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Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas to Ray and Carrie Cash on February 26, 1932. Named J.R. by his parents, he later changed his name to John R. Cash when he joined the Air Force, and then took the stage name Johnny Cash in 1955 when he made his first album with Sun Records. Johnny grew up as one of seven children in Dyess, Arkansas, and began working the cotton fields with his family by the age of five. Growing up during the depression in rural United States would go on to shape much of Cash's music and inspired several of the songs he wrote. In 1944, the death of his brother Jack, two years his senior, in an accident with a table saw, would forever change Cash, and would play a large role in his life and music.

Johnny was taught to sing and play guitar by his mother and a childhood friend, and began writing and playing at young age. Cash enlisted in the Unites States Airforce, and, after completing training, was stationed at the base in Landsberg, Germany. While in Air Force training, he met Vivian Liberto, whom he married on August 7, 1954, after discharge from the Air Force. Johnny and Vivian has four daughters together - Rosanne in 1955, Kathleen in 1956, Cindy in 1959, and Tara in 1961. They divorced in 1966 after repeated problems caused by Johnny's intense touring schedule and drug use.

After marrying Vivian, the couple moved to Memphis where Johnny became an appliance salesman, while playing music with Luther Perkins and Marshal Grant who were known as the Tennessee Two. Cash auditioned for Sam Philips of Sun Records, but was initially turned down because the typical gospel songs that he sang were the same generic music that could be found anywhere. However, he went back to Philips, and secured a contract by playing music in the style that later become synonymous with Cash's music. Often described as being reminiscent of a freight train, Cash's music had a distinctive, high-energy style that set him apart from the crowd. His first two singles, "Hey Porter" and "Cry, Cry, Cry" brought him moderate success, but it was his next record, "Folsom Prison Blues" that solidified Cash's career. The album made the top five, while the single "I Walk The Line" was a number one country song, and a top twenty pop song. He followed the success of that album with "Home of Blues" in 1957, becoming the first Sun Recording artist to release a full length album.

In 1958, Cash left Sun Records for Columbia, and released the single "Don't Take Your Guns to Town", which

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