Bennett’s son and manager, Danny Bennett, 40, says his father is “going where no man has gone before.” Danny means no 67-year-old man-although off in the distance you can hear the hoofbeats of 62-year-old Johnny Cash. In less than a year, Bennett and Cash have somehow or other become alternative-rock stars. Bennett frolicked onstage with the hyperactive Red Hot Chili Peppers at last September’s MTV Video Music Awards (the singer says he likes bassist Flea, though the Pepper has been known to perform wearing only a strategically placed sock). Bennett watched his “Steppin’ Out” video make MTV’s “Buzz Bin.” And, last Christmas. he took part in a number of rock shows, stealing every concert from performers far less genteel: Billy Idol, Porno for Pyros, Smashing Pumpkins.
If the thought of “Tony Bennett, Unplugged” seems surreal (the show airs next month), then consider the widespread rumors that Cash will be invited to this summer’s Lollapalooza tour, an annual roadshow dedicated to moshing, body piercing and chain-saw juggling. Sounds strange, but these are strange times for Cash. After an unsuccessful spell spent making five slick country records, be has been born again singing a track on U2’s last album and teaming up with Rick Rubin, a young producer and record mogul famous for his pioneering work with, well, the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC. Cash and Rubin’s weird marriage has yielded the exceptionally dark and bare “American Recordings.” The album is just now arriving in stores, but the alternative-rock community has been buzzing about it for months. Cash’s performance at last month’s South By Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, was the subject of so much anticipation that the official guidebook gave it only a coy mention: “Opening the show is an unscheduled, upstart country singer who likes to dress in black.” Hundreds were turned away at the door.
So how have Bennett and Cash-one peddling moonglow, the other moonshine-become the world’s oldest young rock stars? “They tell me they like the fact that I didn’t change,” Bennett says of his twentysomething fans. “I’m not trying to sing rock music to them. I’m not trying to ‘connect’ with them. I’m just doing what I’ve always done, and they see someone who’s never given in-like a fighter who never took a dive.” Unlikely as it sounds, Bennett and Cash aren’t bad role models for an angry grunge generation obsessed with iconoclasts. Bennett’s devotion to the standards has been such that in the ’70s, when Columbia Records tried pressuring him into recording more trendy fare, he parted ways with the company-for 15 years. And Cash, of course, is a larger-than-life outlaw, both as a musician and a man: in ‘64, while on amphetamines, he accidentally burned down 508 acres of national forest. Death-metal singer Glenn Danzig, who wrote a ballad for “American Recordings,” says he wanted to write a song that spoke to Cash’s reputation. So what’s the song about? Danzig laughs: “It’s about a bad-ass.”
A cool image never hurts. Asked about her father’s young fans, singer Roseanne Cash says, “Maybe they identify with the darkness.” She reconsiders. “But it could be much simpler.” Yes, it could be that they just like his music. In concert, Cash and Bennett are so old-fashioned as to be newfangled: Bennett just blows kisses and smiles; Cash sits in a chair and then, for a little drama, stands up. Both are appealing to a generation fed up with spectacle. (Take Madonna. Please.) And both are feeding what MTV exec John Cannelli calls “a hunger for great songs.” Bennett has some fans wading into the American popular songbook for the first time. And Cash is introducing them to a storytelling tradition that’s virtually extinct. No one else writes lyrics like these: “First time I shot her, I shot her in the side/Hard to watch her suffer, but with the second shot she died.” Well, some people do. Ice-T told Spin that country singers like Cash were a lot like rappers: both sing about killing people and both wear hats to the Grammys.
The danger in all this alternative-rock madness is that Bennett and Cash could become novelty acts. Roseanne Cash, for one, has urged her father to think twice about doing Lollapalooza: “I said, ‘Dad, are you sure you want to do this? These kids aren’t going to know who you are. You need the respect you deserve.’ He said he was going to be careful, but he’s always going to jump, no matter how much you say, ‘Don’t jump’.” Fortunately, the kids have good intentions. Rick Rubin remembers a recent solo show that Cash played at the Viper Room, in Los Angeles-a performance that drew, among others, Sean Penn, Juliette Lewis, one Chili Pepper and one Butthole Surfer. “I was surprised by how revered he was,” says Rubin. “In what’s normally a very loud nightclub, you could hear a pin drop for an hour.”
Cash’s and Bennett’s handlers know where to find Generation X (the Viper Room was the site of River Phoenix’s last stand), but the singers’ new popularity is hardly the result of massive marketing campaigns. “American Recordings” wasn’t intended to top the charts-it’s just Cash and his guitar, take it or leave it. And Danny Bennett says he’s taking the long view: he’s not trying to sell his father’s albums to teenagers; he’s trying to build a new following to one day replace a core audience he regrets is “literally dying” of old age. “These 18-year-olds are going to be 30 someday,” he says. ‘And, hey, Tony’s product is not going away."
