On a Friday in March 1968, Johnny Cash and June Carter walked into a small Methodist church in Franklin, Kentucky, and walked out a few minutes later as husband and wife. The night before, they had won a Grammy Award.
The song that won it was not a love song. It was about a marriage that had lost its spark.
The answer to our question is “Jackson.”
A Song About a Couple Who Had Run Out of Fire
Johnny Cash and June Carter released “Jackson” on February 6, 1967. It tells the story of a husband and wife who look back on how fast they fell for each other and how little of that heat is left. He wants to head off to Jackson and have himself a time. June fires right back. She tells him to go ahead, then lets him know she will be in Jackson too, and she expects to enjoy it more than he will.
It was a marital argument set to music, and fans loved it. The record entered the Billboard country chart in March 1967 and climbed all the way to No. 2. The only thing that kept it from the top spot was Sonny James and “Need You.”
Plenty of people have wondered which Jackson the song meant. Songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler later said he never had a particular town in mind. He simply liked the sharp sound of the name. Johnny Cash, for his part, liked to joke that he was taking June to Jackson, Tennessee, to visit his old friend Carl Perkins.
Born From the Bitterest Marriage on Broadway
The song’s roots are as unlikely as its timing. In October 1962, Billy Edd Wheeler was studying at Yale when he read the script of Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a drama about a husband and wife who spend a long night tearing each other apart. That play sparked the first draft of “Jackson.”
Wheeler himself admitted the connection sounded like a stretch. Yet the bones are there: a couple, a quarrel, and two people daring each other to walk away.
Wheeler wrote the song with Jerry Leiber, the famous hitmaker behind many rock and roll classics. Leiber was credited under the name Gaby Rodgers, which was the name of his wife at the time. The Kingston Trio and Flatt and Scruggs recorded it in 1963. In 1967, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood took their own version to No. 14 on the pop chart. But for country fans, “Jackson” belonged to Johnny Cash and June Carter.
A Proposal in Front of 7,000 People
By then, the two had been touring together for years. June had joined Johnny Cash’s road show in 1962. Johnny had asked her to marry him more than once. She had always held back.
On February 22, 1968, during a concert in London, Ontario, Johnny Cash asked again, this time onstage, in front of about 7,000 people. June later admitted that having so many witnesses scared her to death, and she kept telling him to hush. But she said yes.
One Night, One Grammy, One Joke
A week later, on February 29, 1968, the 10th Annual Grammy Awards named “Jackson” the winner for Best Country & Western Performance, Duet, Trio or Group. It was the first Grammy of Johnny Cash’s career.
When he accepted the award, he made a remark that summed up the whole moment:
“This is a fine wedding present.”
He was not exaggerating. The wedding was the very next day.
Less Than Five Minutes in Franklin
Johnny Cash and June Carter did not marry in Nashville. Tennessee required a waiting period before a couple could wed. Kentucky did not. In Franklin, just across the state line, they could get a license and be married the same day.
So on March 1, 1968, they arrived in the quiet town and held the ceremony at the Methodist church on the square. It lasted less than five minutes. Merle Kilgore, who had written “Ring of Fire” with June, stood as best man. Grand Ole Opry star George Morgan sang. June’s 12-year-old daughter, Carlene Carter, was there at her mother’s side.
The couple that won a Grammy singing about a marriage gone sour had now started one of their own.
The Rest of the Story
The irony only grew with time. Their son, John Carter Cash, was born on March 3, 1970. That same year, Johnny Cash and June Carter won a second Grammy together for “If I Were a Carpenter.”
They stayed married for 35 years. June Carter Cash died on May 15, 2003. Johnny Cash followed four months later, on September 12, 2003.
In 2018, Franklin unveiled a historical marker outside the church to honor their wedding. Carlene Carter unveiled it, fifty years after she had watched her mother say “I do” inside.
“Jackson” is still a song about a couple who can barely stand each other. But every time Johnny Cash and June Carter sang it, fans knew the real story ran the other way.