This song was made for an acoustic accompaniment.
Megan Moroney released her debut album Lucky in 2023, and one of the easy standouts is a song called “Why Johnny,” which Megan co-wrote with Conor Matthews. It’s a beautiful song written from the perspective of June Carter Cash, as Meg admits she doesn’t know how June put up with everything she did and stuck it out for so many years before Johnny turned his life around.
From drugs to women, I can’t imagine he was the easiest person to be married to for a long time, but of course, mostly due to June’s strength and will (I’m sure Johnny would’ve said the same), they made it and became country music’s most beloved and iconic couple.
In the song, Megan finds herself in a similar relationship, wondering how June did it because she’s not sure she can do the same and it’s looking rather hopeless:
“When he comes home late on booze and pills
Lyin’ through that perfume smell comin’ off his shirt?
What made you wanna make it work?
Did you always know he’d come around
Change his ways and settle down?
Did your friends call you crazy too?
It’d sure help if I knew, hey June, why Johnny?
Why Johnny and how June
Did you make him realize it was always you?
Did you ever wanna find somebody new…”
It’s such a unique concept and beautifully written song, and Megan previously said the original idea was about how great the relationship was, but after doing some research, she quickly found out it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.”
It turned into a song about Megan commending June because she stuck around:
“And so we looked into the timeline of the relationship. I didn’t realize that they were married to two different people when they met backstage at the Opry, so immediately I was like, ‘Oh, that’s new.’
We started to read more into their relationship, and obviously Johnny Cash struggled with substance abuse and alcohol abuse, and I just like, after doing research, it wasn’t like all sunshine and rainbows, their relationship. And so that’s when I was like, I can’t write ‘Why did you shut the bar so high?’
I kind of had empathy for June, and I was like, June, how did you do that, you know? And so that song is a letter commending her for her strength because she stuck around.”
I think a lot of people have a very idealistic version of Johnny and June’s relationship, and this song adds so much nuance and important credit to Mrs. June Carter, who was a big part of changing Johnny’s life and helping him become the incredible man he was.
The nature of the song lends itself so well to a simple acoustic backing, and I can’t figure out why this song is so underrated in her larger catalog:
@megmoroneyhappy thanksgiving💞 lucky stans rise♬ original sound – Megan Moroney
If you haven’t heard it before, this is one of her best:
“Why Johnny”
