David James: Johnny Cash
Quotes
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Johnny Cash : Saul, My only cure is solitude. Too many things work against my peace of mind. Only the desert with its purity and silence can help me now. Please tell them I sincerely regret these cancellations, but it's either cancel them, or cancel me for always... J.R.
[Original Source: Undated Letter to Saul Holiff, circa 1964]
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Johnny Cash : [On recording "Ira Hayes"] I am more full of piss and vinegar than ever. When I reach the top, I'll build another peak to climb.
[Original Source: Letter to Saul Holiff, May 23, 1964]
Johnny Cash : [On "Ira Hayes" failure to penetrate the Pop Charts] Classify me, categorize me - STIFLE me, but it won't work. This is NOT a country song."
[Original Source: TBD magazine ad]
Editor, "Close-Up" : Mr. Cash, I am disgusted with you. You think that people who listen to Country are not intelligent. I am sorry that it was good Country and Hillbilly-type music lovers who put you where you are today. I am also sorry for you, Johnny Cash, that at your age, you have never learned the old lesson, you don't bite the hand that feeds you. You have a lot to learn and may you learn it on the way down.
[Original Source: "An Open Letter To Johnny Cash," Close-Up, September, 1964]
Johnny Cash : Saul, My only cure is solitude. Too many things work against my peace of mind. Only the desert with its purity and silence can help me now. Please tell them I sincerely regret these cancellations, but it's either cancel them, or cancel me for always... J.R.
[Original Source: Letter to Saul Holiff, 1964]
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Johnny Cash : [Mutiny in Oklahoma] Dear June, By joining the whole cast to do MY show without ME, you are more than even with me for any wrong I've done. If you plan on continuing with this tour, I DEMAND that my name be removed... and I hope you'll be kind enough not to sing our duet with anyone else. I was sincere when I told your father I was going to be the man that you all would be proud of. As for Saul, I am stunned. As for you, I'm hurt worse than you've ever been. For a long time you've been my future and I was yours. It is hard to accept that you would trade this future for a two-week tour. If this is your way of dropping me, you should think about it differently. I won't be unkind about it again, but you will soon see what you have done. John.
[Original Source; Letter from Johnny Cash to June Carter and Saul Holiff; Undated 1967]
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Johnny Cash : Saul knows his job and does it perfectly. I never worry that things aren't done. He's a perfectionist. Like my dad useta say, "Whatever you're going to be, be the best in the business. Saul is the best agent in the world. I feel sorry for guys like Presley who don't have an agent like him.
[Original Source: "Want Johnny Cash? Call London, Ontario and ask for Saul Holiff;" Canadian Magazine, November, 1970]
Saul Holiff : The fact is, I couldn't find any way to justify BECOMING Johnny's manager. I thought the only way I could manage him was to come up with things that hadn't been been done before - that was part of the reason he got excited.
[Original Source: TBD]
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Johnny Cash : It seems that Saul, and everyone else, misunderstands my reason for not wanting to perform there. Every time I worked Las Vegas, the environment contributed to tearing me down. I'm not ready to come to Vegas. When I do, I intend to set the town afire, instead of letting it burn me up. I and only I will know when I am ready.
[Original Source: Johnny Cash to Joe Dale CC Saul Holiff; May 18, 1971]
Saul Holiff : We went out to do the Glen Campbell show and I pitched Johnny the idea of playing Las Vegas. We were supposed to go to Australia in March, but he cancelled that for various reasons. I suggested that now was the time to play Vegas. And he said "yes."
[Original Source: Saul Holiff Audio Diary, December 1971]
Saul Holiff : [On route to Las Vegas] "The trip I'm embarking upon has many ramifications. I'm now entering my eleventh year with Johnny. I feel a definite build-up of hostility on his part. He's challenging me endlessly, reversing himself, putting me in an embarrassing position, not advising me of different details, doing the old number on me, of keeping me guessing, making me feel as if I'm calling the shots and then suddenly pulling the rug out from underneath me again, and again, and AGAIN. I have been doing all the work I possibly can do - which is practically nothing. Seem to have lost the desire.
