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LEAKE AUCTION
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
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Press Releases
Cash Bus Sale to Keep the Faith
TULSA, Okla. (May 20, 2005) If you want to savor a major part of country music history you’d do well to take in the Leake Collector Car Auction in Tulsa, OK at Expo Square June 10-12. There the touring bus used by country music great Johnny Cash for the last two decades of his life will be auctioned for the benefit of the history of the music of the American South.
Eldon Wright, a long-time gospel music singer, and his brother Marlin purchased the bus from Cash in July, 2003, just two months after Cash’s beloved wife June died and just two months before Cash himself was to succumb to illness.
“It was a bus loaded with luxuries for the time,” Wright recalled recently. “Johnny had started as a poor boy driving with his band in private cars from appearance to appearance. When they got a little success and a little money they bought a couple of motor homes, but they weren’t built to withstand the beating of a country tour so they quickly wore out. Finally Johnny felt he was ready. In 1979 he bought the shell of a 40-foot bus from MCI (Motor Coach Industries). It’s the same frame you see on many Greyhound buses these days. Then he took it to Land Cruiser Customizer in Columbus, OH, the biggest luxury motor coach customizer in America.”
There the bus was transformed into a luxury item. It has a large lounge in the front, followed by Johnny’s compartment. Then there is a galley (complete with a rotisserie oven; Johnny loved barbeque) and a bathroom, a compartment for June and a last compartment for the driver and for Johnny and June’s son, who traveled with them. Each compartment had a TV with an individual remote-controlled antenna. Each had a stereo. “These were the days before satellite TV, so it was about as good as you could get.”
Wright says he’s not sure how much the bus cost but has been told that between the purchase of the frame and all the customizing Cash sank $553,000 into it. “And remember, those were 1980 dollars.” For many Cash was the king of country music. Now Wright wants to use the bus to preserve some musical traditions.
“I started 57 years ago singing gospel and gospel music has been very dear to me. Now I want to join my brother Marlin and Tommy Fairchild, the original pianist for the Oak Ridge Boys, in selling the bus to fund our foundation, the American Heritage Music Foundation, Inc.
“Tommy has won a host of Grammy and Dove awards for his work in recording gospel music and we’ve begun a non-profit foundation to preserve and promote traditional Southern gospel, bluegrass and country music. All the proceeds from the sale of the bus will go to that foundation.”
One can’t help feel that Cash, an accomplished gospel singer himself, would be pleased.
For more information about Leake Auctions call 1-800-722-9942 or visit their Website at www.leakecar.com
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