Fans lined up Thursday morning to be the first to own the new “Johnny Cash Forever” U.S. Postage stamp in Nashville.
Family and friends honoring his six-decade career also held a free public concert in Nashville. Country stars including The Oak Ridge Boys, Larry Gatlin, Marty Stuart, Randy Travis, The Roys, played on stage according to Billboard. Johnny Cash’s son John Carter Cash, opened the show with his father’s “Folsom Prison Blues.”
According to Fox News the 46-cent stamp features a 1963 photo of Cash shot by Frank Bez during his shoot for his album “Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash.”
Kathy Cash, one of Johnny Cash’s four daughters said, “Dad was no stranger to licking a stamp and we have the letter to prove it. Mom and Dad had a four year courtship when he was station in Germany and they wrote ten thousand letters to each other.”
Johnny Cash’s son said the stamp is unusual and that makes it appropriate for his father’s legacy.
“It just truly embodies my father’s spirit, who he was,’ John Carter Cash said. “It’s different. That’s one thing: It stands out to me as being unique. It’s very commanding when you see the stamp.”
Susan McGowan, director of Stamp Services for the U.S. Postal Services said they “hope to draw people in who might have forgotten what it feels like to get that personal piece of correspondence,” regarding the Cash Forever stamp.
Since Johnny Cash passed away in 2003 an number of movies and stories have circulated about his life, “but I can’t think of no greater honor,” said his son. “Than being remembered with a U.S. Postage Stamp. It’s amazing.”
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