Johnny Cash Statue Coming To U.S. Capitol

Legendary country singer Johnny Cash’s statue is headed to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., where he will be immortalized in bronze for future generations.

In a letter from Congress, the official unveiling of the “Man in Black” statue is set to take place September 24 at 11 a.m. in the National Statuary Hall, the Smithsonian magazine reported.

The 8-foot-tall Arkansas native’s statue will be joined by one honoring civil rights leader Daisy Bates whose statue debuted in May. The hall displays statues of two well known residents from each state.

Cash and Bates’ statues will replace two others that honored residents from Arkansas — 1800s attorney Uriah Milton Rose and Governor and Senator James P. Clark — following a vote in 2019 by the Arkansas General Assembly.

Former Governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchins said of the new statues that the previous ones are connected to individuals who don’t “mean anything to contemporary Americans. And of course, if you dig deep into their history, they do have a racist history that is not reflective at all of Arkansas.”

Music legend Johnny Cash will be honored with a statue in the US Capitol.

Artist Kevin Kreese unveiled the 8 foot tall sculpture featuring a guitar slung over Cash’s back. In his right hand, the late singer carries a Bible. pic.twitter.com/JqGaOWFIXX

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Little Rock sculptor Kevin Kreese was tasked with making the Cash bronze statue and previously said that he was thrilled with the state’s decision to represent a musician like Cash rather than a “power politician from the early 1800s.”

“One of the quotes that the [Cash] family gave me was something that he told his kids,” Kresse told NPR. “It’s about the fact that we all have the ability to make a choice in this life between choosing love or choosing hate. And he says, ‘I choose love.'”

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The legendary country singer died in 2003 at the age of 71. But years after his passing, fans got a treat when the album “Songwriter” was released in June, as previously reported.

It contains 11 unreleased songs the late country star wrote and recorded back in 1993, but ended up shelving after he met with producer Rick Rubin and the two instead opted to focus on their musical partnership, the Tennessean noted.

The album was produced by musician John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, and co-produced by David “Fergie” Ferguson. The two “stripped” the songs “back to just Johnny’s powerful, pristine vocals, and acoustic guitar,” Southern Living noted.

Some of the other artists who are also on the album with Cash include the late Waylon Jennings, country singer Vince Gill, guitarist Marty Stuart, and The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach.

Related: Johnny Cash Album With Never-Before-Heard Tracks Coming This Summer