“Even the best of us are at least part-time bastards.”
- Mary Karr
Yesterday in the discussion about lists in songs, I included one by Rodney Crowell. Friend Chris responded with a famous list song by Johnny Cash, “I've Been Everywhere.” It got me thinking about the tie between those two men.
Maybe it's a story everybody knows, but I'm repeating it anyway. In the late 1970s, Texas born songwriter/musician, Crowell, was dating Johnny Cash's daughter, Rosanne Cash. As her new boyfriend, he met Johnny and June for the first time when the four had dinner together at the Beverly Hills Hotel. He said the Cashes treated him like royalty and the evening couldn't have gone better. A few months later, though, Rodney and Rosanne were shacking up and Mr. Cash did not approve of that. A summons was given, Rosanne and her boyfriend were to fly to the Cash's place in Jamaica for a discussion on the matter.
Rodney said that on the flights en route, he drank all the way there to steel himself for what was to come. Upon arrival, Rosanne and Johnny were soon engaged in a clenched-jaw father/daughter argument about sleeping arrangements during the visit. Rodney, bolstered with Irish courage and wanting to establish his manhood, stepped into the conversation uninvited. He told Mr. Cash that he, Rodney, would be a hypocrite if he changed his lifestyle since he was already sleeping with his Rosanne. He said Johnny Cash just kind of looked at him and said, “Son, I don't know you well enough to miss you if you were gone.”
Rodney said that sobered him up right quick and it made him a friend for life because Johnny Cash showed him what real strength was. Not long after, Rodney and Rosanne were married. They lasted 13 years. That probably exceeded anyone's expectations.
Rodney Crowell has had a long, storied musical career, too much to go into here. I will point out one side project he had that was of interest to me. Like millions of others, myself included, Crowell read author Mary Karr's memoir The Liar's Club and was blown away by her writing and storytelling. Karr's book, published in 1995, about her east Texas upbringing in, mildly put, a colorful family, won her fans far and wide and ignited a memoir explosion in the literary world.
Because of his enchantment with the book, Crowell name-checked Karr in his song Earthbound and through that reference they ended up becoming friends. Close in age, Karr, like Crowell, grew up in working class east Texas in the 1950s and 60s. Karr laughingly said they were “both raised in the ringworm belt." Because of their commonalities, Crowell approached Mary about writing some songs together. Not being a musician, she balked at the idea. He countered that because she was a writer, a poet…a person of words, she was perfect for the job. Their collaboration turned into an album called KIN: The Songs of Mary Karr and Rodney Crowell. It featured a number of different artists serving as vocalists: Norah Jones, Vince Gill, Lucinda Williams, Lee Ann Womack, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson and…Rodney Crowell.