Remembering 2024’s Music Losses: Tommy Cash

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Every year we go through the cycle of losing people in the world of music, and every year I’ll recognize them for the happiness they brought to people’s lives with their music. Many of these people never get the “headline news” coverage at their deaths, so I remember them every month, then choose those that meant a little more to me personally. Here’s today’s entry from the 2024 farewell list. Tommy Cash Hey, he looks a little like Johnny Cash! And you play the video and you think, “Hey, he sounds a LOT like Johnny Cash, if the record was playing a little too fast.” He did, and for good reason: he was Johnny’s youngest brother. He never asked Johnny’s help with his career, because he didn’t really need it. Unfortunately, he was pegged with the curse of looking like Johnny and sounding like Johnny. He also had his greatest success with topical songs (his biggest hit was “Six White Horses,” about the assassinations in the 60s) at a time that Johnny was doing the same thing. As his career faded he became a real estate agent. He sold his brother’s house to Barry Gibb for his best-known sale. The announcement of his death barely caused a ripple on the news, except for those of us who remembered his music and him as more than just “Johnny’s brother.” Tommy Cash Born April 4, 1940, Dyess, Arkansas Died September 13, 2024, Hendersonville, Tennessee (unknown cause) (age 84) Carl Perkins wrote this song that Tommy had a hit with in 1970, “Rise and Shine”: