Saul Holiff: Self
Quotes
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Saul Holiff : The situation was that Johnny was on the floor of the motor home totally unconscious. No one could pick up any pulse whatsoever. For all intents and purposes, HE WAS DEAD. Harold Reid had his ear on Cash's chest saying, "I can't hear anything." Another member of the group is saying, "I wonder where he hid the pills;" another is saying, "I'm not going to cross the border, because WE'LL ALL GO TO JAIL." Another is saying, "Wellesley Hospital is right around the corner, why don't we take him there?" It is about ten o'clock. It is snowing by now. The fact is we REALLY didn't know just how ill he was. Do we put him in a hospital in Toronto and cancel the Rochester show and risk physical threats to ourselves? Do we risk the possibility that Customs will search the motor home and find the pills? What really do we do? As far as Barbara and myself, we were concerned about the baby. And, most of all, we were concerned about whether Johnny was going to make it. The decision finally, was go. Go to Rochester and see what would happen. I changed my reservation from the hotel we were supposed to stay at to another one, so the promoter would not know where we were staying, arranged for someone to look after the baby. We made it to Rochester at about 2:30 in the afternoon. We drove down to the Rochester Memorial Auditorium. And this is what we saw: Johnny had REVIVED, was FULL of energy, had made an extraordinary recovery, and he went out, and he did two CLEAR-HEADED, SENSATIONAL, SOLD-OUT SHOWS. I think we even got an honest count from the promoter that night.
[Original Source: Saul Holiff Audio Diary 1966]
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Saul Holiff : Soon after Jonathan was born, I was in Europe. And just prior to Joshua being born, I was in England. And Johnny was going through his "bad-ass" stage, and we had a booking for one night to fly over to Paris to appear at the Olympia. This was a deal I had worked on for a long time. The French were sort of aware of Johnny Cash. This was going to be a significant thing. But when we gathered together to fly over, he was nowhere to be found. It turned out that he had taken off with Dylan on some mad escapade. I got on a plane, first class if you please, and flew home. And a month later, with the sense that my relationship with Johnny was over, that I had initiated, that I just couldn't stand it anymore, I was the father of two small babies, with a mortgage and no prospects. So I wasn't in any condition to enjoy parenthood at that time.
[Original Source: Saul Holiff Audio Diary 1998]
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Johnny Cash : It seems that Saul, and everyone else, misunderstands my reason for not wanting to perform there. Every time I worked Las Vegas, the environment contributed to tearing me down. I'm not ready to come to Vegas. When I do, I intend to set the town afire, instead of letting it burn me up. I and only I will know when I am ready.
[Original Source: Johnny Cash to Joe Dale CC Saul Holiff; May 18, 1971]
Saul Holiff : We went out to do the Glen Campbell show and I pitched Johnny the idea of playing Las Vegas. We were supposed to go to Australia in March, but he cancelled that for various reasons. I suggested that now was the time to play Vegas. And he said "yes."
[Original Source: Saul Holiff Audio Diary, December 1971]
Saul Holiff : [On route to Las Vegas] "The trip I'm embarking upon has many ramifications. I'm now entering my eleventh year with Johnny. I feel a definite build-up of hostility on his part. He's challenging me endlessly, reversing himself, putting me in an embarrassing position, not advising me of different details, doing the old number on me, of keeping me guessing, making me feel as if I'm calling the shots and then suddenly pulling the rug out from underneath me again, and again, and AGAIN. I have been doing all the work I possibly can do - which is practically nothing. Seem to have lost the desire.
[Original Source: Saul's Audio Diary, March 1972]
Saul Holiff : [On returning from Las Vegas] "I don't want to be the richest man in the cemetery. I want desperately to start spending more time with my family, and I want desperately to start enjoying the things that I worked so GOD-DAMNED HARD for in 10 years, and taken such incredible abuse, and such humiliation so often. I wanna salvage my soul; he robbed it, he robbed me of my soul and now I think he's trying to save it for me - through his fundamentalist Christianity jazz. I find it VERY offensive. And here I am, inundated with it; the VERY thing that I've always objected strenuously to; so I know that the rupture is on the horizon. But if money is a security blanket, we're able to, frankly, phase down into semi-retirement, or for that matter, retirement." Stopped taking tranquillizers... started drinking again. I don't know which is worse.
