Johnny Cash Trivia
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47 free Johnny Cash trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
45 free Johnny Cash trivia questions with answers. Johnny Cash was a cotton farmer's son, an Air Force Morse-code operator who may have been the first American to hear of Stalin's death, a Sun Records labelmate of Elvis, and the only performer besides Elvis in both the Country and Rock and Roll halls of fame. This quiz follows the whole arc: the Tennessee Two and the dollar bill in the guitar neck, the prison albums, the proposal to June Carter on stage in Ontario, the ABC show at the Ryman, the Nixon set-list standoff, the Highwaymen, the ostrich, and the Rick Rubin comeback that ended with 'Hurt'. Early questions suit any radio listener (which state he was born in, who wrote 'A Boy Named Sue'). Later ones are for the faithful: which Swedish prison he recorded at, which Bee Gee bought his house, and what got named after him near Folsom in 2015. Good for a country-music quiz night or a Walk the Line watch party. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Cash, his albums and the people around him, and each question shows its source. No lyrics are quoted, so nothing here spoils the songs.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What nickname did Cash earn from his trademark stage wardrobe?
The Man in Black
The Man in Black explained itself in his 1971 song 'Man in Black': he said he wore black on behalf of the poor and the imprisoned.
Q 02Johnny Cash was born in 1932 to poor cotton farmers in which state?
Arkansas
Arkansas-born, Cash was named only by the initials J.R. because his parents couldn't agree on a first name; he began using John when he joined the Air Force.
Q 03Cash spent much of his four years in the US Air Force in West Germany doing what job?
Intercepting Soviet Morse code
Intercepting Soviet Morse code, he is said to have been one of the first Americans to hear that Stalin had died; he also formed his first band there.
Q 04Which label and producer first signed Johnny Cash, after turning down the sacred songs he auditioned with?
Sun Records and Sam Phillips
Sun Records and Sam Phillips asked for one more song, so Cash wrote 'Cry, Cry, Cry' overnight, and it shared his first single with 'Hey Porter'.
Q 05Guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant, Cash's original backing duo, were known as what?
The Tennessee Two
With a drummer added they became the Tennessee Three, who backed him at Folsom and San Quentin.
Q 06What is the December 1956 jam session of Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis known as?
The Million Dollar Quartet
The Million Dollar Quartet was never a planned session, but the studio recorded it anyway, and the recordings were later released under that name.
Q 07Which animated series had Johnny Cash voice a coyote spirit guide in a 1997 episode?
The Simpsons
The Simpsons cast him as the Space Coyote, who appears when Homer hallucinates after eating insanity peppers at a chili cook-off.
Q 08Cash closed both of his 1968 Folsom Prison shows with 'Greystone Chapel', a song written by whom?
An inmate
An inmate, Glen Sherley, wrote it; a preacher who counselled Folsom prisoners passed his recording to Cash, who learned it just before the concert.
Q 09Why was Johnny Cash arrested for trespassing in Starkville, Mississippi, in 1965?
He was picking flowers
He was picking flowers on private property late at night, and he later turned the arrest into the song 'Starkville City Jail'.
Q 10Which children's author and cartoonist wrote 'A Boy Named Sue'?
Shel Silverstein
Shel Silverstein is said to have drawn on his friend Jean Shepherd, who complained that growing up with a woman's name was hard.
Q 11Cash's early 'boom-chicka-boom' band sound is often likened to what?
A freight train
A freight train was the image: guitarist Luther Perkins muted his strings with his palm while bassist Marshall Grant slapped an upright bass.
Q 12Cash's 1964 concept album Bitter Tears was devoted to the plight of which group?
Native Americans
Native Americans were its subject; when radio shunned its single 'The Ballad of Ira Hayes', Cash bought a full-page Billboard ad calling DJs gutless.
Q 13A 1965 fire on a Johnny Cash fishing trip scorched a national forest, driving off which endangered birds?
