“HOTTER THAN A PEPPER SPROUT: A HILLBILLY POET’S JOURNEY FROM APPALACHIA TO YALE TO WRITING HITS FOR ELVIS, JOHNNY CASH & MORE,” by Billy Edd Wheeler (BMG, 250 pages, $25)
Songwriter, poet, playwright and musician Billy Edd Wheeler opens his new memoir, “Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout: A Hillbilly Poet’s Journey From Appalachia to Yale to Writing Hits for Elvis, Johnny Cash & More,” by recalling Johnny Cash’s 1970 White House performance for Richard M. Nixon.
Wheeler’s presence that evening had no connection to his own political stance – the invitation was the result of Cash’s recording of “Jackson,” a song Wheeler wrote. The record was a No. 2 country hit and won the 1968 Grammy for Best Country Duet for Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash.
After the White House performance, Wheeler was approached by Ruth Graham, the wife of evangelist Billy Graham, who asked about his inspiration for the humorous and entertaining song of spousal conflict. She was clearly surprised by his answer: Edward Albee’s play of matrimonial spite, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
“Mrs. Graham was incredulous,” Wheeler writes. “The creative process never ceases to amaze me,” she told the songwriter.