[Original Source: Saul's Audio Diary, March 1972]
Saul Holiff : [On returning from Las Vegas] "I don't want to be the richest man in the cemetery. I want desperately to start spending more time with my family, and I want desperately to start enjoying the things that I worked so GOD-DAMNED HARD for in 10 years, and taken such incredible abuse, and such humiliation so often. I wanna salvage my soul; he robbed it, he robbed me of my soul and now I think he's trying to save it for me - through his fundamentalist Christianity jazz. I find it VERY offensive. And here I am, inundated with it; the VERY thing that I've always objected strenuously to; so I know that the rupture is on the horizon. But if money is a security blanket, we're able to, frankly, phase down into semi-retirement, or for that matter, retirement." Stopped taking tranquillizers... started drinking again. I don't know which is worse.
[Original Source: Saul's Audio Diary, April 1972]
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Saul Holiff : I brought Johnny in to help publicize the restaurant. We didn't hit it off at ALL. That was 1958. And then I brought him back in 1959 and we had a terrible argument - a horrible argument. And I made some remark to him, that he's "just like the rest of them. And Johnny doesn't like to think of himself as the rest of them. And he suddenly recognized me as an entity rather than just some passing face in the night. I booked him on another tour. And we hit it off.
[Original Source: CFPL Radio interview 1976]
Johnny Cash : It was Saul who pushed me to take my show, and my career, to another level. I was perfectly happy where I was, doing what I loved to do and getting paid for it, but after I got to know Saul I started liking his ideas. INSTEAD of just ballrooms and dance halls around the U.S. and Canada, Saul said I should be aiming at Europe, the Orient, and big places in big cities; Carnegie Hall perhaps, the Hollywood Bowl. And that could be just the beginning.
[Original Source: "CASH: The Autobiography," by Johnny Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr HarperCollins, 1997]
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Saul Holiff : Dear Barb, The Hollywood Bowl show and the party was a success beyond my wildest imagination. The food, the view, some fine singing by Johnny... people called it the party of the year!
[Original Source: Letter Barbara Robinson, June 28, 1962]
Johnny Cash : Barbara, I feel my association with Saul these past months is the foundation for the new lease on life I have found. As a matter of fact, I know it. Not only have I begun to enjoy life but I am happy and excited about the way my career is zooming! Johnny.
[Original Source: Letter to Barbara Robinson, October 1962]
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Saul Holiff : It seems that everyone in London is aware of a conversation suggesting a discrepancy in the attendance at the show. This rumour is vicious and has already done much to malign me.
[Original Source: Letter to Johnny Cash, February 27, 1965]
Johnny Cash : Now that you have raked me over the coals, I want to tell you that you are damn sure barking up the wrong tree. Please raise hell with someone else. I've had enough for everybody.
[Original Source: Letter to Saul Holiff, March 2, 1965]
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Saul Holiff : If you are concerned about the manner in which I represent you, I would be agreeable to withdrawing as your manager, and concentrate on dates only.
[Original Source: Letter to Johnny Cash; July 9, 1965]
Johnny Cash : What do you mean, "withdraw as my manager?" I want you to represent me. Let's work together and keep phrases like that out of our conversations. Black is black. Day is day.
[Original Source: Letter to Saul Holiff; July 14, 1965]
Saul Holiff : You have never failed to let me know when I have goofed up. And now you're alleging that I signed "chits" at The Mint that came to the grand sum of $100, only to be made aware, after accusing me of such a monumental theft, that I WASN'T EVEN IN LAS VEGAS at the time.
[Original Source: Letter to Johnny Cash; August 24, 1965]
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Johnny Cash : [On being jailed in El Paso 1965] "I don't ever want out of this cell again. I just want to stay here and die. Because I'm too weak to face everyone. Knowing my family is heart broken, knowing my friends and fans are disappointed. It's more than I can reconcile with them.
[Original Source: "Man In Black," by Johnny Cash]
Various Characters : Dear Saul, I am enclosing, 1. Motion to Allow Petitioner to Leave the Continental United States While on Bond and, 2. Order Granting Permission to John R. Cash to Perform in Canada. Yours Very Truly, Woodrow Bean.
[Original Source: Telegram to Saul Holiff; October 18, 1965]
Various Characters : Saul Holiff, care of Hawaiian Hotel, Hollywood. STOP. Due to unfavourable publicity originating from El Paso, we wish to cancel the Johnny Cash performance scheduled for Texas A&M University. STOP. This is our official notice of cancellation. STOP. J. Wayne Stark, Advisor, Town Hall Committee.
