does he mean to country music?

JAY ORR, COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME: Johnny really was a pacesetter. He started with a minimalist style, instrumentation was spare. But he had a voice that was completely distinctive, you know, that gravlly rumbling voice that could be any man's voice, any woman's voice. And he sang songs about people that were oppressed, downtrodden, or songs about boys name Sue, dirty old egg-sucking dogs, welfare line Cadillacs and so forth. He songs people that could relate to.

LAVANDERA: He was born in 1932, a child of the Depression Era. How does that influence what he wrote and what he sang?

ORR: I think that shaped him significantly. I think that he himself identified with the people he was singing to with his fans. You know, songs about the Mississippi flood, songs about hoeing cotton in Arkansas were second nature to him. He had lived in that culture, and he understood people he was singing who also came from that culture.

LAVANDERA: I read today that in the '50s and '60s he had much more mainstream music. In the '70s he kind of changed, became a little more progressive. Do you agree with that (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

ORR: Well he always sort of was ready to reach out to other kinds of music. He embraced Bob Dylan early in Dylan's career and Dylan felt that passion influenced him.

He also championed writers here like Kris Kristofferson, he championed the writer Peter Letharge (ph), Mickey Newbury (ph). There were lots of song writers who didn't write in the traditional country mold that he found material from. Shel Silverstein would be another example of the.

So early on, I think he was fairly traditional. As his career went on, he became even more expansive.

LAVANDERA: Jay Orr, thank you very much. Just kind of a quick way of trying to put Johnny Cash's career into perspective here. He died midnight with his family by his side. And we are waiting word on when funeral arrangements will be made as this city prepares to pay their final respects to this country music legend -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, CNN's Ed Lavandera in Nashville

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com