In the 1960s, Johnny Cash was very busy making albums, touring, and acting in film roles. He\u00a0continued producing hit songs, such as “Ring of Fire” in 1963. He made some of his best\u00a0albums, such as\u00a0Bitter Tears<\/em>, about Native Americans. He also struggled with personal demons.\u00a0His addiction to pills would land him in jail (but never prison) several times. His\u00a0self-destructive behavior, extramarital affairs, and long absences from home resulted in a\u00a0divorce from his wife Vivian in 1966. Cash’s professional commitments and personal problems\u00a0kept him from seeing much of Arkansas in the early and mid-1960s. However, he could still put\u00a0on a good show, as he did in Little Rock in July 1965.<\/p>\n By 1968, Cash’s career was in rebound. He made his landmark At Folsom Prison<\/em> concert album in January (though the album was released in May). In February, Cash visited Dyess for his homecoming show. Mike Trimble of the Arkansas Gazette<\/em> wrote of Cash’s “downright scary voice and those steely dark eyes that bored big bullet holes in the back of,,,[the] gym…Every acne plagued rural teenager in America would like to imagine himself a man like Cash-handsome mean as hell . . . But still a good ole boy.”<\/p>\n In 1968, Cash agreed to perform at campaign rallies for Winthrop Rockefeller. Cash was\u00a0attracted by Rockefeller’s efforts to clean up the prison system. Arkansas was reeling from\u00a0prison scandals that had gained international attention earlier in the year. The public was\u00a0horrified by stories of the prisoners tortured with the Strap and the “Tucker Telephone”\u00a0(which was used to electrocute inmates).<\/p>\n Under\u00a0Rockefeller, the lash was abolished, feeding and sanitation were improved in the\u00a0prisons, and steps were taken to racially integrate the living quarters at Cummins. However,\u00a0prison scandals stayed with Rockefeller throughout his governorship. In 1970, the entire\u00a0Arkansas prison system was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge.\u00a0In 1968, Rockefeller was fighting for reelection, and he needed help. No country star was\u00a0bigger than Johnny Cash. Cash played to huge crowds throughout the state. At Fayetteville on\u00a017 September, due to bad weather, Cash’s band was separated. Cash was forced to go on stage\u00a0without his lead guitarist and his bass player. Luckily, in the crowd was a young man from\u00a0Paris, Arkansas, named Bob Wootton.<\/p>\n Wootton was a Cash fanatic then living in Oklahoma. Cash invited him to sit in and play.\u00a0Wootton knew every song, note-for-note. A few days later, Cash hired him. Wootton would play\u00a0for Cash for the next thirty years.<\/p>\n Two days after the Fayetteville concert, Cash played again for Rockefeller, this time in Harrison.\u00a0With him again was Wootton, along with the full Cash band, including rock legend Carl\u00a0Perkins. Cash, as was his custom, mingled with the crowd and “provided foot-stomping music.”\u00a0With Cash’s help, Rockefeller won reelection in November.<\/p>\n In late 1968, Cash and his wife June visited Dyess for a story for\u00a0Look<\/em>\u00a0magazine.\u00a0Cash visited his old house, which was then empty. He also wandered through the cotton fields\u00a0nearby. Not until after Cash’s death would his boyhood home be restored.<\/p>\n In 1969, Cash was at the height of his career. He was the biggest country star in the world, selling more albums than the Beatles. In March, Cash also appeared in the documentary film, The Man, His World, His Music, which included footage of Cash visiting Dyess to see the family house. It also featured Cash visiting some of the friends and neighbors that he grew up with in Dyess.<\/p>\n\n\t\tSupport of Rockefeller\n\t<\/h3>\n\t
\n\t\tDyess in the Spotlight\n\t<\/h3>\n\t
\n\t\tCummins Prison Concert\n\t<\/h3>\n\t