Johnny Cash was born in which U.S. state?

Johnny Cash was born in Arkansas. He was born J. R. Cash on February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, a small community in Cleveland County in the southern part of the state.

Cash’s parents, Ray and Carrie Cash, were poor cotton farmers. The family lived through the Great Depression, and Cash’s childhood experiences in rural Arkansas strongly influenced his songwriting. Work, religion, family hardship, death, and the dignity of ordinary people became recurring themes in his music.

The Cash family moved from Kingsland when Johnny was three years old to Dyess, Arkansas, where they took part in a New Deal agricultural settlement. Cash grew up there and later sang on a local radio station while still in high school. Although he became closely associated with Memphis, Tennessee, after moving there in 1954, Memphis was the place where his recording career developed—not his birthplace.

Arkansas is also sometimes confused with Tennessee because Cash spent much of his adult life near Nashville and became a central figure in country music. His birthplace of Kingsland later honored him with a post office named after him. Cash’s younger brother Tommy Cash also became a successful country singer.