(crowd cheering)
Thanks for being here.
Great to be here.
You know, I, first of all I wanna say,
I saw this movie,
I'm gonna say it's like a week and a half ago
they got me a special screening.
And I went with a couple of the priests on our show
and we were completely blown away by this film.
It's a tall order.
I would say, playing Johnny Cash and you just become him.
And you forget that you're an actor playing Johnny Cash
which is the biggest hurdle in a biopic.
So congratulations, really an incredible job.
Thank you.
You gotta see this movie
(crowd applauds)
First of all I know...
You know you've come on the show a couple of times
over the years and I know
that one of the hardest things I know that you love acting,
you love inhabiting the role you love the craft.
Then you've got to go out and talk about the movie
which can probably get a little boring for you.
Cause people ask you the same questions over and over again.
Is there anything you're doing this time around to sort of,
keep yourself entertained as you go through this process?
(speaks foreign language)
(crowd laughs)
My question exactly.
Yeah. No, I always, I have...
(crowd laughing)
That was for our Finnish audience I think.
Yeah, no, I have
I just create a special languages that no one understands.
I don't even understand it.
Right right. You just, you, you make up like kind of words
and stuff just to do every now and then.
You've actually been doing this on this press tour.
Is that right?
Yeah a little bit mew mew
(crowd laughing)
(crosstalk)
You're doing it for yourself, right?
Well, me and two other people.
Right.
You know, I have a friend Michael
and we call him "Mew mew."
And he actually has a song
that we've made up just for him.
Just for him.
"Mew mew gaga" song.
Right. "Mew mew gaga" song.
"Gaga." Yeah. That's very important.
You did it very well, by the way.
Not a lot of people can do it.
And who have you been trying to get to do it?
I heard you try to, you went on,
was it Ridges and?
Yeah, Ridges. He was a champ.
He did it and he did it very well.
And the first thing...
Did he know what he was doing? How did this play?
Yeah. No we went through the entire song actually.
He what he knew, he knows the chorus, the bridge everything.
Right.
I'd love to see Ridges scream "mew mew gaga mew mew."
And he's such a high energy guy.
Right. He also, he can add a little "gika" or "jenga"
with the two which is nice. Just a little flavor.
You know when they "mew mew gaga" too much.
I prefer not to go that way. That's not me.
That's more Ridges. I don't do that.
I'm a strict "mew mew gaga" guy myself.
Okay. Well, whatever makes you comfortable.
It's your show. You know what I mean?
I don't wanna push anything on it.
After The Wendy's thing, I don't know
if it's mine anymore. It might be..
(crowd laughs)
It might be gone now. Now you had to, have not had to
this I think has to be a thrill is present
at the Country Music Awards
which, you know, I mean, you're playing Johnny Cash
in the film and then you're asked to present
at the Country Music Awards. How was that?
Did you enjoy it?
Well, did you know how many people sat
at Madison square garden?
Do you know how many people are there?
(crosstalk)
Slightly more than what we have in this room right now
(crosstalk)
A little bit more. Two and a half million people. Wow.
And not really
(crowd laughs)
But there was a lot. That's what it feels like.
And I walked out there and I just, I didn't know what to do.
And I saw Kris Kristofferson right away.
And he gave me a thumbs up
And I was like, "Well that's good."
I don't know what that meant.
I don't know how he knows that it's gonna be okay.
But somehow...
There's something very calming
about Kris Kristofferson.
Yeah. No, it's true.
I found that throughout my life,
whenever I'm in a moment of crisis, I look around
and Kris Kristofferson appears.
(crowd laughs)
So he gives me a thumbs up. He's like an angel
He is. No, so that was good.
And then I had to, you know, we're presenting.
And so we're. They go through a list of names.
It's on a teleprompter.
And I was a little nervous
but I got all of those names right.
But Reese who I've worked with for like a year,
I got her name wrong.
I called her Reeth on live television
and she kicked me off of stage.
