60 Years Ago: Johnny Cash Calls Out Country Radio Over Ira Hayes

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The iconic black-and-white photo of Johnny Cash flipping the bird at the camera wasn’t really well-known to the public, and most certainly wasn’t making it onto T-shirts at Hot Topic until Rick Rubin and The Man in Black took out an advertisement in Billboard magazine in 1998.

The middle finger photo itself was shot at Johnny Cash’s 1969 concert at California’s San Quentin prison by photographer Jim Marshall, who took many of the iconic photos of rock stars in the 60s and 70s. The pose was the result of Johnny Cash’s response to Jim Marshall’s request: “John, let’s do a shot for the warden.” Marshall said later it was “probably the most ripped off photograph in the history of the world.”

At the 40th Annual Grammy Awards held on February 25, 1998 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, Johnny Cash stunned the country world when he won for Best Country Album over Alan Jackson, George Strait, Dwight Yoakam, and Patty Loveless for his Rick Rubin-produced album Unchained. It was like a shot right across the bow of the country music industry. But Rick Rubin was not done.

Riding high off the victory, Rick Rubin pulled out $20,000 in 1998 money, and placed a full page ad in the Billboard issue that went to stands on March 14th, 1998. This was where the world was exposed to Johnny Cash’s notorious middle finger photo snapped by Jim Marshall, accompanied with the sarcastic caption, “American Recordings and Johnny Cash would like to acknowledge the Nashville music establishment and country radio for your support,” and a note about Unchained winning the Grammy for Best Country Album.



The ad definitely got the attention of the music world, and became a story all unto itself. “We hope it will open the eyes of the country community and hopefully they’ll say, ‘The guy did win.’ And he’s making records considered the best in country and maybe we should readdress the situation,” said Rick Rubin at the time.

In 2003, country music finally did by giving the Rubin/Cash collaboration The Man Comes Around the CMA Album of the Year.

But this wasn’t the first time Johnny Cash had pulled this stunt. Johnny Cash spent his career speaking out against injustices, and put special emphasis on the plight of the Americana Indian. There is no better example of this than his 1964 concept album Bitter Tears: The Ballads of the American Indian that was ahead of its time, and highly influential in drawing attention to the plight of America’s native people. It also ended up on SCM’s list of Greatest Country Concept Albums at #5.

Many of the songs of Bitter Tears were written by folk singer Peter LaFarge, but Johnny Cash contributed a few of his own, along with the song “A Vanishing Race” Cash co-wrote with Johnny Horton. But it was the song “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” that was selected to be the album’s single. Ira Hayes was a Marine of Pima descent that participated in the famous flag raising on Iwo Jima in 1945 during World War II.

But when country radio received “The Ballad of Ira Hayes,” they were reluctant to play it. Johnny Cash’s social commentary written by Peter LaFarge felt like too much for country listeners. The parallels between what Johnny Cash experienced in 1964 and what many country artists experience today were rather stark.

Johnny Cash could have just cast the song off as a dud and moved on. To be frank, Cash had quite a few singles fall flat for him in between the height of his Sun Records days, and his career resurgence with his prison albums in the late ’60s. But Cash believed in the single so much, he took out a full page ad in Billboard that was published on August 22nd, 1964 calling out country radio for its cowardice and reluctance to play the song.

“D.J.’s—station managers—owners, etc., where are your GUTS?” the letter said bluntly. Typed out in a period-era typewriter, the letter reads more like an angry screed that than a work of persuasion or rhetoric. In 1964, it was basically the equivalent of a middle finger.

“You’re right! Teenage girls and Beatle record buyers don’t want to hear this sad story of Ira Hayes—but who cries more easily, and who always go to sad movies to cry?? Teenage girls.

Some of you “Top Forty” D.J.’s went all out for this at first. Thanks anyway. Maybe the program director or station manager will reconsider.

This ad (go ahead and call it that) costs like hell.

Yes, I cut records to try for “sales.” Another word we could use is “success.”


What were the results? Some members of the country music community were irate, and attempt to strip Johnny Cash of his CMA membership. But eventually, country radio actually listened, and the song became a hit. “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” rose to #3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, and the song became one of Cash’s signature tunes. After Cash recorded it, many other country, folk, rock, and pop performers would record the song as well.

Can you imagine a country artist taking out a full page ad, or perhaps publishing or recording something similar in 2024, and challenging country radio to play it? It’s hard to imagine a major star doing what Cash did 50 years ago today, and most importantly, succeeding.

But like the letter ended, “NOBODY BUT NOBODY MORE ORIGINAL THAN JOHNNY CASH.”

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