- 19 hours ago
It's no surprise that the only child of two of music's most iconic and beloved musicians would become so revered in the industry himself. Grammy-winning producer John Carter Cash has just released his long-awaited full-length album Pineapple John . An exploration of love, loss, redemption, and self-discovery, it's filled with contemporary folk and timeless storytelling. And just as the fruit itself; this Pineapple too, is good for your heart and soul. The album features performances from some of country music's most talented artists such as Marty Stuart, Clare Bowen, and Brandon Robert Young. Cash's daughter A.B. Cash also joins her father on background vocals, as well as his nephew Thomas Gabriel, each artist adding their unique touch to these sweet tracks. Cash has produced hundreds of recordings for dozens of other artists within the past 25 years, a diverse roster that includes Loretta Lynn, Elvis Costello, Jamey Johnson, Chris Cornell, George Jones, Jewel, Mavis Staples, Brooks & Dunn, Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson, Norman and Nancy Blake, Marty Stuart, Carrie Underwood, Tanya Tucker, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Rosanne Cash, John Cowan, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Carlene Carter, Reba McEntire, and John Prine. A two-time Grammy Award winner, Cash has also contributed to an additional six Grammy-winning projects as a producer, writer, or collaborator--underscoring his long-standing impact on American music.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hey there, this is John Crowder Cash. You're watching Life Minute TV.
00:05Pineapple John, he finds it easy to carry on.
00:11It's no surprise that the only child of two of music's most iconic and beloved musicians
00:16would become so revered in the industry himself.
00:19It's no of the sad.
00:27Producing for dozens on a diverse roster that includes Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn,
00:32Carrie Underwood, Chris Cornell, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Chris Christofferson, just to name a few.
00:39Now Grammy-winning producer John Carter Cash has just released his long-awaited full-length album,
00:44Pineapple John, an exploration of love, loss, redemption, and self-discovery filled with
00:51contemporary folk and timeless storytelling. He sat down with me recently to tell me all about it
00:56and more. This is a Life Minute with John Carter Cash. Pineapple John, tell us about the name first.
01:05My friends used to call me Colonel Pineapple. Granted, by the governor of Tennessee back in the 1970s,
01:13made a colonel by the state of Tennessee. And some of my friends would joke and call me Colonel Pineapple.
01:20And it was around the coronavirus time, maybe like June after coronavirus, maybe July.
01:27My son Jack was in the car with me and we were driving around and he made up this sort of beat.
01:33He was like beating on the car or something. And I just said, Pineapple John,
01:37I said, easy to carry on. And so it just went from there. It just became this whole story in my head.
01:43I actually put together and sort of wrote a story, even though you won't find the story in the album.
01:48There is something behind it anyway, a vision behind it. It was just a wonderful way to express
01:54creativity in music, the whole project. And I think I got sort of lost in the creative world of this
01:59character. Humor, a lot of humor in the story. The one song, Sleeping With The Mermaid, is a lot of fun.
02:06Who, who, who's been sleeping with the mermaid?
02:11There's some more up-tempo, happy songs, you know, and then there's heavier, deeper things like ocean calling.
02:17I can hear the ocean calling me.
02:21It's just an offering and an array of music also that I love and that I feel like sort of was part of the story.
02:29I did a version of a song called The Ballad of Spider John by Willis Allen Ramsey.
02:34Spider John with a loaded hand, taking ransom.
02:40It just seems to fit the story. I did a couple other covers that are there. I did a James Taylor song, but mostly it's all original composition for the most part, you know, something like three or four songs.
02:52But yeah, there are going to be more music videos that will be coming out. Still putting my finger around exactly the way the Pineapple John video is going to be, but still working on that.
03:02So at least a couple more music videos.
03:04Excellent. It had a little bit of a Jimmy Buffett vibe to it.
03:07Yeah, it is. It's in there. And I, you know, I spent a lot of time in Jamaica growing up, you know, so I was surrounded with Calypso music when I was young and the musicianship that's on the album that the players on there are some of the best in Nashville, you know, but the percussion of Sambaco is a great percussionist and he plays steel drums and marimba and all these different things.
03:31And then Justin Johnson plays 12 string guitar and lots of songs. Wonderful musicianship. Mike Rojas, keyboard player, one of the best players in Nashville right now, is all over the album. Tony Harrell also playing piano on something.
