Eyes Wide Open for Johnny Cash

Officials at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda were taken aback this year when Bill Miller of Corona offered his enormous collection of Johnny Cash memorabilia for an exhibit. The Elvis-Nixon connection has been well-publicized, but Johnny Cash, too? “Johnny Cash performed for five U.S. presidents and had a closed-door meeting with President Nixon regarding prison reform in 1974,” says Arianna Barrios, director of communications for the library, where the Johnny Cash 70th Birthday Tribute is displaying gold records, guitars, photos, clothing and other items. “It’s not often someone comes to you with a ready-made show.”

Miller’s affinity for country music’s outlaw Man in Black started in 1968, when Miller was 9 and a classmate brought the album “At Folsom Prison” to show-and-tell. “The sound was something like I never heard,” Miller says. “I begged my parents to buy me the record. They didn’t know who Johnny Cash was. They liked Bing Crosby and Wayne Newton.”

Miller grew up in Eagle Mountain, a former Kaiser Steel Co. town of 3,700 (now a prison ), in the Mojave Desert. The album’s salty language concerned his parents but they drove him to Indio to buy it. Miller replaced his monster posters with images of Cash and was soon humming “I Walk the Line.” Later the family moved to New Mexico, and Miller, 15, persuaded his father to drive him five hours to Denver for his first Cash concert in 1973. Cash tossed a harmonica to Miller, who went backstage and met his idol along with manager Lou Robin. During the next 26 years, Miller went to more than 100 Cash shows and built a friendship with Robin and Cash that endures today.

Miller’s home and office overflow with a mountainous Cash collection that exceeds 1,000 pieces, with some items on loan to the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. The Nixon Library display includes two guitars that Cash frequently played, including a six-string Guild guitar that Cash gave Miller and autographed with the first four lines of the hit song “I Walk the Line.” Also on view are Cash’s Air Force uniform, stage wear from each decade of the singer’s career, his passports and other pieces.

Cash stopped touring in 1998 and invited Miller to his home in Hendersonville, Tenn. “It was a huge party with 400 people eating off June’s personal china,” says Miller, a former Corona mayor. “He’s a great guy. He’s a very private person. Most people who know him aren’t close to him. I know it sounds corny, but I feel blessed.”

Though he deals in star autographs today, Miller doesn’t charge anything to loan out his Cash memorabilia. “I’ve never charged a penny. If it spent its life touring, I’d be happy. I’m building a historical archive. This is all great stuff, but the memories are worth more than anything in the collection.”

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A portion of Miller’s collection is on display at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda until Jan. 1. (714) 993-5075.