He was born to poor cotton farmers in Kingsland, Arkansas. From the age of five, Cash worked the cotton fields with his family, singing with them as they worked. His family's economic and personal struggles during the Great Depression inspired many of his songs, especially those about other people facing similar difficulties.

On Saturday, May 13, 1944, Cash's older brother Jack was seriously injured in a work accident. He was pulled into an unguarded table saw while cutting oak into fence posts, and was almost cut in two. Johnny and his mother both had a sense of foreboding and urged Jack to skip work and go fishing, but he insisted on working as the family needed the money. On his deathbed, Jack said he had visions of heaven and angels. Decades later, Cash spoke of looking forward to meeting his brother in heaven.

Early in his career, Cash was teasingly nicknamed "the Undertaker" by fellow artists because of his habit of wearing black clothes. He said he chose them because they were easier to keep looking clean on long tours.

He traditionally began his concerts by simply introducing himself, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash," followed by his signature song "Folsom Prison Blues". The song combines elements from two popular folk styles, the train song and the prison song, both of which Cash continued to use for the rest of his career.

Cash enlisted in the United States Air Force on July 7, 1950. After basic training, he was assigned to the 12th Radio Squadron Mobile of the U.S. Air Force Security Service at Landsberg, Germany where he worked as a Morse code operator intercepting Soviet Army transmissions.

Coming from Cash, seemingly at the end of his long struggle with life and his demons, "Hurt" took on new meaning. Never before had an artist been so willing to show their vulnerability at such a late stage in their career, but that's why Johnny Cash was Johnny Cash.

Cash toured with the Carter Family, which by this time regularly included Mother Maybelle's daughters, Anita, June, and Helen. June later recalled admiring him from afar during these tours.

On July 18, 1951, while in Air Force training, Cash met 17-year-old Italian-American Vivian Liberto at a roller skating rink in her native San Antonio. They dated for three weeks until Cash was deployed to Germany for a three-year tour. During that time, the couple exchanged hundreds of pages of love letters. On August 7, 1954, one month after his discharge, they were married at St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church in San Antonio.

He was born J.R. Cash on February 26, 1932. When he enlisted in the United States Air Force, he wasn't permitted to use initials as a first name, so he changed it to John R. Cash.

For a brief time, Johnny shared an apartment in Nashville with Waylon Jennings, who was deeply addicted to amphetamines. Cash started using the stimulants to stay awake during tours. Friends joked about his "nervousness" and erratic behavior, many ignoring the warning signs of his worsening drug addiction. Cash would later reflect: "I was taking the pills ... and then the pills started taking me."