Johnny Cash's Final Duet With Daughter Before His Passing

Aug 21, 2021

Johnny Cash was an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor who came from humble beginnings and is now considered one of the greatest musical artists of all time. Johnny was also referred to as "The Man in Black" for his song and signature all-black stage attire. Some of the artist's most popular hits are "I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire," and "Folsom Prison Blues." Thanks to those hits, the late musician has sold more than 90 million records worldwide since he came onto the scene in the early 1950s.

After living an extraordinary life full of career successes and personal triumphs, Johnny was diagnosed with diabetes while he was in his 60s. The disease and its complications would go on to take his life on Sept. 12, 2003 at the age of 71.

But right up until Johnny’s passing, he continued to release music and perform. In 2000, he released the album “American III: Solitary Man,” followed by “American IV: The Man Comes Around” in 2002. Despite his illness and deteriorating health, Johnny received praise for his work, even winning a Grammy for the “Hurt” music video. Among one of Johnny’s final tracks was a duet with his daughter, Rosanne Cash, which came out on her album “Rules of Travel” in March 2003. A half year later and Johnny was gone.

Because the “Rules of Travel” duet, “September When It Comes,” is one of Johnny’s last recordings, it has earned a place among the great musician’s many memorable songs.

The track, as Spin Magazine described it their December 2003 issue, is Rosanne’s “lovely elegy for both her childhood and Johnny.” And given the emotional lyrics, it’s easy to see why. 

“There's a cross above the baby's bed, / a savior in her dreams. / But she was not delivered then, / and the baby became me. / There's a light inside the darkened room, / a footstep on the stair. / A door that I forever close, / to leave those memories there,” Roseanne sings in the song’s opening.

“I plan to crawl outside these walls, / close my eyes and see. And fall into the heart and arms, of those who wait for me,” Johnny sings later in the track.

“At every level, ‘Rules of Travel’ distinguishes itself. A latecomer to songwriting, Rosanne Cash delivers plenty of compelling material, fully comparable in quality to the album's two non-original cuts,” Robert L. Doerschuk writes in his AllMusic review of the album.

“On ‘September When It Comes,’ she switches to a more homespun, folkloric imagery that suits her father's weathered, timeless rumble,” Doerschuk adds, commending Roseanne on the album’s production.

The song’s somber lyrics are especially poignant because Johnny passed away just months after the track was released, making this his final duet with his daughter.

According to the Irish Examiner, Johnny died due to complications with diabetes, which he had been fighting for the last few years of his life. First, doctors diagnosed the musician with Shy-Drager’s syndrome, though doctors later amended their assessment. Rather, Johnny dealt with a number of complications as a result of his diabetes, including autonomic neuropathy and pneumonia.

According to a piece in the Oregonian, Rosanne’s husband, John Leventhal, was the one who came up with the idea of the duet during Johny’s years of failing health. But Roseanne demurred, saying no to her husband twice. But Leventhal, who actually wrote the track’s melody, was persistent, and eventually Roseanne relented. She then flew to Nashville, where Johnny had a small recording studio, to record what would become one of his last songs.

"As he learned the song, he got stronger with every take," Rosanne writes of the experience in her 2010 memoir "Composed." "I stood listening on the other side of the glass of the vocal booth, tears rolling down my face at the beauty of his performance."

Writing for the Oregonian, Jeff Baker has nothing but praise for the track.

“The lyric shows an amazing sensitivity to aging and death, to the understanding that a legend is still a man, and to how a daughter can grow up in her father's shadow and find her way to the sun and to a mature relationship with him,” Baker writes. “If ‘September When It Comes’ was Rosanne Cash's last word on Johnny Cash, and if all the other songs she's written were her artistic legacy, it would be more than enough.”

But since “Rules of Travel” came out in 2003, Roseanne has been hard at work. In 2018, she released her most recent album, “She Remembers Everything,” which features a song that received a Grammy nomination for Best American Roots Song. Rolling Stone described the album as a "master class in channeling life into song.” While Johnny is not around to see her success, he would likely be proud.

What do you think of Johnny’s final duet with his daughter? What’s your favorite Johnny Cash song? Let us know — and pass this emotional track on to others.