I never got to meet the Man in Black, but I started playing music because of him. One of my earliest musical memories was when I would spend time with my grandparents listening to their record collection. Johnny Cash was one of their favourites, and he quickly became mine.
When I got my first guitar, I only played Johnny Cash songs. They were easy, and I could sing in the same key as him (granted, I was singing a complete octave higher). As I would dive deeper into his music, and my grandparents' record collection, I felt like I got to know Johnny personally -- which is why it hit me hard when his wife, June Carter, passed away.
She was Johnny's true love, so I wrote him a letter to express my condolences. It was the end of May in 2003, and I was about to celebrate my 13th birthday.
I knew Johnny Cash lived in Hendersonville, Tennessee, because of a biography I watched, so when I scanned through the old 45's and 33's, and I came across a "Fan Club" address in Hendersonville, I figured it would be worth a shot to send him a card and a letter.
I don't recall what I wrote in the letter -- I likely just told him how much his music meant to me, and how sorry I was for his loss. After the letter was in the mail, I completely forgot about the whole thing as the months went by.
Between May and September of 2003, I recorded my first CD. It was a collection of country classics called "Keepin' it Country." Of course I featured some Johnny Cash songs on the CD -- "Tennessee Flat Top Box" and "Big River" -- and to celebrate the album, I decided to organize a CD Release Party in my hometown hall in Glendon, Alberta.
On Friday, Sept. 12, 2003, my Mom woke me up. I didn't have to go to school that day, because I had to prepare for my big CD Release Party that night. As I awoke, my mom said, "Brett, I have some good news, and I have some bad news."
I asked for the good news first.
Mom said, "Your concert sold out this morning." (Meaning, there were 500 people coming to my CD Release Party in a community of 350 people!)
"What's the bad news?" I asked.
"Johnny Cash passed away this morning."
I cried. I felt empty. I had never really lost a family member yet, so this news really hit me hard.
I decided that I was going to do a tribute to Johnny Cash that night. I dressed all in black, and had a tribute medley ready to close out the show.
My dad, a school teacher, came home from work and went straight to the hall to help us set up chairs and prepare for the concert. He handed me a large yellow envelope that he received in the mail that day. When I opened it, I couldn't believe my eyes.
It was a signed 8x10 photo of Johnny Cash. It was a press photo from the waist up. He was, naturally, dressed in black, and his long, white hair was slicked back. He looked old. Written in a black marker, the photo read, "To Brett, Jesus First, Johnny Cash."
I don't know if he autographed that photo for me months ago, or if he signed it a few days before his passing. All I know is that I received the best gift and the most incredible keepsake I'll ever get in my life on the very same day my hero passed away.
I still love the "Man in Black", I still perform many of his songs, and I look at that framed photo every day.
Smart Musicians
Brian May -- Queen(01 of11)
Open Image ModalUnderneath Brian May's lengthy locks is a well-oiled brain. When he wasn't writing hits like 'We Will Rock You' and 'Fat Bottomed Girls' alongside Freddie Mercury in Queen, May was getting his astrophysics on. He was part way through his PhD in physics and math at Imperial College when Queen hit it big, but still went on to publish papers with titles that could double as awesome '70s song names like 'MgI Emission in the Night-Sky Spectrum' and 'A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.' (credit:ultimateclassicrock.com)
Dan Werb (left) and Paul Banwatt -- Woodhands(02 of11)
Open Image ModalWerb, who just launched the Ark Analog collab with Maylee Todd, plays keytar, sings and is a Trudeau Scholar working on his PhD in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, focusing on illicit and injection drug use as well as the effects of drug law enforcement on public health. This month he begins a postdoctoral fellowship at UC San Diego and has also been a researcher at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and co-founder of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy. (He's also a HuffPost blogger!)Woodhands drummer Paul Banwatt is hot on Werb's highly-educated heels as he works at a law firm focusing on "issues relating to disruptive technologies such as 3D printing, global health law and policy, social finance, and pharmaceutical patent litigation." That is, when not playing with his other band The Rural Alberta Advantage. (credit:madisonhouseinc.com)