California condors
Q 21In the 1976 novelty hit 'One Piece at a Time', a worker smuggles parts to build which car?
A Cadillac
A Cadillac pieced together from years of smuggled parts ends up a mismatched mix of model years, and the song was Cash's last solo No. 1 country hit.
Q 22On his 1994 album American Recordings, Johnny Cash was accompanied by what?
An acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar was his only accompaniment, and the stripped-back album sparked a career revival that won Cash a new audience.
Q 23Johnny Cash's 1996 album Unchained was recorded with which backing band?
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
California condors fled the area; the federal government sued Cash, who insisted his truck, not he, had started it.
Q 14Where did Cash propose to June Carter in 1968?
On stage in London, Ontario
On stage in London, Ontario, he asked mid-concert, and June, who had helped him get off drugs, married him that March in Kentucky.
Q 15The Johnny Cash Show, which ran on ABC from 1969 to 1971, was staged at which Nashville venue?
The Ryman Auditorium
The Ryman Auditorium hosted the tapings, and Cash overrode ABC's nerves to book Pete Seeger, whose anti-war song had caused a firestorm elsewhere.
Q 16In 1965, Johnny Cash used a microphone stand to smash what at the Grand Ole Opry?
The stage lights
The stage lights broke, and the Opry told him it would not be needing his services any longer.
Q 17Which evangelist's friendship led Johnny Cash to make his film Gospel Road?
Billy Graham
Billy Graham was a longtime friend, and Cash and his wife June went on to make the film about the life of Christ themselves.
Q 18At 48 in 1980, Cash tied the record for youngest inductee into which institution?
The Country Music Hall of Fame
The Country Music Hall of Fame inducted him in 1980, and a year later he joined Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis onstage in Stuttgart for the live album The Survivors.
Q 19Which Jimmy Webb song gave its name to the 1980s country supergroup Cash formed with three other stars?
Highwayman
Highwayman had already been recorded by Glen Campbell, and their 1985 version went to No. 1 on the country chart.
Q 20Cash relapsed into painkiller addiction in 1983 after an abdominal injury caused by which animal on his farm?
An ostrich
An ostrich kicked him, crushing ribs and tearing open his stomach, and he later checked into the Betty Ford Center.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers kept working with him, and Cash later covered Petty's I Won't Back Down on American III: Solitary Man.
Q 24Cash's acclaimed late cover 'Hurt' was originally written by which musician for Nine Inch Nails?
Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor at first thought the cover idea sounded gimmicky, but after watching the video he said the song wasn't his anymore.
Q 25Which two other rock songs did Cash cover in his final years, alongside 'Hurt'?
'Rusty Cage' and 'Personal Jesus'
'Rusty Cage' and 'Personal Jesus' came from Soundgarden and Depeche Mode, and Cash called the latter a fine evangelical song, though he doubted it was written as one.
Q 26Cash's ex-wife Vivian Liberto met him in 1951 at what kind of venue in San Antonio?
A roller-skating rink
A roller-skating rink was where they met just before he was posted overseas, and a courtship by letter led to their 1954 marriage.
Q 27Which brother's death in a table-saw accident when Johnny Cash was 12 haunted him for life?
Jack
Jack, the older brother Cash said he always wanted to be like, died of his wounds about a week after being pulled into the saw.
Q 28Which of Cash's hits was first recorded by June Carter's sister Anita, under a slightly longer title?
Ring of Fire
Ring of Fire began as Anita's '(Love's) Ring of Fire', and Cash said he dreamed of it with Mexican horns, hence his mariachi arrangement.
Q 29Who starred as Johnny Cash in the 2005 biopic Walk the Line?
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Phoenix did his own singing, and the soundtrack built largely on his vocals won him a Grammy.
Q 30What did Reese Witherspoon win for playing June Carter in Walk the Line?
The Oscar for Best Actress
The Oscar for Best Actress rewarded a role in which she sang all of June's songs herself, though she had never sung professionally.