Jack White Credits Johnny Cash With Inspiring The Stooges & Other Punk Rock Pioneers

Johnny Cash’s music inspired punk rock? That’s at least how master guitarist Jack White sees it.

When as talented of an artist as Jack White talks, it’s usually best just to listen. The former lead man for The White Stripes and now solo rock n’ roller (he also plays with The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather) lives in Nashville, and he’s always been intrigued and fascinated by country music. He even famously teamed up with country music icon Loretta Lynn for “Portland, Oregon” in 2004, as well as produced her legendary Van Lear Rose album.

Though he doesn’t play it himself professionally, he’s helped produce country music records, and much of his catalogue has subtle country influences. At the very basis of things, Jack White is a music nut, and he loves to dive deep into the history of music. You can’t do that without exploring the expansive world of country, and how the roots of classic country music have spread throughout a multitude of different genres.

He spoke about exactly that in an 2014 interview, where he credited country legend Johnny Cash with… inspiring punk rock bands. Now there’s no doubt that “The Man In Black” was looked up to by many country artists, but punk rockers? Really?

As crazy as it sounds, Jack White insists that it is so. He even linked Cash’s “Walk The Line” with a song from The Stooges – a Michigan rock band that formed in 1967. The Stooges are largely regarded as the first true punk band, or at least proto-punk pioneers:

“That Johnny Cash thing… that rhythm, when you get deeper into music and the American history of it, you take rhythms like that and that became – by the time it was hitting Detroit and a band like The Stooges – that turned into their (song ‘No Fun.’) That’s just Johnny Cash. That’s just ‘Walk The Line’ just done with a harsher attitude.”

When you listen to both songs (and you will in just a bit), you can hear the connection.

That was just one of many examples of country music paving a way – and acting as a guiding light – for other genres. And Jack White was very passionate in saying how influential that one song by Johnny Cash was to the entirety of punk rock:

“You take something that was a country song of Johnny Cash’s, ‘Walk The Line,’ which is really a blues song. They are all blues. Johnny Cash takes a blues song that becomes ‘Walk The Line,’ and then ‘Walk The Line’ becomes ‘No Fun’ for The Stooges with a lot of rock and roll attitude. Then that influences all the punk band in England, and on and on it goes.”

After The Stooges, we saw bands like the Ramones and the New York Dolls emerge on the East Coast, the Sex Pistols and the Clash in London, and by the early ’90s, bands like Green Day, Bad Religion, and Blink 182 start to blow up… so basically Johnny Cash gave us Blink 182. Ok, not really… but it’s not a stretch to say that Jack is on to something here.

In fact, many have regarded Johnny as the first real punk rocker… just search social media or Google and you’ll find various posts, videos, or music threads echoing a similar sentiment:

Hear Jack’s full explanation:

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Incredible stuff, right? It’s crazy how much of music is just taking something from here and something from there (so to speak) and putting a different spin on it. That’s what Jack White insists happened with Johnny Cash’s “Walk The Line” and “No Fun” by The Stooges.

You can listen for yourself below:

“Walk The Line” by Johnny Cash

“No Fun” by The Stooges

And here’s a Jack White song. Is it related to those two? Not at all… I’m just including it for good measure.

Clearly Johnny Cash inspired him in some way too, even though “Archbishop Harold Holmes” might not be directly connected to “Walk The Line” like the other rock song:

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