What’s A Picture Worth?

Who first said, “A picture is worth a thousand words?”
He was a wise man.

Someone, a treasured fan, emailed this picture to our office this week.  I had never seen it. The note with it said it was taken in 1965 at a concert somewhere in New Jersey. If so, and I have no reason to doubt it, it would have been our first year, first months actually, with the Johnny Cash Show. At this time it was just John, June, The Tennessee Three and The Statlers.

I can attest to and confirm that this is for sure The Statler Brothers and June Carter. The extremely handsome young fellow on the far left is, of course, me. The extremely older brother next to me is Harold. Phil is easily recognizable as he has not changed in 48 years. And I say that with all honesty. He has the same amount of hair and still wears the same size jeans he wore as a sophomore in high school. But Lew was the one who struck me with the most interesting fact about the whole picture. That fact being that this was before any of us were wearing facial hair of any kind.

In just a few years after this, Harold, Lew and I would always wear some form of beard, mustache or goatee. But that was not the style yet. It was 1964, I was 19 years old and none of us yet had any wrinkles to cover up so we were clean-shaven and even baby-faced.

And then there is June. We were sort of June’s boys. She took us to fancy restaurants in the big towns. We took her to the movies with us on long winter afternoons in towns across the country and the world and it was like having your big sister with you. She paid for us to join the union, The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, in April of ’64 so we could appear on the” Tonight Show” in New York because none of the four of us had the money to do it on our own. We listened to stories about the early Opry days and Hank Williams backstage with her and then sat around dressing rooms and sang old Carter family songs we all knew. This picture is a result of all that. She had just written a song called “Tall Lover Man.” We worked it up in the wings and came out on her portion of the show and sang it with her.

I look at this picture and just can’t stop looking at it. The memories and the tears keep flooding back. I miss all those folks so much.

-DSR
July 4, 2013