Johnny Cash's Real Name: J. R. Cash

Quick answer: Johnny Cash was born J. R. Cash on February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas. The initials were his legal given name — his parents could not agree on John versus Ray — and when he enlisted in the Air Force the military required a fuller name, so he became John R. Cash. The stage name Johnny Cash followed (Johnny Cash official timeline; Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame; LOC).

Dyess and the Air Force

Cash grew up in the Dyess Colony farming community during the Depression. After high school he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, serving in Germany as a radio intercept operator. There he bought a guitar and assembled a service band. Discharged in 1954, he moved to Memphis and auditioned for Sam Phillips at Sun Records.

Sun, Columbia and the Man in Black

With the Tennessee Two (Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant) he cut early hits such as "Cry! Cry! Cry!," "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line." At Columbia he expanded into concept albums, gospel and protest material. The 1968 At Folsom Prison and 1969 At San Quentin live albums revived his career and cemented the outlaw-empathetic image. He hosted The Johnny Cash Show on ABC and became known as the Man in Black after the 1971 song that explained his dark wardrobe as solidarity with the poor and imprisoned (official site; Country Music Hall of Fame materials).

June Carter and late American Recordings

Cash married Vivian Liberto in 1954; they divorced in 1966. He married June Carter of the Carter Family in 1968; their partnership stabilized his life amid well-documented addiction struggles. June died in May 2003; Johnny died on September 12, 2003, in Nashville. His late-1990s/2000s American Recordings albums with producer Rick Rubin introduced him to a new generation; the video for "Hurt" became a cultural landmark.