[Original Source: Saul's Audio Diary, April 1972]
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Saul Holiff : I brought Johnny in to help publicize the restaurant. We didn't hit it off at ALL. That was 1958. And then I brought him back in 1959 and we had a terrible argument - a horrible argument. And I made some remark to him, that he's "just like the rest of them. And Johnny doesn't like to think of himself as the rest of them. And he suddenly recognized me as an entity rather than just some passing face in the night. I booked him on another tour. And we hit it off.
[Original Source: CFPL Radio interview 1976]
Johnny Cash : It was Saul who pushed me to take my show, and my career, to another level. I was perfectly happy where I was, doing what I loved to do and getting paid for it, but after I got to know Saul I started liking his ideas. INSTEAD of just ballrooms and dance halls around the U.S. and Canada, Saul said I should be aiming at Europe, the Orient, and big places in big cities; Carnegie Hall perhaps, the Hollywood Bowl. And that could be just the beginning.
[Original Source: "CASH: The Autobiography," by Johnny Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr HarperCollins, 1997]
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Saul Holiff : ["A Boy named Sue"] We were walking through O'Hare Airport one day, wandering around waiting for a plane, and Shel Silverstein came ambling up. And he had a song. It was crumpled up on a piece of paper, and he handed it to Johnny, and Johnny shoved it down to the bottom of his benny kit. It was "A Boy Named Sue." And a few weeks later, he recorded it, without another take. And that single, THAT 45, sold 6 million records!"
[Original Source: CFPL Radio interview 1976]
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Saul Holiff : [On recording San Quentin] In England I set this show - it was an English concept, an English production, an English deal from beginning to end. If it hadn't been for Granada Television, there never would have been a San Quentin LP.
[Original Source: CFPL Radio interview 1976]
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Johnny Cash : Well, listen Saul. I've got something else on my mind now. Have got it keeping me layin' awake thinkin' about, um, goin' to Israel. I would, uh, do much better, ah, job at, talkin' and showin' about Jesus and his life, you know. I don't know how you go about getting it on the networks, but it seems to me like if I had, um, "Johnny Cash In Israel: Following In the Footsteps of Jesus," you know, for Christmas time.
Saul Holiff : Now that you have told me, I'll break my ass trying to bring it about.
Johnny Cash : Well, Saul, make sure they understand... we talked about me bein' an honest performer now. That Johnny Cash is not the same Johnny Cash that is around now, see? If I do a television special on Israel, I should do it about the life of Jesus, right? Don't you think so?
Saul Holiff : I would say that, in your own way, in a subtle manner, you will follow the footsteps of Jesus... but without hitting them over the head with it.
Johnny Cash : Right, uh-huh...
Saul Holiff : I think it should be labeled "Johnny Cash in the Holy Land" rather than "Johnny Cash in Israel."
Johnny Cash : All right. Okay. Sure.
Saul Holiff : So, let me go to work on it...
Johnny Cash : Well, Saul, I really uh, do have a strong conviction. This is the only thing I want to do.
[Original Source: Telephone call between Johnny Cash and Saul Holiff, May 1971]
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Johnny Cash : Well, I talked to June about those shows, and, uh, just about every show is going to have some work done on it. Uh, I would take out all the cussin' and the "Hells," and the "Damns," and the smart-ass remarks - before I'll ever agree to 'em being re-run.
Saul Holiff : M-hm.
Johnny Cash : I want to ask you about a special. Do they want a special with me?
Saul Holiff : Ah, the letter he wrote simply said, "I've been in discussion with network, to be nameless at the moment, concerning a one-hour Johnny Cash special. I believe it's safe to say that I have an order for a special, subject to the creative theme for the special," um, so whatever he means by that, um, I'm not quite sure.
Johnny Cash : There's only one that I would like to do. I'd like to do a LIVE Gospel music special. The Jesus movement is really goin' strong for us. I would like to close with about a 10-minute sermon from Jimmy Snow, with an alter call, these people coming down to the altar, praying and raisin' their hands up, and then have the closing song over that, you know?
