One of his most famous songs, “I Walk the Line” is Johnny Cash’s promise to remain faithful to his first wife, Vivian, while he is on the road. It seems a certain ring of fire interfered with this pledge.

According to Cash, he was often tempted to stray from “the line” during his early days on tour:

Wasn’t no problem, finding a beautiful girl. Look, I’d say to myself, there’s a couple. I’d say, Look, there in the third row.” In Quebec, he almost fell in love. “They pulled them dresses up, and I hollered, ‘Pull it up a little bit higher, baby,’ and they did. Man, they just laid it on you. And they kept on just layin’ it on you, night after night, city after city.

The song became Cash’s first #1 Billboard hit. The single remained on the record charts for over 43 weeks, and sold over 2 million copies.

The song also gave its name to the Johnny Cash biopic film starring Joaquin Phoenix, and a Gregory Peck film about the infidelities of a married sheriff.

This song’s influence on the music world is palpable. In his autobiography, Bob Dylan makes strong mention of its effect on him:

“I Walk the Line” [is] a song I’d always considered to be up there at the top, one of the most mysterious and revolutionary of all time, a song that makes an attack on your most vulnerable spots, sharp words from a master.

“I keep a close watch on this heart of mine.” Indeed. I must have recited those lines to myself a million times… When I first heard “I Walk the Line” so many years earlier, it sounded like a voice calling out, “What are you doing there, boy?” I was trying to keep my eyes wide opened, too.