7. The Tennessee Two and the Tennessee Three
When Johnny Cash moved to Memphis his older brother Roy introduced him to Luther Perkins, Marshal Grant, and Red Kernodle, all of whom worked at Roy’s automobile dealership. The three often played their guitars together at the dealership and Johnny was soon playing with them in the evenings. After they decided to form a working band, Grant moved to upright bass and Perkins added an electric guitar. Kernodle shifted to steel guitar. When they decided to audition for Sam Phillips, Kernodle left the group, and though they called themselves the Tennessee Three, Phillips suggested they go by Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two. They remained together using that name when Johnny Cash left Sun records and signed with Columbia, becoming Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three when drummer W. S. Holland joined them in 1960.
In 1968 Luther Perkins died in a fire, started when he fell asleep while smoking. He was replaced with Bob Wootton, and the group recorded an album dedicated to Perkins, an instrumental record they called The Tennessee Three: The Sound Behind Johnny Cash in 1971. The group remained the core of Cash’s sound through the 1970s, despite Columbia requiring Cash to record an album in 1975 using session musicians, which did not perform well in terms of sales. In 1980 Cash fired Grant, and discontinued using the name, adding other performers and renaming his band The Great Eighties Eight. In 1989 he reorganized and renamed the band The Johnny Cash Show Band, including his son John Carter Cash on rhythm guitar.