Johnny Cash becomes first musician honored with statue inside US Capitol

A statue depicting nation music legend Johnny Money was unveiled Tuesday morning on the U.S. Capitol, making the “Man in Black” the primary musician to have his likeness represented in Statuary Corridor.

At an unveiling ceremony in at the US Capitol Customer Heart, Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders joined over 100 members of the Money household to disclose artist Kevin Kresse’s bronze statue.

The 8-foot-tall statue depicts the “I Stroll the Line” singer along with his head barely downturned, a Bible in a single hand and the opposite on his chest. A guitar is slung over his again.

“In the present day we’ve the pleasure of recognizing — get this — the primary musician to ever be honored with a statue right here within the Capitol,” Johnson stated. “And Johnny Money is the proper particular person to be honored in that method. He was a person who embodied the American spirit in a method that few might.”

Money, a Kingsland, Ark. native, died in Nashville, Tenn., on the age of 71. All through his profession, he produced 40 years of hits, together with “Folsom Jail Blues,” “Ring of Hearth,” “A Boy Named Sue” and “Harm.”

Johnson shared that he just lately discovered, “as destiny would have it,” he’s a distant half-cousin of Money’s, becoming a member of the numerous different Money relations current for the reveal.

Rosanne Money, the daughter of Johnny Money, took the rostrum on the ceremony. “What a outstanding day,” she stated. “In my wildest desires, I couldn’t have imagined.”

“Phrases can’t come near expressing our satisfaction to see my dad accorded such a singular privilege, the primary musician in historical past to be included within the Statuary Corridor Assortment,” Money stated on behalf of the household. “I’m very cautious to not put phrases in his mouth since his passing, however on this present day, I can safely say that he would really feel that of all the numerous honors and accolades he obtained in his lifetime, that is the final word.”

“Thanks Kevin Kresse for capturing his very essence in bronze,” Rosanne Money stated. “You see this statue and you recognize that is nobody else however Johnny Money.”

A sculptor from Little Rock, Ark., Kesse has crafted two different statues of Money and different Arkansas musicians like Al Inexperienced, Glen Campbell and Levon Helm.

“On this statue, Kevin, I can truly see the ‘gravel in his intestine’ and the ‘spit in his eye,’” U.S. rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., stated later on the podium, referencing the long-lasting lyrics of “A Boy Named Sue.”

The ceremony closed with a efficiency of “I Stroll the Line” from the US Air Drive Band and the Benediction delivered by Dr. Mike Garrett, a nephew of Johnny Money.

Johnny Money, Daisy Bates statues now symbolize Arkansas in Capitol

Within the Capitol’s Nationwide Statuary Corridor Assortment, every state has the chance to donate two statues to symbolize their most notable residents.

The statue of Money joins the Capitol on behalf of his dwelling state Arkansas, which voted to exchange its two current statues in 2019, ones which have stood within the Capitol on behalf of the state for over 100 years.

The previous two statues depicted Senator James P. Clarke and Uriah Rose, a lawyer who grew to become the primary president of the American Bar Affiliation.

A statue of Daisy Bates, a civil rights activist and journalist who documented the top of segregation in Arkansas, most just lately joined the gallery on behalf of Arkansas.

, the statues of Bates and Money gained out over proposed statue concepts of Sam Walton, Walmart’s founder, and a Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan.

Audrey Gibbs is a music reporter for The Tennessean. You possibly can attain her at [email protected].

This text initially appeared on Nashville Tennessean: