Rolling Stone
That Time Johnny Cash Was Arrested in Starkville, Mississippi
Wild night that inspired Cash’s “Starkville City Jail” is commemorated with a marker on the Mississippi Country Music Trail
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Jan Olofsson/Redferns/Getty Images
Before “country music outlaw” became just another outfit for would-be badasses to try on, Johnny Cash made it a job description. But among the seven arrests he accrued during his most tumultuous years, from the late 1950s to 1967, none was quite like the time he was arrested in Starkville, Mississippi while picking flowers on May 11th, 1965.
The way the Man in Black told the story of his mishap in the song “Starkville City Jail,” from his 1969 live album