Hank Williams has one, Miles Davis has one. So do Patsy Cline, Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, and the Carter Family. Now it’s Johnny’s turn.
That’s right, Johnny Cash is going to get his own postage stamp. It’s being issued as a Forever® stamp, but the release date has not yet been announced.
According to the site Beyond the Perf–the digital outlet of the USA Philatelic catalog, which focuses on U.S. Postal Service stamps and products–the upcoming stamp is designed to resemble a 45 record sleeve. It features a photo of Cash taken by Frank Bez during the photo session for the 1963 compilation Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash.
“Ring of Fire” was, of course, one of Johnny’s signature songs, and it was cowritten by his soon-to-be-wife June Carter (along with Merle Kilgore). It stayed at Number One for seven weeks in 1963. (The song, by the way, was first recorded by June’s sister Anita Carter and sounds very different.)
USPS representative Mark Saunders told Today that two additional performing artists will get stamps this year as well, but their names have not yet been released. “We get about 40,000 suggestions for stamp ideas each year but only about 20 topics make the cut,” he explained.
Johnny Cash is a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one of only 11 artists who’ve been inducted into both halls. He died in 2003.
– Kurt Wolff, Radio.com
