John Prine in front of his vanity fireplace; Photo: AP

Out of all the lyrics Johnny Cash sang during his career, there was one line he couldn’t bring himself to sing. In an interview with the Associated Press released yesterday (July 25), John Prine tells the story.

Cash is a musical legend, earning himself spots in the Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Gospel Music Halls of Fame. He played music for a living starting in the 50s, and he rock n’ rolled his way through life until his death in 2003.

But in all those years, all those shows, all those albums, there was one line he couldn’t sing ‚ it was a line from John Prine’s “Sam Stone.” Cash wanted to cover the tune, but kept stumbling over one lyric that may have conflicted with his Christian beliefs — he had converted to Christianity in the late 60s.

The line he didn’t like was:

There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes
Jesus Christ died for nothin’ I suppose

“Well, you know, it’s the heart of the song for me,” Prine remembers saying to Cash. “It’s everything, the song kind of fell out of that one line.”

Prine explains the song is all about the lack of help for veterans returning home from war.

“It just means there’s no hope,” he said. “If the veteran’s gonna come home and be treated like that and nobody’s gonna help him with his drug habit, then what’s the use in living?”

And he said he was very reluctant to let Cash change the line in his version, but he ended up giving in.

“I didn’t want to change [the lyric] myself, but I asked John if he wanted to say something about his father because it follows the line, ‘There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes,'” Prine explained. “So John just came up with, ‘Daddy must’ve heard a lot back then I suppose.'”

Prine allowed this lyric change only because the person covering the song was The Man In Black.

“And I figured, that’s Johnny Cash — all I know is he’s singing my song,” he said. “I certainly didn’t hold anything against him for doing it. As a matter of fact, I was glad he did the song. But, like I said, I probably wouldn’t change it for nobody else but him.”

You can watch the full clip below: