Mike Garrett alerted me to a recent interview of Rosanne Cash, Johnny Cash’s daughter, at Garden & Gun. Towards the end of the interview she is asked about her favorite memories of her dad, and I was taken with the place of the Psalms. Here is that part of the interview:

Your dad has been gone ten years now. What’s one of your favorite memories?

When his eyesight was about gone, I would read the Bible to him, mostly the Psalms and the Book of Job. He loved it because he was such a great reader his whole life, and he couldn’t read anymore. His books were all around him in his study, and I remember he said, “This is a room full of regrets now.” It just broke my heart. So I would go down to Nashville and read to him, and then I would read to him on the phone when I was back in New York. One time, we had arranged a phone time to read the Psalms, and I was up at my country house in upstate New York. I looked all around, and I had no Bible. I went, “Oh, my God, he’s going to be so disappointed.” And he called, and I said, “Dad, I don’t have a Bible. I only have Shakespeare.” He went, “Hmmm, Shakespeare, huh? Let’s just let it go until you get back to the city.” [Laughter.]