The Story Behind Johnny Cash’s Last Duet with Daughter Rosanne “September When It Comes”

In 2003, Rosanne Cash released her final duet with her father, “September When It Comes.” Johnny Cash later died that year on September 12 at age 71. Written by Rosanne and her husband John Leventhal, the ballad was featured on her 2003 album, Rules of Travel, which peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

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The Meaning

The song is a partial story of Rosanne’s life, a remembrance of birth, childhood, and profound bond with her father, told first from her perspective.

There’s a cross above the baby’s bed
A savior in her dreams
But she was not delivered then
And the baby became me
There’s a light inside the darkened room
A footstep on the stair
A door that I forever close
To leave those memories there
So when the shadows lengthen
Into an evening sun
First there’s summer, then I’ll let you in
September when it comes

Johnny Cash then comes in, accepting his life, and time.

I plan to crawl outside these walls
Close my eyes and see
And fall into the heart and arms
Of those who wait for me
I cannot move a mountain now
I can no longer run
I cannot be who I was then
In a way I never was

For the chorus, Rosanne sings of passing time and the inevitable.

I watch the clouds go sailing
I watch the clock and sun
Oh I watch myself depending on
September when it comes

In the final part of the song, Cash sings through When it begins. Rosanne finishes his sentence with I’ll let you in, and father and daughter close in unison on the closing September when it comes.

When the shadows lengthen
And burn away the past
They will fly me like an angel to
A place where I can rest
When this begins I’ll let you in
September when it comes

Johnny Cash-Approved Lyrics

“I had written those lyrics and I left them out for days,” Rosanne Cash tells American Songwriter. “I’m not I’m not nearly as organized as him [Leventhal]. I leave stuff around, and he found the lyrics. He just saw it and he goes ‘What is this? I said ‘It’s something I wrote.” Then, he took it and wrote the music to it.”

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Cash adds, “I was obviously thinking about my dad because he was really sick. And he [Leventhal] said ‘If there was ever a song to sing with your dad, this would be it.’ At first, I really resisted that, and then I realized he was right. So I asked my dad. I called my dad and I said ‘Would you want to sing the song with me?’ He said ‘I’ll have to see the lyrics first.”

She laughs, “Ever the professional.”

Rosanne took the song to her father, and he agreed to sing on it.

“He was very sick, but he went to the studio with me and did it,” shared Cash. “And then he said, “You take that back to John. If he doesn’t like it, I’ll do it again, but I told him “It’s good enough.”

Photo by Vivian Wang / Courtesy of Kid Logic Media