Remembering Dylan/Cash Producer Bob Johnston, Who Ushered Nashville Into the Rock Era

“Is it rolling, Bob?”

With those four words, spoken by Bob Dylan on his 1969 Nashville Skyline LP, record producer Bob Johnston was immortalized for a generation of music fans. Johnston, who died last week at 83, was at the peak of his career then, a career that influenced much of the music that followed and helped transform Nashville at a pivotal time.

The exuberant, strong-willed Johnston played a huge role in changing the musical landscape of Nashville in the late '60s. By bringing Bob Dylan to the city to record Blonde on Blonde in 1966, then again for John Wesley Harding in late 1967, Johnston helped make Nashville a mecca for rock and folk artists looking for a relaxed place to record, and for skilled and versatile musicians to work with.

Before he produced Blonde on Blonde, Johnston had been knocking around the music business for 10 years: as a performer and songwriter in his native Texas, and working for Hill and Range Songs in Nashville, where he pitched and wrote songs for Elvis movies. By 1965 he was in New York as a fledgling producer for Columbia Records.

Never lacking in confidence, or shy about self-promotion, Johnston got the job producing Bob Dylan on Highway 61 Revisited in Columbia’s New York studios. He was keen on getting Dylan to record in Nashville, and with the help of a last-minute virtuoso guitar performance by visiting Nashville session ace Charlie McCoy on “Desolation Row,” he was able to get Dylan to warm to the idea. Johnston did not mince words when stressing the importance of Dylan recording in Nashville.

“The world was changing," Johnston said, "and he was right in the goddamn middle of it, and that put us right in the goddamn middle of it, as far as I was concerned.” Dylan, in his 2004 Chronicles shared his take on Johnston: “… Cheerful as always and full of zest. Few people have it for long, but he’s got a never-ending supply, and it’s not faked.” Johnston also worked here with Simon and Garfunkel, recording tracks for Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. In 1968 he brought Leonard Cohen to town to record Songs From a Room, later working on two more Cohen albums and even going on the road as Cohen’s keyboard player. Other folk and rock artists Johnston produced during this era include Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Pete Seeger, The Byrds, Moby Grape and Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks.

For a brief time Johnston was put in charge of Columbia’s country division in Nashville, and though he would have been the first to admit that he was too strong of a personality to play the corporate game, he made an indelible impact on country music. His successor at Columbia was the late Billy Sherrill, whose career was profiled two weeks ago in the Scene after his death Aug. 4. Johnston produced albums by bluegrass stalwarts Flatt and Scruggs, and several No. 1 singles for country veteran Marty Robbins. But one achievement in country music stands out above all others. Johnston gave Johnny Cash the freedom to record the live prison album Cash had long wanted to make. The result was Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, which garnered Cash a whole new audience. With the hugely successful follow-up At San Quentin, Cash transitioned into that elite group of artists whose appeal crossed genre boundaries, and these albums undoubtedly helped establish Cash as the icon he remains today.

“Bob Johnston was a producer that is an artist’s dream," Cash said of Johnston, "smart enough to know that when he gets an artist that believes in himself as an artist to let him run with it.” Johnston was also influential in mentoring musicians and bringing them into the Nashville studio fold, among them guitarists Ron Cornelius and Charlie Daniels. Both are lavish in their praise of what Johnston’s help meant to their subsequent careers.

By the early '70s Johnston’s relationship with both Dylan and Cash had run its course. But he remained a strong presence throughout the decade with albums by Loudon Wainwright III, Tracy Nelson, Mac Gayden and others. Though he remained intermittently active in later decades, he had a relatively low profile in recent years. There’s a film clip of Johnston being asked about why so many non-country artists came here to record, with Johnston replying: “I think it’s the musicians … the people care, they care about what they do; they take pride in it.” There is little doubt that Johnston cared deeply about the music he worked on; he was outspoken and passionate about the records he made and was justly proud of an amazing legacy.

Keep it rolling, Bob.

Johnston’s influence is explored in detail in the Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City, for which Pete Finney served as co-curator. He also contributed liner notes to the accompanying 2-CD volume of the same name.