A statue of Johnny Cash will soon stand in the U.S. Capitol, making him the first professional musician ever to receive the honor.
A statement from Congress dated July 31st confirmed that the Man in Black’s statue at Emancipation Hall will be unveiled in a morning ceremony on September 24th. The statue will join the National Statuary Hall Collection. The announcement was signed by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Each U.S. state has two statues allotted to it in the National Statuary Hall Collection, intended to celebrate notable figures from the state’s history. Cash’s statue represents Arkansas—he was born in Dyess—and marks the state’s second statue. The other depicts civil rights activist Daisy Bates. In 2019, Arkansas passed a bill to switch out existing statues of Sen. James P. Clark and lawyer Uriah Rose with new representations of Bates and Cash.
Cash’s statue will be crafted by Little Rock sculptor Kevin Kresse. It will reportedly be eight feet tall, and depict the musician with a Bible and a Guitar. “I think the honesty of his work, the truth in his lyrics and the simplicity and straightforward way of getting that message across just spoke to me as an artist as well,” Kresse told NPR’s Scott Simon in a May interview.
Earlier this year, the posthumous Cash album Songwriter was released via Mercury Nashville/UMe. He recorded the bulk of the record during sessions in 1993, about a decade before his death.
Listen to Johnny Cash’s Songwriter now.