Country music legend Johnny Cash told stories about his life for as long as most of us can remember, and some of those stories are, quite honestly, pretty hard to swallow. If you’re a good listener with the ability to sense when something doesn’t quite smell right, Cash can be a worthwhile use of your time. He has admitted to using painkillers in the past, but how he became addicted is something you either believe or not.
Cash’s home was in Nashville, Tennessee, and on his property near Old Hickory Lake is an exotic animal farm he created. Among the animals he cared for were ostriches. Ostriches are generally known for sticking their head in the sand, which of course is just a play on words. What many people don’t know is the bird stands between 7 and 9 feet tall when fully grown. But they are not among the smartest of birds.
There was a particularly rough winter when a deep Tennessee freeze killed about half of Cash’s ostrich population, including one of the hens, leaving their male partner very unhappy. Of course, it had nothing to do with Cash, but this bird brain didn’t know this truth. Cash recalls that up to this point, he and the ostrich got along just fine. There was a path he had walked along for years, and no trouble came between him and this particular ostrich.
Walking along that same path, the bird confronted him aggressively, spreading its wings and hissing at him. This is a very primal thing, and Cash said it was his land, and no ostrich was going to run him off of his property. He waited for the bird to calm down, then continued walking down the trail. The problem was that this would inevitable happen again. On the walk back, he brought with him a 6 foot stick for defense.
As Cash had imagined, the ostrich was back on the path as he returned, forcing a confrontation. Cash took the offensive, and the fight was on. A swing and a miss by Cash — and the bird had disappeared. Not really, as he descended on Cash from above, with claw extended. Cash fell to the ground and the ostrich’s claw ripped into his beltline and two of his ribs, and with the fall broke three of his ribs. Cash managed to get in a solid hit to one of the bird’s legs and it ran off.
After going to the doctor to get stitched up, he found out how painful broken ribs can be. They had given him painkillers, and he began taking them to reduce the pain that was caused by his broken ribs. A lot of them. He said that he was justified in taking so many of them because, after all, that is what they were for. The problem is that he liked the way he felt after taking the pills — even after the ribs had healed.
The trek began, going from one doctor to another to get a prescription for the drugs. He was officially an addict, and added amphetamines and wine to the mix to ease his stomach problems brought about by the large number of pills he was taking.
Cash reflects on his addiction and says it was like living in Hell. He eventually sought help and started down the road to recovery. All this because of one dumb bird seeking an imaginary revenge.
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