Johnny Cash, part II

I was about nine years old and I was watching the TV with my mother and father. This was in the town that I grew up in Victoria, Australia. Anyway, The Johnny Cash Show came on...the first time on Australian television. At this time I had no real concept of what music was about, or even that it particularly interested me. The show started off with Johnny Cash's back to you, silhouetted, and then he'd swing around, look into the camera, and say, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash," and then off he goes, you know, the man in black. I remember that very, very clearly, because it was the first time that I saw, what was to be the forbidden side of rock and roll. It was my first taste of the outlaw in rock music, and I suddenly took an interest in rock and roll music. Before that I was listening to the Tijuana Brass, you know, "Spanish Flea", stuff like that. I still had a child's view of music. So I guess you could say that Johnny Cash broke my cherry. What I thought at the time, as a kid in short trousers, was that I saw something evil in music, and that had a huge effect on me. So all through my life - all through my growing up, through my teens, through punk music, through the music I make now, Johnny cash has always been there.
—Nick Cave