Meanwhile, Bennett’s spirits are getting a lift from what he calls “the best audience I’ve ever had.” As Columbia president Don Ienner puts it, “Tony walks through airports and instead of having 50-year-old women swoon over him, he’s got 14-year-olds coming up and going, ‘Wow!’ It blows him away.” Bennett looked thrilled during “Unplugged.” Near the end of the show, he wiped his brow, took in a standing ovation and contemplated a few encores. “You are beautiful,” he told the crowd. “Thank you. Should we keep going?” But of course.
title: “The Kids Are All Right” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-09” author: “Henry Maltba”
Misunderstood Teens
The cover of your magazine reads “The Secret Life of Teens” (Special Report, May 10). The irony is, it doesn’t have to be a secret, but today’s parents are completely out of touch with the reality that their kids do actually need them. Eager to further their own lives and careers, they leave their teenagers to cope in any way they can. I’m 17, and I agree with those who call my peers a lost generation. Most kids today have nowhere to turn. Who can blame them for resorting to drug abuse, rebellion and, yes, violence? Katy Purwin Alpharetta, Ga.
I’m 16, and in the wake of the Littleton massacre I started to wear dark-blue lipstick, blue mascara and yellow glasses to show that teens can look different without being killers. Even though you say only a small minority resorts to homicide, you imply to parents that they should be spying on their children to make sure they don’t go the way of Harris and Klebold. I wonder if you can remember when you were teenagers. Did you want your mother reading your journal and finding out everything about you? We need our “secret lives.” I’m sorry to say that parents don’t have as much effect as they think they do on our values and morals. But we are also human, not just a strange breed raised by the violence on TV. Every generation is different: my parents are conservative and I am liberal. But please just remember that the generation raising us was once a bunch of crazy teenagers, too. Auli’i Nathaniel San Antonio, Texas
Whose Humanitarian Help? In “The Death of a Good Idea” (International, May 10), David Rieff is wrong in concluding that only military powers like NATO can now provide effective humanitarian aid. The “humanitarian” goals of NATO’s war on Yugoslavia and subsequent assistance to refugees shouldn’t be confused with the independent human-to-human aid provided by groups like Doctors Without Borders. In embracing the refugees’ cause, NATO oversteps its military mandate and betrays its leaders’ lack of political solutions to the original problems facing the Kosovar populace. Joelle Tanguy, U.S. Executive Director Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres New York, N.Y.
And Baby Makes Two Although single motherhood seems purely wonderful to Carolyn Edy (My Turn, May 10), her article makes light of what a single parent must go through. Babies are cute and cuddly, and do not talk back to parents, get into trouble or face peer pressure to wear $175 shoes. But babies eventually become teenagers. I know about this because I was married at 16 and had two children before I divorced at 20. I had not yet finished school when my children were born. I did not have a decent full-time job and had to turn to Medicaid. In order to give the children I love a better life, I got my GED, joined the military and returned to college for a B.S. and M.S. degree. Single parenting is not impossible, but it is a sad and tough way to raise a child, especially when you have to spend more time at work than you do taking care of your baby. I want those who are in the place I was in at 20 to know they can improve their lives. I did it, but not without enormous heartache and tears. I just hope that young girls don’t see this article and think of only the short-term consequences. Parenting takes decades. Melissa C. Anderson Mobile, Ala.
Bellissimo Bocelli As a middle-aged, dyed-in-the-wool country-music lover, I had a complete paradigm shift the moment I first heard Andrea Bocelli’s voice (“A Night at the Popera,” Arts & Entertainment, May 10). I felt that I was hearing God communicating with me. The so-called opera critics who have “savaged” Bocelli, and consider his skyrocketing career “merely a triumph of marketing,” desperately need to get in touch with the real world. Rather than taking potshots at Bocelli, they might better serve the opera world by realizing that his beautiful voice is opening the whole world of opera to millions of us who previously thought it was a laughable and outdated art form. Thank you, Andrea Bocelli; my world has expanded because of your gift. Anne D. Baird Simsbury, Conn.
Black Representation In “THE NEW COLOR LINE” (Society, May 3), you did an excellent job of identifying a positive trend in sports. For the first time, many younger black athletes are opting for representation by fellow African-Americans. However, the article failed to mention that the Black Sports Agents Association (BSAA) has been a driving force in the mobilization of this trend. Because of the diligent work of the BSAA, more athletes are now realizing that African-American sports agents have the competence, experience and intestinal fortitude necessary to negotiate significant player contracts. Last year the BSAA represented $1.6 billion in contracts and endorsements. Andre Farr, Chairman The Black Sports Agents Association West Hollywood, Calif.
Pretty Woman, No Shave Julia Roberts is a “pretty woman” and a real woman. Why do we have to fall into the Playboy mind-set that a pretty woman has to look like plastic (“It’s the Pits,” Newsmakers, May 10)? Let’s celebrate with Julia the real woman. Georgia Larsen Menomonie, Wis.
