Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas on February 26, 1932 to Roy and Carrie Cash. The name on his birth certificate is J.R. Cash, reportedly because he parents couldn’t agree on a name. He was raised during the Great Depression. As a youth, his family took part in Roosevelt’s Dyess Colony and moved to the Delta country of Arkansas near the Mississippi River where they received 20 acres of land and a house.

Music was a part of his life from an early age. His father enjoyed singing and his mother played both the piano and the guitar. Cash was raised signing hymns from the Church of God. During his school years, he acted and sang and by age 16, his mother took in laundry to pay for his formal singing lessons.

After he graduated from high school, he worked briefly in a Fisher Body plant before joining the Air Force. Because the Air Force wouldn’t accept only initials, he chose the name “John.” He served most of his stint in Germany and was discharged in 1954. He married Vivian Liberto and moved to Memphis to begin a family.