Country superstar Brett Kissel opened up about the treasured handwritten note he received from Johnny Cash on the day the legendary singer died.
“I always loved Johnny Cash,” the 29-year-old country singer shared about the note he got as a young boy from the Man in Black, according to Fox News in a piece published Wednesday. (RELATED: Country Stars Remember Las Vegas Victims During CMT Awards)
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“So Johnny Cash music was always in the house and especially something that my grandparents played,” he added. (RELATED: Why, 2017?! Celebrities We Have Lost This Year [SLIDESHOW])
The “We Were That Song” singer went on to share that when Cash’s wife, June Carter, died in May 2003 he decided to write the “Ring of Fire” hitmaker.
“I was so sad for him and I felt like I knew him, so I wrote him a letter from an address that I had in the back of my grandparents’ records,” Kissel recalled. “I wrote him the letter, put it in the mail and then I forgot about it and made this recording, a bunch of Johnny Cash songs, ‘Tennessee Flat Top Box,’ ‘Big River,’ ‘I Guess Things Happen That Way,’ ‘I Still Miss Someone’ – it was almost like a tribute record to him.”
The “Drink About Me” singer explained then it was Friday Sept. 12, 2003 and he was getting ready for his first concert and his mom came in and shared that the good news was that his “concert sold out.” But then she shared the heartbreaking news told him that the “Hurt” hitmaker had died.
“I was devastated,” Brett shared. “But I went, you know – the show must go on – I got ready for my concert. My dad came home from work that day and [had] a stack of mail, and in that were letters and cards from grandparents or cousins who couldn’t make the show, but wishing me well on my release-party day.”
“And there was a big yellow envelope that I opened up with shaky handwriting and it said, ‘To Brett, Jesus, first. Johnny Cash,'” he added. “It was a picture he gave me, and I got that on the day that he died.”
Kissel continued, “I don’t know if he signed that for me, you know, three months ago. And I don’t know if he signed that to me five days before he died. But I feel that in everything that I’ve ever done in my life, that he has kind of had his hands on my shoulders. I’ve never met him, but I know I’ll meet him one day.”