Nick Lowe tells Noise11.com that the inspiration for one of the songs on his new album was his former father-in-law Johnny Cash.
In his Noise11.com interview this week, Nick talked about writing the song ‘Checkout Time’ and the opening line “I’m 61years old now, Lord I never thought I’d see 30’. “I was sitting in front of the TV one night just strumming the guitar and that little tune and those chords just came to me and I heard that line and it was kind of Johnny Cash,” he said. “I actually heard him singing it. “I’m 61 years old now”. So I wrote that song about my own mortality. It was a good line so I said “okay Johnny, if you insist I’m going this one”.
Nick Lowe says he is enjoying life in his 60s. “I feel very fortunate. I am enjoying this Indian Summer of my career,” he said.
Nick was once married to Johnny Cash’s daughter Carlene Carter “He was a wonderful man. I miss him very much and June as well. June Carter,” he said.
He says he got along well with his in-laws. “I was always very interested in asking them about people they knew, country and western music, a lot of whom were dead,” he said. “I was always interested in hearing their stories and June had some fantastic stories about her family, the Carter family. They were great listeners too. They were always interested in what I did. I didn’t think they would coming from a mundane English rock and roll band”.
Johnny liked Nick’s music as well and recorded some of his songs. “He professed to actually enjoy it and he did in fact covered a couple of my songs,” he said. “A lot of his sons-in-laws (and he had a lot of them too), he had a lot of daughters and a lot of them had multiple marriages and a lot of his sons-in-law were musicians. He was real good to them and a lot of them I wouldn’t give the time of day to because they were a real dodgy lot. The great thing about the Cash’s was once you got your feet under the table you had to do something real bad to not be welcome there”.