[Original Source: Telegram to Saul Holiff; November 12, 1965]
Saul Holiff : I have given much consideration to the part I've played in your life. There was a period a few years back when you were completely indifferent to your career. I like to think that I helped you to channel and direct your energies back to constructive and creative effort. If this was my only service to you I feel satisfied. However, there were many times that surgical repairs had to be brought into play. I considered it my job to make such repairs. I always respected you as an individualist and a non-conformist, but I don't feel you have recognized my efforts.
[Original Source: Letter to Johnny Cash; December 21, 1965]
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Various Characters : [On being divorced by Vivian] Saul, Johnny has not secured the services of an attorney. Apparently, he is leaving this up to you. Anzac Jacobs
[Original Source: Letter from Anzac Jacobs to Saul Holiff August 19, 1966]
Johnny Cash : Dear Saul, we can get more accomplished if you fly into Nashville. I see no need for the trouble I'd find in L.A. I will sit quietly and look at every angle. Please come soon. Johnny.
[Original Source - Abridged: Telegram from Johnny Cash to Saul Holiff; September 2, 1966]
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Johnny Cash : I didn't want to die, but I'd given up. I'd accepted the fact that I was killing myself, and I was going to try to enjoy it.
[Original Source: Johnny Cash interview, The Nashville Tennessean, February 10, 2001]
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Johnny Cash : Saul, It's hell to realize that today is October 21st, 1967 and that my divorce was officially final yesterday. It was a dream comin' true that June made me hang onto for FIVE years. She's 37, and I'm almost 36. I dropped a terrible marriage, 4 sweet kids, and half my estate-thinkin' June was planning to marry me. Just yesterday she made a definitive statement-she wants to stop our life together just as it starts. I already said I'm goin' into hospital for as long as I can after this tour. But she's plannin' to ditch me next month. I've promised till I'm blue in the face that I'll act right in California. But she says she can't believe me. She knows its betrayal, but she piles up reasons for cutting our relationship off. My manhood has been insulted and debased. Now I retaliate. Sorry to put this load on you Saul, but unless there is an immediate admissal of betrayal, and an apology to me as a good man, she can't be on my show. This will definitely test June's intentions, her kindness, her goodness, as well as make her open up her heart to me, and show me whether or not she'll leave with these lies following. John.
[Original Source: Letter from Johnny Cash to Saul Holiff; October 21, 1967]
Saul Holiff : You missed $40,000 worth of dates in one year! If you continue like this, it will lead to disaster. Your solution is to cut back my commissions. I am willing to do that... but I want your cooperation in cutting your OWN expenses, and in missing NO MORE DATES."
[Original Source: Letter from Saul Holiff to Johnny Cash; October 31, 1967]
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Johnny Cash : [after proposing to June onstage] I'd never seen Saul as happy as he was that night. 'How long has it been now?' he asked me. 'Three months since I had a pill, Saul,' I said. Then he said, 'Well, I heard that proposal out there and I want to be the first to congratulate you. You've lost a lot of time in the last seven years. You need June, and she needs you. You've proven everybody wrong, including me. I thought you would be dead by now.' And I said, 'I would have been, Saul, if God hadn't saved me.' 'Reconciliation with God doesn't mean reconciliation with man,' Saul said. 'You might consider playing some shows for a couple of promoters who went broke when you cancelled out on them.' 'Arrange them,' I said.
[Original Source: "Man In Black," by Johnny Cash]
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Saul Holiff : I've kept my running up, and my weight is stable, and I'm now, going on two weeks tomorrow, without drinking any hard liquor. I've done some considerable planning for the fall, and the August and September tours are all set up and, um, emotionally, I'm somewhat confused. I'm still annoyed that I can't get my office work done; don't seem to be motivated enough, or whatever. The Sahara Tahoe date is just three weeks away, which is almost inconceivable. The kids seem to be enjoying being out of school. And I still would like to be able to get out and toss a ball around with them, just can't seem to do. I just need to re-order my priorities and get off my fat ass, and get out with the kids and do things with them, toss a ball around, get involved. Help a little bit around here. I feel guilty about it I guess.
[Original Source: Saul's Audio Diary, July 1973]
Barbara Holiff : [Lake Tahoe] June criticized Saul for being absent whenever Johnny appeared "for free" with the Billy Graham Crusade. She questioned whether he had "something against Jesus," and asked Saul if he was "only interested in money." Saul told June he considered her remark anti-Semitic. He said he shouldn't be required to attend benefits he had not arranged. And then, giving five months' notice, your father resigned.
