12. He attempted suicide in early 1968 in Nickajack Cave
Despite Cash later giving credit to Sheriff Jones for helping him turn himself around following his 1967 arrest, Johnny continued taking pills at an impressive rate, speed to keep him working and tranquilizers to calm him down. Although he recorded the successful song Jackson with June Carter, he continued to live separately, sharing quarters with Waylon Jennings, who also was addicted to the same drugs as Cash. The two singers took to hiding their stash of drugs and the atmosphere was one of paranoia and delusion. According to Cash he was by early 1968 completely strung out on drugs, and he decided to commit suicide by crawling so far into Nickajack Cave that he would be unable to find his way out taking with him a fatal dose.
Nickajack Cave is the site of an Indian massacre and a position in which deserting Confederate soldiers took shelter during and after the Battle of Lookout Mountain. Portions of the cave are flooded. Cash entered the cave after taking several pills, carrying others with which to facilitate his suicide, when he had what he described as an epiphany. After the spiritual experience in the cave he decided to enter into rehab, and crawled back to the entrance, where he found June and Maybelle Carter waiting for him, as he wrote in his autobiography. Cash had always had a strong religious streak, and following the Nickajack experience his religious activities and convictions grew stronger, as was reflected in his musical performances.
