It was 2004 when singer/actor Shawn Barker sent in his video audition tape to the producers of a new jukebox musical. Part concert and part biography, The Million Dollar Quartet would present a fictionalized version of one of rock and roll’s greatest summits.
It was on December 4, 1956 when coincidence (and a few phone calls) brought together early rock titans Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis to Memphis’ Sun Studios. They had an informal jam session as the four plowed through loose versions of their favorite rock, country, R&B, and gospel songs.
Barker was hoping to get cast as the show’s Elvis Presley. But Director Floyd Mutrux had another thought. Due to an astonishing physical and vocal resemblance, he wanted Barker for the role of Cash instead. “We have 100 people who can play Elvis,” Mutrux told him. “But we only have one who can play Johnny Cash.”
“I wanted Elvis because I had been doing some Elvis tribute shows for a while that were pretty successful, and I wanted to get into the acting door,” Barker says via Zoom from his home in Branson, Missouri. “Then I got word they wanted me for Cash, and I was like ‘I don’t know about this.’ But it’s worked out pretty well!”
Barker rehearsed for the Quartet show that would eventually open in several cities in 2006 before later hitting Broadway four years later, but he never actually performed in it. Barker began doing solo tribute shows as Cash around the same time, and for more money than the union scale he was getting waiting for The Million Dollar Quartet to get off the ground.
“We had no idea when we started if people would even be interested, but we had big bookings as soon as we sent our information out,” Barker recalls. “In fact, our first contract was from Donald Trump to play the Trump Marina in Atlantic City for five days. The President was the first person to hire me as Johnny Cash!”
Houstonians will have a chance to hear Cash hits like “Ring of Fire,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line,” “A Boy Named Sue” and later material like his covers of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” and Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” when The Man in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash comes to the Dosey Doe on January 31.
Shawn Barker grew up in St. Louis, but his father’s side of the family came from the same part of Arkansas that Cash’s did. So he heard a lot of the music in his early years.
“Some of it was on 8-track!” the 51-year-old Barker laughs. “My grandpa and my dad were such fans of that music, and also Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison and Jay and the Americans. All that music is so good.”
The recent Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown dramatizes (though playing a bit loose with the timeline) the real and deep friendship that Dylan and Cash shared, which led to collaborations on record and television. In fact, Johnny Cash is one artist that country, folk, gospel, and rock and roll audiences can pretty much all agree upon.
“Johnny was probably the biggest multi-genre artist of our time. Snoop Dogg talked about him being the original gangster. His music was even like rap, this simple [beat] with him just talking over a rhythm,” Barker offers.
“And if you watched his TV show that started in 1969, the amount of different types of guests he had on that show was amazing. Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan—he brought all this music together and put it on his TV show in front of some of the biggest sticklers for music, the Nashville audience.”
In fact, Barker says his “dream show” would be to book Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium (original home of the Grand Ole Opry) and recreate the Cash TV show with someone to play Carl Perkins, four guys to do the Statler Brothers, and women to be the Carter family, all in authentic costumes and playing with period gear.
For The Man in Black, Barker performs as Cash in the third person (a switch from his first-person approach early on). And when possible at the venue, has a screen showing video clips from Cash’s life and performances.
The show has a number of different on-stage amalgamations, some of which include his real-life wife, Jessica Morales, singing/performing as Cash’s spouse, June Carter Cash (and in a bigger twist, the pair actually met doing the show when Morales joined as a backup singer). However, for a four-date Texas swing, Morales will be at home taking care of their 1-year-old son.
“That means ‘Jackson’ won’t be in the show!” Barker laughs. His band will include Dean O’Leary (guitar), Dean Church (bass), Michael Jackson (drums), and Will Clark (keyboards/piano).
It’s one thing for Barker—or any tribute artist—to get the right vocal sound down of whoever they’re playing. But it’s a deeper level to also mimic vocal inflections/tics and reproduce physical stage movement. He’s put in his time over the years devouring hundreds of hours of audio and video footage.
“Surprisingly, unlike Elvis, there’s not a lot of [concert] video of Johnny Cash. I wish there was more,” Barker says. “But I’ve studied the materials, just like any actor in Hollywood would do for any part.”
Barker says that he hasn’t heard from any members of the actual Cash family, though he’s sure they and the estate are aware of The Man in Black. He has gotten positive response from Saul Holiff, who was Cash’s manager from 1960-73, as well as his original and decades-long serving drummer, W.S. Holland.
“I like to say the show is a musical history of Johnny Cash, narrated by myself. And I’ve got some neat information,” Barker sums up, noting it’s been about two decades since his last appearances in the state. And he says that maybe the next time he’s in Texas, the whole family will come along.
“It won’t be long before we’re all on the road!” he laughs. “I’ve got a big RV!”
The Man in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash plays at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, January 31, at the Dosey Doe Big Barn, 25911 I-45. For more information, call 281-367-3774 or visit DoseyDoeTickets.com $68-$108, price includes three-course meal and soft drinks, served 6:30-7:30 pm.
For more information on Shawn Barker and The Man in Black, visit TheManInBlack.com
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.