Saul Holiff : Here I am being told that all I'm interested in is money. Now that always strikes me as hilarious because the Cashes were always interested in money. And then - this is the strangest part - there was never one ill word, not even a suggestion that I would be leaving. On the contrary, I think they had looked upon me - I'm positive of it - as a good luck charm; it had something to do with being superstitious, I know that.
[Original Source: Saul Holiff as quoted by "Johnny Cash, The Biography," by Michael Streissguth]
Johnny Cash : Saul is a great family man and one of the wisest men I know. We've grown together for 12 years and now Saul plans to turn his back on the future wealth we may have.
[Original Source: "True Star: Cash big tree of country music," London Free Press, November 5, 1973]
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Johnny Cash : Saul, There is one question that burns in our minds. Do you believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah as prophesied by the Old Testament? Do you believe in His Divinity?
[Original Source: Letter from Johnny Cash to Saul Holiff; April 28, 1975]
Saul Holiff : John, I can't honestly answer your question about Jesus. Years of sounding off about things I haven't fully investigated has resulted in a need for a mental catharsis.
[Original Source: Letter from Saul Holiff to Johnny Cash; May 20, 1975]
June Carter Cash : For Saul, Dear Lord, in your book of predestined, preordained, if it's not there - I wish you'd write down ol' Saul's name. Back when excuses had to fall it was Saul who took the call, and looked you straight in the face and followed Johnny every place, in bars, honky- tonks and ditches - ol' Saul caught the heavy pitches - and threw them back just as hard. He fought to keep John in the yard.
[Original Source: Poem June Carter Cash to Saul Holiff, December 25, 1975]
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Johnny Cash : We had long ago found an understanding friend in Saul. He had suffered much embarrassment because of some of my capers when I was on pills. But he was cool, level-headed, and always handled the most complicated of my business problems, without burdening me down with the details of what he'd gone through in straightening out some of the messes I got myself into from missing show dates. He had never relayed the embarrassing questions he must have had to answer when I'd been in trouble.
[Original Source: "Man In Black," by Johnny Cash 1975]
Saul Holiff : I would say he has all of the faults of a very successful entertainer. A big ego, uh, self-centred, self-serving, uh, I could just go on endlessly. Read "The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau" and you've got it all in one nutshell. And on the other hand, he's, um bright. He respects a job well done. He's very demanding of himself. He's a perfectionist. Uh, he's inordinately clever. He's exceptionally well read, uh, so he's, he's got qualities you can't help but respect and admire.
[Original Source: CFPL Radio interview 1976]
Johnny Cash : Saul suffered much embarrassment when I was on pills. But he was cool, level-headed, and always handled the messes I got myself into. Saul made many of the most significant moves of my career, and I owe him a lot.
[Original Source: "CASH: The Autobiography," by Johnny Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr 1997]
Johnny Cash : Saul stayed pretty well insulated from the fall-out. When I did something that left a mess-things broken, people abused, money squandered, laws broken, jail cells visited-his technique was to simply disappear.
[Original Source: "A Man Called Cash," by Steve Turner 2004]
Saul Holiff : Holiff grins and agrees: "I had one of the best disappearing acts - when I'd had enough. I just felt that there was a dignity involved and I could only go so far. And when I couldn't go any further, I just left.
[Original Source: "The Johnny Cash Connection" Country Music News, May 2007]
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Saul Holiff : It has now been twenty years since we parted company, and with the benefit of hindsight, and an awful long time to think, I realize now, more than ever, that if it hadn't been for your confidence, belief and trust in me so many years ago, I would probably still be back in London promoting hamburgers, clothes and mediocre rock and roll acts. Hope all goes well with you and your family. Sincerely, Saul.
[Original Source: Letter from Saul Holiff to Johnny Cash; October 16, 1994]
Johnny Cash : It was so nice to hear from you after all these years. We often reminisce about the years we worked together, and always know that we think well of you, and speak kindly of you. I hope we can see you again. Your friend, Johnny.
[Original Source: Letter from Johnny Cash to Saul Holiff; February 6, 1997]
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Johnny Cash : [Johnny on Saul's resignation] I don't think I wore him out-nobody did; he just had no need to keep working, so he didn't. But I certainly wasn't the easiest of clients.
[Original Source: Cash: The Autobiography with Patrick Carr]
