Being the son or daughter of a celebrity seems to be a particular burden. Especially if the parent is extremely famous and if the kid goes into the same line of work.
I can’t think of anyone who has handled it better than Roseanne Cash, Johnny Cash’s daughter. The other examples that come to mind in contemporary music are Julian Lennon, Jakob Dylan and Dhani Harrison. They all have a lot of talent and they all went into the family business. While the three have had some success, Cash enjoyed the most critical acclaim.
Those are four intimidating parents, at least from the artistic and profile points of view. It’s interesting to note that Cash is the only case in which the parent and kid are different sexes. That, perhaps, makes her music a bit more differentiated and the comparisons a bit less direct.
The Wikipedia profile says that Cash is the daughter of the elder Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin. She was born in 1955 which, as the profile points out, is around the time her father was making his first recordings for Sun Records. Cash was raised by Distin and had little to do with the musical end of her father’s life until joining his road show after graduating from high school. At first, Cash handled the group’s laundry.
The two must have had interesting conversations about Cash’s experience with The Carter Family, the country music royalty into which he married.
She is not all about music. Cash studied England and drama at Vanderbilt University and acting at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Los Angeles. She has published a collection of short stories.
AllMusic’s profile covers much of the same territory, with a nice emphasis on Cash’s albums.
Above is “Sea of Heartbreak” (accompanied by husband John Leventhal) and below is “I’m Movin’ On.”
Wikipedia and AllMusic were used to write this post. Homepage photo: Ron Baker.
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