Would Johnny Cash Support John McCain? Rosanne Cash Says No

It's no secret Big & Rich's John Rich is a McCain supporter, as he's written an ode to the Republican presidential candidate entitled "Raising McCain." Rich recently lumped Johnny Cash into the fan club, saying "I'm sure Johnny Cash would have been a John McCain supporter if he was still around" in an article than ran on CMT.com. Unfortunately for Rich, Rosanne Cash disagreed with Rich's assumption, saying in a statement, "It is appalling to me that people still want to invoke my father's name, five years after his death, to ascribe beliefs, ideals, values and loyalties to him that cannot possibly be determined and to try to further their own agendas by doing so. Even I would not presume to say publicly what I 'know' he thought or felt. This is especially dangerous in the case of political affiliation. It is unfair and presumptuous to use him to bolster any platform." The moral of the story is maybe Rich should stick to turning Julio Iglesias Jr. into a Nashville star rather than guessing the political leanings of dead country icons.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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