03:45But anyway, I had a chance to work with some master musicians on this project.
03:49How does it all come together for you? I mean, obviously you're a product of two music legends. What comes first for you?
03:59It's creativity and it's love for music. You know, it's got to be something that I'm having fun with or I won't do it.
04:06I mean, that's the business that I'm in. My father's a producer, Jack Clement, for years. He would say, we're in the business of fun.
04:13I can't forget that it takes three minutes to make a hit, you know. If we're having fun, the audience listening will have fun too.
04:19And so that's what it's about. It's about enjoying what I'm doing creatively. And this whole project was a matter of that.
04:26It was just a, it was a treatment in life of how to be free and find the spirit and hope.
04:31A lot of hope in this project too. I think my other works, it's almost like I purposefully went in multi-genre directions that were just sort of all over the place in my other albums.
04:43And I think Family Secret was, it had punk and metal and folk and an old time gospel.
04:50This is a more, even though there's a lot of genres in Pineapple Genres, I guess you'd say,
04:55it is more coherent in that it's more like a cross between Calypso and prog rock, like Pink Floyd or something.
05:03Right. But it's a specific style of music. And so I think it's more cohesive than my other albums.
05:09I think my other records, and I put out like an album every 10 years or something. Right.
05:12I mean, it's my joy to make music that will always be that way.
05:15But I don't know. I think this one is, it's definitely my favorite record that I've ever done.
05:21Did you always know you were musically inclined?
05:23Oh, yeah. I always knew I was going to do music. You know, I mean, I was on stage with my parents
05:29from when I was three years old. It's just part of my life. You know, I sing on stage with my mom and dad
05:35at the end of the shows for years. And then starting when I was 10 years old, I did a little, you know,
05:41three songs set myself throughout all the shows that my dad did, that I worked with my father on.
05:46So I never knew at a time that I wasn't involved in music. I don't know that I'm, I'm persistent.
05:52I don't know that I'm a master musician, but I do know music. I've studied it long enough,
05:56been a part of it long enough to where I feel like I know music. You know, and I can play along
06:00with most anybody who's playing a song without having to look at sheet music or anything.
06:04I've always been surrounded by music. So there's never been a time that I didn't have it in my life.
06:09I saw you once with your family in Atlantic City.
06:13Wow.
06:14Yeah, it was wonderful. The whole family played. It must have been at least 30 years ago.
06:20Well, that retired from the road in 98, pretty much. 97, 98.
06:25But it was amazing. I have to ask you, what was it like being the only child of two music legends?
06:35I don't, you know, I don't have anything to compare it to. It's really, it's all I've ever known.
06:39My parents were good people that they were, they were down to earth. You know, I can't relate it to
06:44anything, but, but we, you know, because it's my only life I've ever known, but, but it's my parents
06:51travel. That was a blessing to be able to do that. They were very open-minded. They let me follow my
06:58dreams and do what I wanted to do with my life. They didn't try to push anything on me specifically.
07:03Like you needed to go this way. You need to do this or that. They let me sort of go my own path.
07:08Let me make my own mistakes for sure. They were very passive. They were on my side and they had
07:13a world of love. They really did. Maybe they should have been a little tougher on me sometimes.
07:19Nah, I think they did. All right. What were the biggest lessons you learned for them?
07:23Oh, persistence. Yeah. It had to be carry on in the face of adversary, you know,
07:28even in the face of infirmity that you don't give up, that you keep going. And sometimes for me,
07:33it's like, you know, if I can get up and it's like, some days are diamonds, some days are stones.
07:38If I can get one thing accomplished in a day, then I feel like I'm doing good sometimes,
07:42you know, because, you know, life is up and life is down, you know, and I've been on all sides of it.
07:47I've struggled with everything in life and I, you know, but here I am. And so I'm,
07:51I'm really grateful. As my mother would say, I keep pressing on. And so I learned that from them,
07:56endurance, you know, and to follow what your joy is, you know, do what you love.
08:03I love it. So good. And you mentioned your influences a little bit. What were they growing up?
08:09Well, I mean, a car family, when I was young, I listened to that music, you know, I listened to
08:15Lynn Campbell and my set in my teens. You know, even when I was 12, I was still listening to some
08:21of that stuff, Lynn Campbell, John Denver. By the time I was 13 or 14, I listened to heavy metal.