Saul Holiff : In other words, to put on film an actual uh, um, um, segment of a real, uh...
Johnny Cash : A real REVIVAL!
Saul Holiff : Revival.
Johnny Cash : I went to church yesterday, and the thing I saw in that church, if we could get that on network television, boy it would REALLY be something. Those women and men comin' on their knees, and raisin' their hands up, you know like they do to Jesus, and tears comin' down their face. It could be like a Johnny Cash Gospel Crusade, you know?
Saul Holiff : Lemme, lemme try it out on him, and let him go to the network and see if he can create some interest in it.
[Original Source: Telephone call between Johnny Cash and Saul Holiff, August 1971]
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Johnny Cash : [Clearing his throat] Now there's a couple of things I want to say to you that I need to clear the air completely with you on.
Saul Holiff : Uh-huh.
Johnny Cash : First of all, I knew, way before we even did the film that there's a lot of people - maybe the MAJORITY of the people - are not gonna buy what I am saying in the film or what this film is sayin". So, you see, I don't really have to be told that because I know that.
Saul Holiff : Well, when I make a statement like that, that's what's known as trying to be honest, because first of all, if you take a hundred people, twenty- five of them are of Christian faith and twenty of them are Moslems, and ten... you know, that's what I meant.
Johnny Cash : But, but I knew that originally, see?
Saul Holiff : Yeah.
Johnny Cash : Well, I just felt like you didn't have a lot of interest in this film.
Saul Holiff : I'm one of the few people that try to say to you exactly what they think without meaning to be harmful. I'm not trying to break things down, I'm just trying to temper things a little bit by saying, not exactly what people think you want to hear.
Johnny Cash : Yeah, right.
Saul Holiff : I find that a lot of people tell you exactly what you want to hear.
Johnny Cash : Yeah. I know that. I don't need that either.
Saul Holiff : And that doesn't help.
Johnny Cash : No it doesn't.
[Original Source: Telephone call between Johnny Cash and Saul Holiff, July 1972]
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Saul Holiff : I've kept my running up, and my weight is stable, and I'm now, going on two weeks tomorrow, without drinking any hard liquor. I've done some considerable planning for the fall, and the August and September tours are all set up and, um, emotionally, I'm somewhat confused. I'm still annoyed that I can't get my office work done; don't seem to be motivated enough, or whatever. The Sahara Tahoe date is just three weeks away, which is almost inconceivable. The kids seem to be enjoying being out of school. And I still would like to be able to get out and toss a ball around with them, just can't seem to do. I just need to re-order my priorities and get off my fat ass, and get out with the kids and do things with them, toss a ball around, get involved. Help a little bit around here. I feel guilty about it I guess.
[Original Source: Saul's Audio Diary, July 1973]
Barbara Holiff : [Lake Tahoe] June criticized Saul for being absent whenever Johnny appeared "for free" with the Billy Graham Crusade. She questioned whether he had "something against Jesus," and asked Saul if he was "only interested in money." Saul told June he considered her remark anti-Semitic. He said he shouldn't be required to attend benefits he had not arranged. And then, giving five months' notice, your father resigned.
Saul Holiff : Here I am being told that all I'm interested in is money. Now that always strikes me as hilarious because the Cashes were always interested in money. And then - this is the strangest part - there was never one ill word, not even a suggestion that I would be leaving. On the contrary, I think they had looked upon me - I'm positive of it - as a good luck charm; it had something to do with being superstitious, I know that.
[Original Source: Saul Holiff as quoted by "Johnny Cash, The Biography," by Michael Streissguth]
Johnny Cash : Saul is a great family man and one of the wisest men I know. We've grown together for 12 years and now Saul plans to turn his back on the future wealth we may have.
[Original Source: "True Star: Cash big tree of country music," London Free Press, November 5, 1973]
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Saul Holiff : I don't want to sound corny, but, uh, I gave Johnny up, Johnny didn't give me up. This is something that skeptics question because I don't know of any similar situation where someone gives up an act, a superstar. No I left Johnny voluntarily. I wanted to go back to school. I got out because I wanted out. So I could rebuild my self-respect, and be my own person again.
[Original Source: CFPL Radio interview, circa 1976]
