When you think of Bob Dylan, you think of him as being one of the legends of folk music. That’s the main association that comes to mind, but of course, there have been plenty of moments where he’s shown his brilliance in other genres.
You can make a case that some of Dylan’s work veers into rock territory, especially once he’d transitioned from making purely acoustic music in his early career to recording with electric instruments, something that was seen as a hugely controversial artistic decision by folk purists who demanded that he stay in his lane. Folk fans didn’t want him sullying the tradition of the genre with heavier instrumentation, and yet, he transformed the genre by doing so, so who really had the last laugh here?
However, there’s an entire period of Dylan’s work that was dedicated to and inspired by his love of country music, especially his Nashville Skyline album in 1969. Written and recorded in the city that the album takes its name from, the Kentucky hotspot is widely regarded as being the capital of country music, and for Dylan to have wormed his way in there among illustrious company who were actually deemed as country artists suggests that they had a decent amount of respect for how he approached the genre.
It wasn’t just on this album though, and Dylan displayed his love of the genre on plenty more occasions over the course of his career, particularly when he collaborated with a certain artist whom he admired greatly for his own contributions to the country music canon.
Dylan would work alongside Johnny Cash on a number of occasions, including on ‘Girl from the North Country’ on Nashville Skyline, but the two songwriters were also known for covering one another’s work, showing a mark of respect for their respective songwriting abilities. In fact, Dylan’s love of Cash ran so deep that he even anointed him as being the greatest country musician to have ever lived, and to get a compliment of this magnitude out of someone like Dylan in the first place is a form of praise in the highest order.
Referencing his work from the 1950s and ‘60s, Dylan would later look back on Cash’s output and speak volumes of it in an interview. “Johnny Cash was at that time – if not now – he was the epitome of country music, the living ultimate end,” he proclaimed. “I loved all of his gospel songs, too. And meeting him at that point was the high thrill of a lifetime.”
He’d continue to praise him on a separate occasion after Cash’s death in 2003: “I was asked to give a statement on Johnny’s passing and thought about writing a piece instead called ‘Cash Is King’ because that is the way I really feel. In plain terms, Johnny was and is the North Star; you could guide your ship by him — the greatest of the greats then and now.”
It was evident that the two of them had a close bond, but for Dylan, it was clear that Cash was more than just an inspiration to him, but almost a Christ-like figure who he worshipped and looked to for guidance on how to transform his songs. Cash has always been special, but to Dylan, he was an untouchable great.