Yeah. She can be vicious I'm told. Yeah. She's tough.
No she's a sweetheart.
Well, you guys, I mean she plays your love interest,
June Carter Cash in this film.
And I wanna talk about the movie now.
First of all this great honor you got to meet Johnny Cash,
even before you made this film.
Before you knew that you were gonna be making this film.
Is that right?
Yeah.
How did that come about?
Well, I was invited over to dinner
at his friend's house and went over
and it was an amazing experience.
I can't tell you what that's like no words can describe
what it was there. John and June were just beautiful people.
And they sang this song together
and looked at each other's eyes
and it was just beautiful spiritual.
And then I had to leave
and John stopped me as I was walking out.
And he was a real fan of this movie, "The Gladiator."
And he said, I can't do his voice anymore.
But he said, "My favorite part is when you said,
"Your son squealed like a girl
when they nailed him to the cross
and you're a wife moaned like a horse.
They ravaged her again and again and again."
I love that part."
(crowd laughs)
We all remember that. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean the most sadistic dialogue
ever committed to celluloid.
Right. That's what like caught his attention.
Well, he's an artist who went to a dark place many times
and he's fuscous.
But he was amazed that that kind of him,
just seeing him with with June and this great love
and then that's the dialogue that he quotes
and it's fascinating.
You know, one of the things you do in the movie
in addition to, you know, playing the music
and singing it is that you have in the movie,
his deep baritone. And I was just thinking,
how did you do that?
I mean, you could put a gun to my head.
I could never get my voice lower than like a helium squeak.
But you have, I'd be like,
"Hi everybody. I'm Johnny Cash."
But you, I almost got that role and that cost me.
But you really you changed your voice
and I'm wondering how do you do that?
With vocal lessons, doing working with a vocal coach.
And it's the most humiliating process I've ever endured
because you do these exercises, all these vowels.
And you do like "thethethethe," up and down.
And it's so uncomfortable. I can't tell you.
And to transition as I hear this guy
going "funkdy bangdy dingidy dingidy" up.
You know how do you go from that to I shot a man
and really don't wanna watch him die. It's strange.
It's not getting you in the mood
to sing a Johnny Cash song.
It was very, very difficult.
Well, we have a clip here. This is a great scene actually.
This is in the movie.
Johnny Cash has gone through this terrible problems
with addiction. He's been gone for a while
and then he wants to come back
and he wants to appease this idea to sing at Folsom prison.
His record label says, "That's a stupid idea,
no one wants to see that," but he goes ahead and does it.
And I think it's one of the biggest selling records
of all time when this came out.
It sounds great. It seems like an interesting movie.
Yeah, thank you very much.
I look forward to seeing it.
I like to set up all the clips myself. I just enjoy it.
(crowd laughs)
Anyway here's a little thing I did called Walk the Line
but take a look at this clip.
My hats off to you now.
Cause I ain't never had to drink this yellow water
you got here at Folsom.
(crowd applauds loudly)
(glass shatters)
This song's for your warden.
♪ early that morning while I'm making the rounds, ♪
♪ I took this shout of cocaine then I shot my woman down ♪
♪ I went riding home then I went to bed. ♪
♪ I stuck that lovin' 44 beneath my head ♪
♪ got up next morning and I grabbed that gun. ♪
♪ took a shot of cocaine and away I run ♪
♪ made a good run but I run too slow ♪
♪ they overtook me down in Juarez, Mexico ♪
(crowd applauds)
I've heard from, you know I think a lot of people
and I thought I was very familiar with Johnny Cash's work
and a fan of his. I saw this movie and I went home
that night and I stayed on the internet all night
like getting more Johnny Cash songs
and trying to look at rare footage.
This movie makes you wanna like revisit everything he did.
Which is really cool.
Walk the Line opens tomorrow.Go see this movie.
It's fantastic
It's been an honor to have you. Thank so much
(crosstalk)
(crowd applauds)