Buffy Sainte Marie(03 of11)
Open Image ModalShe's Canada's original aboriginal folk singer and in the '60s she took her special brand of acoustic activism around the world and even got herself blacklisted by the White House. Meanwhile, she worked up the ranks of academia, earning a PhD in fine arts at the University of Massachusetts in 1983 to complement her other degrees in teaching and oriental philosophy. And if you weren't quite sure if you should call Buffy Sainte Marie doctor, she's also collected honorary doctorates from the University of Regina, Carleton University, the University of Western Ontario, Emily Carr University of Art & Design and the Ontario College of Art & Design. (credit:AP)
David Macklovitch -- Chromeo(04 of11)
Open Image ModalThe Montreal electrofunk duo known as Chromeo are a decidedly retro affair with their analogue synths and souped-up talkbox. But the singing half of the band, David Macklovitch, takes that penchant for yesteryear to extremes offstage. He completed his PhD in French literature at Columbia University where he focused on "theoretical writings of the first half of the Eighteenth Century, in which reading for pleasure is conceived as an autonomous notion." (credit:Getty Images)
Sterling Morrison -- The Velvet Underground(05 of11)
Open Image ModalSaid to be the forefathers (and one foremother) of punk rock, the Velvet Underground shook things up in the rock and roll world in the mid-'60s. Late guitarist Sterling Morrison actually dropped out of university during his first stint in 1964. The next year, the band was born and five years later when they were parked in New York City for the summer, Morrison completed his studies and then went on to get a PhD in medieval studies from the University of Texas, playing his last show with the band in Houston. And what exactly do you do with a doctorate in medieval studies? Why, you become a tugboat captain, at least if you're Sterling Morrison. (credit:929dave.cbslocal.com)
Dexter Holland -- The Offspring(06 of11)
Open Image ModalEpitaph Records alumni Dexter Holland fronted the Offspring but despite solid performances in both his music life and his academic life, he opted to, ahem, "keep 'em separated." He was a PhD candidate in molecular biology at the University of Southern California but ditched his studies to focus on the Offspring. But that didn't stop him from non-musical pursuits and he became a licensed pilot in 2009 and once took 10 days to fly himself around the world. (credit:Getty Images)
Mira Aroyo -- Ladytron(07 of11)
Open Image ModalThis co-frontlady of English electro-pop outfit Ladytron is the one who sings the band's Bulgarian songs but she's also fluent in molecular genetics. In 2003, she published an article in the journal 'Molecular Microbioloy' called "Species Specificity in the Activation of Xer Recombination at Dif by FtsK," which proved scientists don't need no vowels, among other things. She got her PhD at Oxford University while she worked as a research geneticist. (credit:peterguy.merseyblogs.co.uk)
Greg Graffin -- Bad Religion(08 of11)
Open Image ModalMost people know him as the lead singer of Bad Religion, a position he's held since 1979 when he was just a whippersnapper of a 15-year-old at El Camino Real High School in Southern California. But while the band went on to become skate punk icons, Graffin also maneuvered his way through academia, eventually earning a PhD in zoology at Cornell University. He also teaches students younger than his band about life, earth and space sciences at UCLA and Cornell. (credit:Tuition.io)
Dan Snaith -- Caribou(09 of11)
Open Image ModalDan Snaith, aka Caribou, is best known as a Polaris Prize-winning electronic composer and sound tinkerer but if you think there's some careful calculation behind his compositions, you're right. He's also got a PhD in mathematics from Imperial College in the UK so when he wasn't writing award-winning music, he was writing about "overconvergent Siegel modular forms from a cohomological viewpoint." Obviously. (credit:nrgm.fi)
Milo Aukerman -- The Descendents(10 of11)
Open Image ModalHis nerdy glasses are a bit of a giveaway but the Descendents frontman does a good job of hiding his biochemistry background when he sings about girls, coffee and food. But Milo really did go to college -- just like their debut record claimed -- and earned himself a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin. These days, the brainiac works as a plant researcher in Delaware and tours with the band on his vacation time. (credit:imguol.com)
Ke$ha(11 of11)
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