In February 1970, Johnny Cash wrote something for June Carter Cash that had nothing to do with fame, concerts, or life on the road. The words described a simple morning at their home in Hendersonville, Tennessee: making coffee, hearing June Carter Cash coming down the stairs, exchanging a greeting, and sitting together.
At the time, June Carter Cash was eight months pregnant with their son, John Carter Cash. The couple had been married for nearly two years, and their life together included the demands of two successful music careers.
But the writing, later known as “To June This Morning,” was about something much smaller. Johnny Cash had captured an ordinary moment with the woman Johnny Cash loved.
It would take nearly half a century for those words to become a recorded song.
A Love Poem That Found a Young Songwriter
Long before the song appeared on an album, a teenage Ruston Kelly discovered Johnny Cash’s writing in a book containing Cash memorabilia.
Ruston Kelly was around 17 years old and still in high school. The poem made such an impression that Ruston Kelly decided to write music for it.
Ruston Kelly even tried contacting John Carter Cash about the composition, but the attempted contact went unanswered.
For years, the melody remained something Ruston Kelly had created as a teenager, without an official recording or release.
Then an unexpected opportunity brought the old composition back into Ruston Kelly’s life.
The Discovery That Surprised Johnny Cash’s Son
John Carter Cash was assembling Johnny Cash: Forever Words, a project built around previously unpublished poems, letters, and other writings left behind by Johnny Cash.
The idea was to invite musicians to turn selected writings into songs, allowing listeners to experience another side of Johnny Cash’s creativity.
When John Carter Cash invited Ruston Kelly to participate, Ruston Kelly remembered the melody written years earlier and brought the original poem to John Carter Cash’s attention.
According to John Carter Cash’s later account, John Carter Cash had never seen that particular poem before.
What made the discovery especially personal was the date.
Johnny Cash had written the words in February 1970, just one month before John Carter Cash was born on March 3.
John Carter Cash later described the writing as an expression of the hope surrounding that period of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s lives. The discovery gave John Carter Cash an intimate glimpse of the household shortly before John Carter Cash’s birth.
Ruston Kelly eventually recorded the song with Kacey Musgraves, bringing Johnny Cash’s words into a new generation of country music.
The House Where Those Mornings Once Happened
For decades, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash lived in a distinctive lakeside home overlooking Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville.
The house was an important gathering place for family, friends, and fellow musicians. It also appeared in Johnny Cash’s memorable music video for “Hurt.”
June Carter Cash died in May 2003, followed by Johnny Cash in September of the same year.
On April 10, 2007, the Hendersonville home was destroyed by fire while undergoing renovations under a new owner.
Much of the structure was lost, leaving behind remnants of a place closely associated with the Cash family’s life.
Yet the words Johnny Cash had written about one quiet morning in that house had survived.
The Music Returned to the Place Where It Began
On April 6, 2018, Johnny Cash: Forever Words was released, featuring Ruston Kelly and Kacey Musgraves performing “To June This Morning.”
Four days later, the official music video arrived. Portions were filmed at the remains of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s former home beside Old Hickory Lake.
The video also included a moving introduction featuring Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. Kris Kristofferson recited Johnny Cash’s poem “Forever,” while Willie Nelson played the melody of “I Still Miss Someone.”
That introduction connected one of Johnny Cash’s late poems with words written during the early years of Johnny Cash’s marriage to June Carter Cash.
The setting added another layer of meaning. The home described in Johnny Cash’s writing no longer stood as it had in 1970, but the location remained connected to the couple’s story.
A Morning That Was Never Forgotten
There was nothing elaborate about the moment Johnny Cash chose to describe. Coffee was made. June Carter Cash came downstairs. The couple greeted each other and sat together.
Ruston Kelly’s melody and Kacey Musgraves’ voice allowed those ordinary details to be heard in a way Johnny Cash could not have anticipated when the words were written.
Almost 48 years separated that February morning from the song’s release.
The house was gone, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash were gone, but a few handwritten words about a morning together had found their way into country music history.