Rosanne Cash on Johnny Cash statue for U.S. Capitol

After a fundraiser for the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home in northeast Arkansas on August 12, 2023, I spoke briefly with Rosanne Cash about a project to place a statue of Johnny Cash in the U.S. Capitol. I've interviewed her several times over the years. Sculptor Kevin Kresse was nearing completion of the bronze statue at that time, which will represent Arkansas, along with one of civil rights activist Daisy Bates. The concert that night featured Rosanne, John Leventhal, Rodney Crowell and Sarah Jarosz performing at the first annual Sunken Lands Songwriting Circle at Arkansas State University. The university oversaw the restoration of the farmhouse that Johnny Cash and his family had lived in.

Read more about the event here: https://hibblenradio.com/fundraiser-held-for-johnny-cash-boyhood-home/

More than a year earlier, on May 6, 2022, Rosanne Cash spoke with me on the air at Little Rock Public Radio immediately after meeting Kresse and getitng her first look at a bust of the statue: https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2022-05-07/rosanne-cash-honored-by-asu-meets-with-sculptor-of-johnny-cash-statue-for-u-s-capitol

In 2019, at the urging of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the Arkansas General Assembly considered a proposal to replace its exisiting statues in the Capitol with Cash and Bates. My report from March 7, 2019: https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2019-03-07/bill-to-place-statues-of-johnny-cash-and-daisy-bates-in-u-s-capitol-advances

On April 11, 2019, members of the Cash and Bates families joined Gov. Hutchinson for a bill signing ceremony: https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2019-04-12/legislation-to-place-statues-of-johnny-cash-daisy-bates-in-u-s-capitol-signed-into-law

Sculptors vying to make the Cash and Bates statues made presentations to members of two committees that would award the projects, with this report airing on June 9, 2021: https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2021-06-09/finalists-to-make-johnny-cash-and-daisy-bates-statues-for-u-s-capitol-present-their-visions

Sculptor Kevin Kresse was selected to make the Cash statue. He joined me on KUAR's program "Not Necessarily Nashville" on June 28, 2021 to discuss his inspiration in the project: https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2021-06-28/sculptor-discusses-inspiration-in-making-johnny-cash-statue-for-u-s-capitol

In this report from Sept. 10, 2021, the artists were making final modifications to their proposals before designs were submitted to federal officials for approval: https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2021-09-10/final-modifications-being-made-for-arkansas-statues-of-daisy-bates-and-johnny-cash

Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who had strongly backed placing statues of Cash and Bates in the U.S. Capitol, got his first look at a clay model of the Cash statue on August 4, 2022, which I was there to report on: https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/2022-08-04/gov-asa-hutchinson-sees-johnny-cash-statue-for-u-s-capitol