Beginning concerts with, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,” Cash delivered his own type of music comprised of country, rock and roll, blues, folk, rockabilly, and gospel. Starting to strum guitar strings as a young child and sing gospel while picking cotton in the fields with his family, Cash knew he wanted to share his music with everyone. Gaining inspiration from his family’s economic standing, gospels and later his compassion for prisoners, Cash created successful albums including My Mother’s Hymn Book and Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, among others.

Cash supported his family as an appliance salesman, and in the evenings, he would play with the Tennessee Two. He auditioned for Sam Phillips at Sun Records, and recorded his first songs for the label, “Hey Porter” and “Cry, Cry, Cry” in 1955. Cash’s following hit recordings were Folsom Prison Blues, which made the country Top 5 and I Walk the Line, which became No. 1 on the pop charts. After leaving Sun Records, Cash signed with Columbia Records and recorded “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town.” At this point Cash’s career started to skyrocket.

Cash then debuted another hit, “Ring of Fire,” written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore. A year after he and his first wife, Vivian, divorced in ’66, he won a Grammy award for his duet with Carter for “Jackson.” After touring with June Carter for multiple years Cash proposed, and they were soon married. Cash had his own show on the ABC network from 1969 to 1971 titled, The Johnny Cash Show. With his success Johnny Cash entered the Country Music Hall of Fame as the youngest inductee at age 48 in 1980. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. After the death of his wife in 2003, Cash delivered his last concert on July 5, 2003, at the age of 71. Before the year was over Cash was laid to rest in September.

Fans of the Man in Black now have the opportunity to bid on a Johnny Cash concert poster for a 1960 concert in Toronto, Canada that is likely unique. The 14” x 22” window card on thin cardboard promotes his concert at Toronto’s Palace Pier on June 16, 1960. It features a smiling Johnny Cash wearing a western string bow tie and he is billed as “The nation’s No. 1 recording artist.” The poster also advertises the Tennessee Two, Carl Butler, Gordon Terry, Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys, and Johnny Western.

Unlike the “tour blank” Cash posters of the period, this is a one-off design, making it a notably rare piece. It is one of the most impressive early Johnny Cash concert posters, and is the only recorded example.

Hake’s Auction #246 is closing soon on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 24-25, 2026.