08:26That was, that was all I listened to. I listened to ACDC, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden.
08:32I was a metalhead, Judas Priest, you know, I was the kid that wore the leather jacket to the,
08:38to the Christian school and, you know, we're off to the side of the room. That was me.
08:44I was always different, but yeah, you know, I, you know, I listened to a lot of hard rock and then
08:49later on, I opened my influences a lot to more of the classic rock, you know, Pink Floyd,
08:54great influencer, Pink Floyd. So influences from songwriters, everybody from Dan Fogelberg or
09:00Jimmy Buffett, all across the board. James Taylor, great influence from James Taylor early on.
09:06I don't sound anything like any of those guys really, but hey, I am what I am.
09:11What makes you so good. And you've produced for so many greats too. Tell us about that.
09:17Well, I produced a lot of music for Loretta Lynn, co-produced with her daughter, Patsy Lynn Russell.
09:22Last, there were five albums worth of material that I did with Loretta Lynn in the latter part of her life.
09:28And that was a great honor. I actually recorded more with her than I have any other artist in my career.
09:34You know, my wife, Anna Christina Cash, I do a lot of work with her. She's a great artist.
09:38I've been producing music on her for a while now.
09:41But yeah, I mean, I've produced a lot of folks down the line, everybody from Chris Cornell to,
09:46you know, Willie Nelson.
09:48Wow, I didn't know that. I didn't know you did Chris Cornell.
09:51There's a project that I did called Forever Words that were my father's poems with no music attached
09:58that musicians added music to. Check out the song that Chris did on that project.
10:03Forever Words project itself is like 36 songs or something. Yeah, very powerful.
10:15And you've written books as well, children's books and...
10:19He's a novel and a cookbook.
10:21Amazing.
10:22And I'm just beginning to work on my memoirs. I have somebody helping me with it.
10:27And she's cursing me because I'm not following through.
10:30But I just feel like I have a whole lot more of life I want to try to figure out before I
10:36put that book out. So I am working on a bit more of it.
10:40Yeah. What other things do you want to do that you haven't done yet?
10:43Oh, gosh. I think having seen as much of the world as I've seen and haven't experienced as much
10:49as I have, it just lets me know that I've barely done anything.
10:53I think the more that I see, the more I realize, the less I'll ever get to achieve.
10:58I hope to see more of the world. I hope to watch my children go through life and grow up
11:04and hope to see my daughter, who's now eight years old, get married, have children if that's
11:12what she wants to do. I want to see my son, James, graduate from college.
11:16I want to, it's family things that are the most important to me, you know, beyond what
11:23I have seen and journey into the world. If I get the chance to travel, if not, then I'll
11:28find the joy at home. And I also paint. I'm a painter. I do abstract art.
11:34Wow. Amazing. So many gifts. Do you ever think, oh, I got this from my dad and this from my
11:40mom? Are there any little things that, any of those talents that you can attribute from
11:45one parent?
11:46All the bad stuff. Yeah.
11:50Yeah. You know, I mean, I do have a lot of my dad's character traits. I do. I can be stubborn
11:55and just seeing things my own way. And he was that way sometimes, but they were very loving,
12:00forgiving people. I can be very loving, forgiving. That's what I'm saying. So I got, I got some
12:06of the good and some of the bad. I'm grateful. I will continue to be creative. I will continue
12:11not to pay attention to any of the rules and barely notice I'm breaking them, you know,
12:15with my own. And I may suffer from that sometimes. I may lose or gain followers or whatever. I
12:21don't care. I just got to be myself. I believe what I believe and I can hope for the only things
12:26that I can hope for. So keep it free, keep it true and hang loose and carry on.
12:31I love it. It's fantastic. I don't want to let you go because I'm a
12:36afraid I'm going to think, darn, why didn't I ask him that? Well, you're as wonderful as I
12:41imagined you would be. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time. Congratulations with
12:48everything. And I look forward to seeing what's next. To hear more of this interview, visit our
12:54podcast, Life Minute TV on iTunes and all streaming podcast platforms.
Recommended
2:00
|
Up next
4:51
4:31
4:33
6:31
6:04
4:57
3:51
4:18
3:07
4:07
5:56
Be the first to comment