Before Nashville businessman Bill Miller owned hundreds of Johnny Cash artifacts, a museum dedicated to his legacy and classic Nashville bars like Nudie's Honky Tonk and Skull's Rainbow Room, he was just a kid who loved the Man in Black.
Miller attended his first Cash concert at 13 years old with his dad. Their seats were toward the back of the concert hall, and halfway through, Miller ran down front with his camera hoping to snap the perfect picture of his favorite musician. Through the camera lens, he watched Cash get closer and closer until it looked like he was reaching out to him.
He was. After playing "Orange Blossom Special," Cash tossed one of his two harmonicas out to the crowd. It became the first piece of Cash memorabilia Miller owned.
Now, he owns and curates a 20,000-square-foot museum filled with them in downtown Nashville. The Johnny Cash Museum became a landmark among Lower Broadway's country music establishments when it opened in 2013. Before that, Miller said Nashville had all but forgotten about Cash. While his records still played around town, his childhood home in Hendersonville burned down, and the only museum dedicated to his life closed its doors.
"We were still living in California at the time, and I went back and said, 'What have I done?' The only thing I knew about museums is that I had been to a couple, but I signed this lease for 15 years. I've got to build a museum," Miller said. "The crowds just keep coming and coming now, and that's a testament to Johnny Cash."
The first expansion came in 2015, when Miller bought the rest of the building where the Johnny Cash Museum was located, but since then, the museum has sat widely untouched, welcoming in thousands of visitors each year. When Miller's licensing terms for the Patsy Cline wing on the second floor ran out, he decided 2026 would be the perfect time to expand.
Open now, the 4,000-square-foot addition displays dozens of never-before-seen items and immersive experiences like a recreation of The Johnny Cash Show stage and a working recording studio for visitors to try out.
Cash himself was quite the collector and history buff. Miller said he spent "a lot of money" buying some of the same historic items that Cash once owned, including an 1863 document signed by President Abraham Lincoln and a collection of ancient Roman coins
Another case shows Cash's rider from his 1993 tour, calling specifically for 2.5 gallons of fresh coffee, four dozen Coca-Cola Classic cans, six cans of Dr. Pepper and enough fresh fruit for approximately 25 people.
"He wasn't as demanding as he could have been," Miller said.
When he returned home after that first concert back in 1973, Miller felt like he had been baptized in the church of Cash fandom. He became the teen editor of the Johnny Cash International Fan Club Journal, attended as many shows as he could and regularly wrote notes of gratitude to Cash and his family.
After a few years of this, Cash started to recognize him in the crowd, and when he got a little older, Miller found himself backstage talking to him after a show.
"We struck up a friendship that lasted 35 years," Miller said. "Other fans always asked me, 'Well Billy, we were members of the club too. How'd you become friends with Johnny Cash?'"
After Cash's death in 2003, Miller found himself buying Cash memorabilia as a way to protect his legacy, to keep the items safe. Miller was never sure why Cash befriended him over any of the other fans until the museum opening in 2013. Then, he thought, "This must be it. It was meant to be."
"Be careful before you meet your hero because your world may shatter," Miller said. "My life would have been so different — I don't even know where I would be or what I would be doing — if Johnny Cash hadn't been such a kind human being."
The only regret he has now is that he never got to wander the museum halls with Cash himself.
"He would have loved this place," Miller said.
Hadley Hitson covers business news for The Tennessean. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work,subscribe to The Tennessean.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Nashville businessman Bill Miller went from Johnny Cash's fan club to close friend
