John, again

I have been using a portion of this quote about Johnny Cash by Tom Waits in my email signature recently. I saw it in a CNN.com story about Cash's death. I saw tonight that it originally came from a quote by Tom Waits in a tribute to Cash on his 70th birthday. I'd like to print the entire quote just because Tom Waits and Johnny Cash are two of my heroes. I always wished they could do a song together like David Bowie and John Lennon did: incidentally.

"When Johnny Cash comes on the radio, no one changes the station. It's a voice, a name with a soul that cuts across all boundaries and it's a voice we all believe. Yours is a voice that speaks for the saints and the sinners -- it's like branch water for the soul. Long may you sing out loud.

"I Don't Know Where I'm Bound" on Live at San Quentin will always touch me and the fact that a prisoner wrote the poem and you put it to music for him that night on stage for the first time. ... It was a real moment for him and for us.

Happy Birthday, Johnny.

Tom Waits"