Many people are well aware of the life and struggles that legendary sing-songwriter Johnny Cash went through, but what many don’t know is how his struggles with addiction affected the rest of his family.
“Long Road Home: The Cash Family’s Untold Story” explores the Cash family’s legacy and their own troubles with addiction. The idea for the documentary came about after producer Brian Oxley started to become personally involved with the Cash family after buying Johnny and June Cash’s farm in Tennessee.
“When my wife and I bought the farm, the farm Johnny Cash called the center of the universe — it was his favorite place — we never thought that we were going to get involved in issues of addiction,” said Oxley. “It just wasn’t our background and the deeper I got into it, we ended up helping some of the Cashs with addiction issues.”
Oxley had previously made a film about the famous Francis Thompson poem “The Hound of Heaven,” which follows an opium addict who is running away from god. Oxley felt there were some interesting parallels between Cash and the poem and after knowing what he did from getting to know Cash’s family, he wanted to tell that story.
“I started thinking, Johnny Cash’s story is so similar, he had the spiritual side as well as the dark side with the drugs. It all just came together,” said Oxley.
“Long Road Home” takes an in-depth look at how Cash’s family was affected by not only by Cash’s addiction, but also their own struggles with addiction. The film features interviews with several members of the Cash family, including Joanne Cash (sister), Tommy Cash (brother), Cindy Cash (daughter), Mark Alan Cash (nephew), Thomas Gabriel (grandson), Paula Cash (niece) and Jessica Hess (granddaughter). It also features interviews with Stan Perkins, the son of artist Carl Perkins.
“You get to find out that it wasn’t just a struggle with him, it was a struggle for so many people in his family, his kids, grandkids,” said Jack Vale, Executive Producer of “Long Road Home.” “It kind of went down the line, and so many other people too. It also kind of tackles the issue that kinda points to how being related to Johnny Cash affected their lives.”
“You can just see it’s kind of like, almost like in the DNA. Most [of the Cash family] have that problem, so you wonder if it’s a hereditary thing,” said Oxley. “Then you see that they are associated with honkey tonks in Nashville, then you go down Broadway. It’s always been synonymous, country and alcohol. I guess the thing that my conclusion is it’s a life-long battle.”
As fans of Cash’s music, both Vale and Oxley were surprised to see how deep addiction ran through the family. Unlike the film “Walk the Line,” which Vale says just kind of touches on what was going on, “Long Road Home” brings it so man steps forward and doesn’t shy away from the topic.
“I never struggled with anything like this, I can’t relate to substance abuse in any way other than we know somebody or know somebody who knows somebody who struggled with it. For me, I learned it was interesting to find out that so many people could have this struggle with substances because it’s in the family line. Not necessarily just because you’re a kid, you see what your parents do and sometimes that rubs off on you. Not in that way, but it’s more like there’s something in the family line, I can’t describe it,” said Vale. “But listening to his sister Joanne, listening to her talk about what that was like growing up that way and how she knew her brother, and then the perspective that Mark, I think it’s just really interesting and offers hope, too. I think one of the main things you can do for someone who struggles with drug and alcohol abuse is to be relatable and sometimes that’s all it takes.”
“When it comes to addiction, I just learned common sense will tell you it can’t be this way but it is. It just possesses people, and we don’t know what the trigger is,” said Oxley. “I now feel like I have the knowledge, I just realize how ignorant we really were. I thought you just put your arms around them, get them a job and care for them and they beat it — they don’t.”
Following the anniversary of Cash’s death, “Long Road Home” became available for streaming on Rumble’s subscription service “Locals.” Though it is an unconventional choice for a streaming platform, the team felt strongly that Locals was the place to host it.
“We all kinda looked for a distributor to partner with and showcase it the best way possible. When we connected with Rumble, Rumble loved the project so much and really believed in it,” said Vale. “They are notoriously known for a lot of conservative media and that type of thing, but they don’t want it to be like that, it just sort of happened that way. I think they’re really excited to partner and make it the exclusive platform for this project because who doesn’t love Johnny Cash?”
Both Vale and Oxley agree that those who watch “Long Road Home” are in for an eye-opening journey of what addiction can look like in any family.
“I would say that if you know anybody who could benefit from learning about this. This is a really interesting film for those of us who love Johnny Cash, period, or the Cash legacy,” said Vale. “Also just even if you’re not that familiar but you know somebody who struggles with substance abuse of some kind, this is something that I think is going to be beneficial to everybody.”
“It’s not a pretty road. And the only reason I was willing to [make the film] and did it is that I just felt it would help people to say, this is about everyone in America. If the Cashs, with all the resources they had, they have to go through it, this is what America is going through,” said Oxley.
“Long Road Home: The Cash Family’s Untold Story” is now available for streaming on Locals.com.
