Bringing back the man in black

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Feb. 18, 2017

Bringing back the man in black

Kentucky’s Paul Eve portrays country music legend Johnny Cash

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043

When he was a boy, Paul Eve of Louisville, Kentucky, cut his finger with the rotating cutter on the family’s lawn mower.

His father took the lawn mower out of his son’s hands and put a guitar in its place.

“It’s worked out for me,” Eve said.

Eve tours the country impersonating several musical acts, including Elvis Presley, Wayne Newton and Gene Simmons from KISS.

But on Feb. 25, he will bring his signature impression to the West Bend Moose Lodge: the Man in Black, Johnny Cash. The show is called “Cash Alive.”

Eve began doing an impression of Cash when he was 9 years old.

“When I was a kid, I used to watch the Johnny Cash show on TV,” Eve said. “He was a mysterious character.”

Eve was drawn to music early on. His father was a minister and his mother was an opera singer and a piano player.

“My mother was an incredible singer,” Eve said. “I was always watching that growing up. I fell in love with it.”

With a guitar in hand, Eve strummed the strings day after day. At 9 years old, he sang one of Cash’s legendary songs, “Folsom Prison Blues.”

“It wasn’t very good, but it was very fun,” Eve said.

“It started out as fun,” he added. “Then I started making some money.”

The turning point in his career came when he was 23 or 24 years old. He imitated the man in black one night in a bar and he got a standing ovation.

He tried to make it in the music business on his own.

“I always did music as a hobby,” Eve said. “I didn’t think it’d turn into a full-time thing.

“I went to Nashville trying to make it in the industry and get a deal. I didn’t get it, like most don’t.”

Several months later, he participated in an Elvis impersonation contest at a casino in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

He took third place.

The producer of the show told Eve at the contest that the GM of the casino was looking for someone to do an impression of Cash.

It was a hit.

“I did the Johnny Cash and got the job,” Eve said.

From there, his career blossomed into what it is today, touring around the country as the man in black, while also spending about half the year performing for Legends in Concert in Branson, Missouri.

“When I got that job, I cried,” Eve said. “I knew I was stepping up; haven’t looked back since.”

He said he does about 90 impressions, but Cash was the one that stuck with him and became his signature.

When Eve saw Cash in concert, “he made a big impression on me, so much charisma. He has a great message. He’s a patriot, a Christian.”

In 1987, Eve appeared on “You Can Be A Star.”

More than 60 million people watched the episode he was in and he made it to the final four out of more than 20,000 auditions.

For the last 10 years, Eve has been booked solid from coast-tocoast portraying Cash and several other acts.

Three years ago, he helped open the Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville, performing with Cash’s sister Joanne.

“Johnny had started the foundation of rock ‘n’ roll with (Roy) Orbison and Elvis,” Eve said. “He was a great songwriter. He had a persona of a rebel and a saint, an outlaw Christian.”

The show, “Cash Alive,” is about 75 minutes of Eve talking about the legend’s life and music career, and singing some of Cash’s greatest hits, including “Ring of Fire” and “I Walk The Line.”

“Other people build homes, build cars,” Eve said. “The Lord has given us talents. I think this is one thing I picked up.”