Evening at the White House

The inside of the front cover of the night's program. Still falsely claiming Cash's Cherokee ancestry, which he would recant in the 1990s, connects him to working-class Americans and paints the image of a self-made man. 

On April 17, 1970, Johnny Cash was invited to headline the “Evening at the White House” concert series hosted by President Richard Nixon and First Lady Patricia Nixon. The president had requested that Cash play Guy Drake’s “Welfare Cadillac” and Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee,” songs that belittle Americans on public welfare and disregard anti-war protesters as drug-abusing troublemakers.     

Cash declined to play either song but did play his own “What is Truth” focused on generational and cultural conflict, encouraging his generation to understand the turbulent conditions for the American youth. Reminding all that

“the ones that you’re calling wild/ Are going to be the leaders in a little while.”

Nixon acknowledged the disagreement in introducing Cash’s performance, saying that “it’s rather hard to describe him…except for those who know his music. I’m not an expert on his music. Incidentally, I found that out when I began to tell him what to sing.” You can listen to the full introduction here.