Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

We've already told you the story of one of 1968's most shattering episodes, Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

If you haven't listened to it, you can find it in your podcast app.

Today, we're revisiting January 13, 1968,

the day when residents of Folsom State Prison,

murderers, rapists, drug dealers,

filed into the cafeteria for a special event.

And then he appeared.

Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.

Thank you. And then he appeared. Hello, I'm Johnny Cash. In a year of extraordinary chaotic moments, this was a hopeful one, a beat-up country

music star recording an album live at a troubled maximum security prison in California.

That album would save his career and bring national attention to the issue of prison reform.

And it began with a song about the prison blues.

Well, if they freed me from this prison, if that railroad train was mine,

I bet I'd move it on a little farther down the line. Far from Folsom Prison,

that's where I want to stay. When Johnny Cash arrived at Folsom State Prison, his career was on the

rocks. He'd had disputes with his record company, an addiction to various pills, troubles and love.

But he'd played the prison before, in 1966, at the urging of his preacher, the Reverend Floyd

Gresson.

This time he was back in the hopes of reviving his career.

He was convinced the Folsom Show held the key to his future.

On the day of the show, things were tense at the prison.

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