# I shot a man in \_\_\_\_\_\_ (?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 4, 2004, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309 "2004-08-04T16:29:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/21 "2004-08-06T00:02:54Z")
Did you know that Johnny Cash studied pre-med before he got into show business?\* Actually, it was “I shot a man in the _renals_\* just to watch him die.” It’s the inmates that didn’t know that renals are kidneys who decided he must have said “Reno”. 😛 \*Of course you didn’t; I just made that up, just now! ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/22 "2004-08-06T00:11:28Z")
_“I shot a man in my pajamas; what he was doing in my pajamas, I’ll never know.”_ Sorry Groucho. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/23 "2004-08-06T00:22:24Z")
Just last week I bought this movie [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113369/combined](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113369/combined) ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/24 "2004-08-06T00:40:40Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > I have Cash’s autobiography, and he wrote the song as a first-person POV from a criminal in Folsom Prison. It’s not anything he was involved in IRL, not even close. It was the worst crime he could think of, and Reno had two syllables. > … Well, I didn’t think Johnny was a murderer. I figured we were speaking figuritively of him as the “narrator” of the song. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/25 "2004-08-06T01:05:42Z")
> [@Doug Bowe](#): > > The OP also mentions hearing about shooting a man in Memphis. > > Could he have bumped into the old “Who can sing the Blues” list? > > Check items 6, 12© and 18. > [http://www.wilk4.com/humor/humorm232.htm](http://www.wilk4.com/humor/humorm232.htm) When I got it, it was labeled “The Blues Rules”, but that’s one of them… ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/26 "2004-08-06T06:08:21Z")
> [@Kilt-wearin' man](#): > > You may discover some Country that you like (as I did, much to my surprise…) I’ve always thought of Johnny Cash more along the lines of a folk singer, rather than a country music kinda guy. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/27 "2004-08-06T08:02:02Z")
> [@Tiramisu](#): > > I thought it was Abilene? Didn’t someone get shot in Abilene? This is probably from another Johnny Cash song called “Wanted Man” (written by Bob Dylan). Here are the relevant lyrics: _Went to sleep in Shreveport, Woke up in Abilene Wonderin’ why I’m wanted at some town half way in between_ ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/28 "2004-08-06T13:10:41Z")
> [@vunderbob](#): > > I shot a man in \_\_\_\_\_\_ (?) That’d be the butt, Bob. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/29 "2004-08-06T13:37:57Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > That’d be the butt, Bob. And I just has a flashback to the scene in _Forrest Gump_ where the hero shows JFK his injury… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/30 "2004-08-06T13:54:14Z")
JC was arrested in '65 in El Paso for bringing a large quantity of pills across the border. He was addicted to pain killers and amphetamines at the time. Never did any prison time. He wrote _Folsom Prison Blues_ while serving in the Air Force in the early ‘50’s. He was one of Sun Records top artists for years. He hung around with folks like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. Early in his career he was a regular at "The Grand Ol’ Opry" but his addictions got him kicked outta there. His first prison concert at San Quentin in '59 an inmate by the name of Merle Haggard was there. It inspired him to start his music career. _Hello, I’m Johnny Cash._ is how he introduced himself on his variety show **The Johnny Cash Show** 1969-1971 was very popular. He had guest musicians from various genre. Guests that included the likes of; Bob Dylan, Roger Miller, Joni Mitchell, Merle Haggard, Marty Robbins, The Cowsills, Gordon Lightfoot, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, Louis Armstrong, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, The Monkees, Graham Nash, and many others. He performed at the Whitehouse and also starred in several movies. I haven’t checked but I feel like **Ring of Fire** is probably his most popular song. Didn’t I hear a recent version of it done by…? Can’t recall but it wasn’t bad. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/31 "2004-08-06T16:00:32Z")
_Preparation H_ needs to pony up and use it in their commercials. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/32 "2004-08-06T16:18:20Z")
Cash also once spent the night in jail in LaFayette, Georgia. Drunk (and on pills) and disorderly. The sheriff there spent the night with Johnny in his cell, talking to him and trying to get him to turn his life around, for which Cash expressed much gratitude later. In fact I believe Cash wound up donating the construction cost or some portion of it for a football stadium at LaFayette High School. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/33 "2004-08-06T16:35:10Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > _Preparation H_ needs to pony up and use it in their commercials. They’re working on it. [http://www.tennessean.com/entertainment/news/archives/04/01/46171284.shtml](http://www.tennessean.com/entertainment/news/archives/04/01/46171284.shtml) > [@](#): > > No joke — a Florida TV production company plans to pitch Preparation H and other hemorrhoid-relief products with a commercial that features the country classic Ring of Fire. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2004, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309/34 "2004-08-08T04:26:28Z")
Rosanne and the other kids have expressed horror at “Ring of Fire” being used that way, seeing as how their stepmother (and John Carter’s real mother) wrote it and their father sang it for decades. It’s not going to happen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-a-man-in-______/258309.md?page=1)