NARRATIVE: I’m old enough to remember watching "The Johnny Cash Show" on our black and white TV set as a boy and hearing his country music for the first time. His music stuck in my mind as the songs were easy to remember. Johnny Cash, "The Man in Black," was a striking presence and he was famous way before I became conscious of him in the 60s. I was a fan of "He-Haw" as well.

Back in 1981, I took a road trip across the western states by myself to “See America” and by then country music was a distant memory for me, replaced by Led Zepplin and Tower of Power. But a funny thing happened when I left California and found myself in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. I could find nothing but country music on my car radio. Traveling long, lonely stretches on Highway 40, I could not get radio reception so, at the next gas station, I decided to get some cassette tapes to play. All I could find were tapes by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, George Jones, etc. I bought several Cash cassettes, mainly because I was familiar with him. For two weeks, I listened to Johnny Cash non-stop. "I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire" and "Life Goes On" were just some of the songs I heard repeatedly and they fit so well with the rugged, wild land I was experiencing.

Cash captured the spirit of the working man of America and his daily struggles. He struggled with drugs, booze and women (prime country music material), but by the time he married June Carter he was on the right path. She is the author of "Ring of Fire," the song that inspired my painting. The roses on fire seemed a fitting metaphor for a dangerous love affair.