Flower Pickin' In Starkville

Flower Picker Johnny Cash

Starkville, Mississippi is famous for being home to Mississippi State University for over a hundred and thirty years, and for being an overnight stay for one flower loving country music superstar. As MPB arts reporter Ron Brown tells us, Starkville is getting ready to host the third annual Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival.

In 1965 Johnny Cash played a concert at Mississippi State University in Starkville, it was a night that he and his fans would remember for a very long time. Cash struggled with bouts of drug and alcohol addiction early in his career. And after the Starkville concert, he was spotted in a yard, picking flowers. He was arrested very early that morning for public intoxication. Journalist Robbie Ward researched Cash’s arrest.

“A lot of people think he served time in prison but he actually only was arrested seven times in his life . But he only wrote a song about one of those places; Starkville.”

The song made it on what many consider to be a classic country album, 1969’s Johnny Cash at San Quentin. Johnny Cash spent the night in the drunk tank that night. He died in 2003 never having returned to Starkville. At least not until three years ago when he returned, in sprit, when the city began hosting the annual Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival.
Robbie Ward the journalist became the festival organizer and motivating force.

“What we do here in Starkville every year, we recognize kind of the quirky history that we have with Johnny Cash. But in a lot of ways it represents Johnny Cash’s life. It’s a lot of fun, a few mistakes, and a little bit of forgiveness.”

Redemption and forgiveness are the themes at each Flower Pickin Festival. For the first two years the city offered symbolic pardons to Johnny Cash for that one night when he couldn’t exactly walk the line. This year, it’s the Cash family who will offer a pardon to the city of Starkville.

“Redemption and forgiveness is not a one way street, it’s a two way street. And we’re gonna have the mayor of Starkville accept the pardon, and he said he’s looking forward to it.”

One of the Cash family members on hand to issue the pardon to Starkville will be his country singer step daughter Carlene Carter. She’ll headline the concert Saturday night. A flower lover herself, she says she’ll need to acquaint herself with the local city ordinances.

“What? You can’t pick flowers at all? You know what? I might just have to sneak out in the middle of the night and pick a flower. I might have to pick a little flower somewhere.”

Carter says it’ll be easy to forgive Starkville because she’s never really blamed the city for the way Cash was treated that night back in 1965.

“He was just sowing some wild oats. He was doing whatever it was that he was doing. And I don’t know exactly what it was. But I never thought of it as a negative thing and I’m not sure anyone who knew him would think that.”

For Starkville, there’s nothing negative involved in the annual festival. There will be a man in black children’s concert, tours of the Starkville city jail, a Johnny Cash tribute band from New Jersey, and music from Justin Townes Earle.
On Sunday guests are invited to attend a special redemption sermon at an area church along with Johnny Cash gospel music.

"Johnny Cash’s family embraces it, the Johnny Cash estate embraces it, and Johnny Cash fans from all over the world embrace it. And slowly Starkville has come to embrace it.”

The festival begins Friday and runs through Sunday. And in the spirit of this week’s reconciliation, Carter says if she does pick a flower in the early morning, she’s hoping that nobody in Starkville will get all heated up over it, but like her step father, she’s prepared if they do.

“Hey, you know what? if you gotta go to jail, you should go to jail for picking flowers.”

For MPB News, I’m Ron Brown.