This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. Up next,

a unique take on the life story of Johnny Cash. This story is an insider's look at the man

whose music sprung from the way he lived. Our storyteller is none other than Greg Lorry.

Lori is the pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Orange County, California, and Maui. Greg is here to tell the story from his recent

book, Johnny Cash, the redemption of an American icon. And we're telling this story because on this

day in 1932, Johnny Cash was born.

Let's take a listen.

Going back to the earliest days of my childhood, I had an awareness of Johnny Cash. One of the

reasons for that is our family is from Arkansas, not far from where Johnny's

family was raised. And my grandparents, who I live with for a number of years, because of my

mother's crazy lifestyle, she'd been married and divorced seven times and was having a lot of

boyfriends in between, between and was running around.

And so she left me with my grandparents, Charles and Stella McDaniel, who we called Daddy

Charles and Mama Stella.

So I remember as a little boy watching Johnny Cash's television show.

And I remember hearing my grandfather say to my grandmother when he'd

be reading the paper, well, Stella, your cousins in trouble again. Because Johnny had a lot of

problems early in his life. After he had his initial success, he was arrested numerous times. He never

served time in prison. He never murdered anybody. Sometimes

people think that because of lyrics from his song, such as, I shot a man in Reno just to watch

him die. Johnny never shot anyone, but he had a problem with amphetamines that he got addicted to

...