Ten years ago, the song “You Can’t Make Old Friends,” was recorded by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. I loved the message: ”When somebody knocks at the door, someone new walks in. I will smile and shake their hands, but you can’t make old friends.”
I’ve lost some old friends this year, including my best friend who died unexpectedly. I almost dread turning on the TV or going online in the morning. Increasingly, I will learn that someone I love, either up close or from afar, will have departed from this world.
In recent weeks, I’ve said goodbye to one of my broadcasting heroes, Bob Barker. When people ask who inspired me to talk into a microphone for a living, they always expect me to say Walter Cronkite. Well, he wasn’t shabby, but Mr. Barker made a bigger impression on me when I was a kid. Always classy, totally unflappable, and ready for anything. Those are good goals for an aspiring broadcaster. He lived to be almost 100, so I shouldn’t complain. But it was like losing a friend.
He’s not the only one. In recent weeks, Tony Bennett, Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman), Jimmy Buffett and Tina Turner are among those we have lost. They are the famous ones who touched our lives with their music and movies. Add our friends and loved ones to the list, and we now know how our parents and grandparents felt. It seemed like they were constantly going to funerals and visitations, and we figured that was an “old people” thing to do. Now, here we are.
I listen to a classic country radio station, and at least one Johnny Cash song pops up every day. It is hard to believe, but he died 20 years ago this week.
Flashing back to that sad morning of September 12, 2003, NBC’s “Today Show” responded to the sad news in a hurry. Actor John Ritter (“Three’s Company,” “8 Simple Rules”) had died unexpectedly the night before at 55, and then came the news about Johnny Cash.
Most major news operations have an “obituary piece” already prepared when a famous person dies. If that person is elderly, or has been ailing, they know the obit may be needed at any moment.
Certainly Johnny Cash’s death was somewhat expected. He had been in failing health for a number of years. He hadn’t toured since 1997 due to complications from diabetes and a neuro-degenerative disease that robbed him of his strong voice and steady hands. His wife of 35 years, June Carter Cash had helped care for him, and watched over him like a mother hen.
That’s why the real shocker involving the Cash family had occurred on May 15, 2003. June was in the hospital for heart-valve replacement surgery. With Johnny’s health problems getting so much attention, June’s condition had received little attention. There were complications, and June died following surgery. It’s generally believed Johnny was fading quickly anyway, but June’s sudden death may have accelerated Johnny’s decline. He died four months later.
As much as I enjoyed Johnny’s “Folsom Prison”/”Boy Named Sue” hits and his TV show, the most lingering image will always be the song and video that capped his career: “Hurt.”
Considered by some to be among the best music videos ever made, it was filmed in October 2002. By this time, “The Man In Black” was unable to walk, and legally blind. You see the once-strapping man in all his trembling frailty, contrasted with photos and videos from his hell-raising younger days. When it was released in February 2003, the scene that choked me up was when June was looking at her sick husband, with a mixture of love and concern. When she died just three months later, the video took on added poignancy. As is often the case in life, the caretaker did not survive the patient.
It’s hard to believe that twenty years have passed since we saw the last of Johnny Cash. According to interviews shortly before his death, he was proud of his final video. He left us something special to remember him by. That’s what old friends do.
