Guitarist takes stage with Johnny Cash in high-tech show
Musician Debbie Horton’s claim to fame is that she is the only woman to play lead guitar for Johnny Cash.
Sometimes, folks are dismissive of that when they learn she only did it once. She has a ready response.
“I say, ‘Would you say that to Neil Armstrong?,’” Horton said in a Zoom interview, laughing. “That’s an extreme example. That’s how I feel about it, anyway. Show me somebody else who’s done that.”
In a way, she is now getting another shot at playing with Cash, even though he’s been dead for 20 years. Horton is the lead guitarist for “Johnny Cash: The Official Concert Experience,” a high-tech tour in which musicians play along with video of the Man in Black from his eponymous variety series. In the clips, he sings and shares stories. His son, John Carter Cash, will provide on-screen narration as well.
“It’s not a tribute show,” Horton said. “It’s actually Johnny up there, OK? And he’s going to tell his story. I’m calling this alien technology because I can’t figure out how they’re going to do it. But they’re going to do it, and it’s going to be fantastic.”
The tour includes a stop at the Majestic Theatre on Oct. 26.
“To be able to come back and play for him again in this virtual way is just like a full circle,” Horton said. “I love the music and I love the man.”
Horton first met Cash when she was a kid. She was already a big fan of his — she was a
member of his fan club — so when her family went to Nashville for a family vacation, she talked them into worshipping at the church he attended in hopes of seeing him.
“I didn’t know whether he was in town or not. But I said, ‘Let’s go to this church, he might be there.’ And sure enough, he was there. And that was the first time I met Johnny,” she said. “And then I saw him maybe three or four times a year. I knew him for over 20 years. He was just a sweetheart of a guy, a wonderful man.”
She owes her one-and-only chance to share a stage with Cash to a cheeky note she sent him before a show he played in Baltimore. She wrote that she could play as well as the guitarist in his band and she hoped to prove it to him some day.
“You don’t write Johnny Cash a note like that and don’t expect something might happen,” she said. “So right in the middle of a show, he says, ‘Debbie’s here, come play the guitar for me.’ During the show. Onstage. And he had not heard me play.
“So I’m like, OK! So I get up out of my seat, walk down, get on the stage, he hands me the guitar and says, ‘What do you want to play?’ I said, ‘Well, let’s do ‘Big River.’’ And so we played ‘Big River.’ And he sang. And it was amazing. And after I did that, I thought, if I can do that, I can do anything.”
Horton’s own career in music has included performing, songwriting and producing. She also created the touring show “Branson on the Road.” She returns to Cash’s music whenever possible. “Branson on the Road” includes a tribute to him, and when she made her Grand Ole Opry debut in 2016, she played “I Walk the Line.”
“His music has lasted,” she said. “He’s been gone for 20 years now. And he’s still as relevant, if not more so.”