
Pictured Above: Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal. Photo Credit: Rob DeMartin.
Life in Concert: Rosanne Cash Talks Creating, Life and Love
By: Lori Goldstein
In conversation singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash reflects on the 30th anniversary of her transformative album, “The Wheel,” which chronicles the ever-deepening relationship with her music partner and husband, John Leventhal.
When Rosanne Cash and her husband John Leventhal step onto the stage at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre on October 18, 2024, they will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Wheel, the album which signaled a turning point in the singer-songwriter’s life.
In 1990, Rosanne decided to end her 12-year marriage to Rodney Crowell, and her 12-year association with the Nashville division of Columbia Records, since they would not support her new album, Interiors. She heeded her father Johnny Cash’s advice to move to New York, as recounted in her 2010 memoir, Composed.
The move from Nashville to Manhattan was permanent and pivotal: Rosanne transferred to the New York division of Columbia, and met John Leventhal–a gifted musician, songwriter, producer, and recording engineer—who agreed to collaborate with her on her next album, The Wheel.
Looking back on the years during which she and John worked on that album, Rosanne tells me that The Wheel “represents the arc of our relationship. It was transformative because my old life was falling away, and I couldn’t quite see the future and neither did he. It was really complicated and painful and exciting at the same time. We learned how to work together, we learned how to write together, we learned how to perform together…and became better friends in the process. I just fell in love with him more and more.”
She recalls an argument she and John had at the very beginning of their relationship, “whether it was love at first sight or whether love took time to grow. It’s both.”
In 2025 they’ll be celebrating a personal milestone: their 30th wedding anniversary. When I ask Rosanne how they have made their musical and marital collaboration work so well, she says, “We’re friends, I think that’s number one. We really like being together, we make each other laugh. And also the music—I think [of] that when things have gotten really hard between us.”
“I was talking to Diana Krall about this because she’s one of the few women I know who’s a musician married to a musician, [Elvis Costello]. And we both agree that you can be really mad at him, and then you see him play and give his essence, his best self, how could you be mad about anything petty? It clears the slate every time. You see what’s essential and what’s important, and how much you love him.”
Having written seven subsequent albums together, including the Grammy Award-winning The River & The Thread, Rosanne and John are currently collaborating on a musical. Yes, a musical! It’s based on the film Norma Rae, which depicted the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton, the woman who, in 1973, fought for unionization at J.P. Stevens’ Roanoke Rapids textile mills plant, where she and fellow employees worked for $2.65 per hour. Crystal Lee was fired for her activism but achieved her goal of unionization by 1980.

Pictured Above:The 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of THE WHEEL. Photo Credit: Contributed.
“We chose to do [this project] because it’s a timely story and a powerful story, not just about union organizing but about a woman’s transformation through finding community, doing something for her community. All that’s really powerful to me,” says Rosanne. “And also it was an opportunity to mix roots music with Broadway conventions, and that was really interesting to both of us.”
Rosanne describes the process of creating the musical: two workshops have been performed with a full cast for invited guests over the past two years. A third workshop is likely. There have been multiple rewrites, and one more along the way. “We have a theater that is very interested in staging it, so we’re fitting the puzzle together. It’s a much longer process than making an album. At first that was disconcerting, and then [I thought] oh okay, Hamilton took [six] years. This is just how it is.”
Writing for Broadway is not as far-fetched a crossover for Rosanne as you might think. On a 1993 live track from the Columbia Records Radio Hour (in the 30th anniversary Deluxe Edition of The Wheel), she confesses to the audience that she’s a “secret closet fan of show tunes.”

Pictured Above: Rosanne Cash. Photo Credit: Pamela Springsteen.
“My dad took me [to see Broadway shows] when I was young. I think the first musical I ever saw [that] he took me to…was Applause, which was the musical version of All About Eve,” recalls Rosanne. “Lauren Bacall starred in it. As you can imagine, it totally enraptured me. It was a whole new world that opened up. So it’s funny that all these years later I’m working on a musical. You know, the seed was planted then.”
Another project is the creation of John and Rosanne’s record label, Rumble Strip Records. Along with the reissue of The Wheel is the release of John’s eponymous debut solo album. Predominantly instrumental, Rumble Strip also includes John’s solo vocal number, “The Only Ghost” and two duets with Rosanne.
Since all of her old albums are coming back to her, Rosanne will likely reissue them, along with new albums, on Rumble Strip. Currently, she and John are working on an album for which they’ve written five or six songs together, some she’s written on her own, plus a song she cowrote with Matt Berninger, frontman of The National. The music is “very rooted, you know, I wouldn’t say in the tradition of The River & The Thread, I don’t know how to explain it yet. It’s rooted in older traditions, meaning, not country, but more ‘dark folk.’”
I spoke to Rosanne just four days after the passing of one of her father’s closest friends, Kris Kristofferson. Along with Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, Kris and Johnny formed the supergroup, The Highwaymen.
“[It’s] an immeasurable loss. He’s been a dear friend of my family for decades, since I was a kid. There’s just nobody like him. [His demise leaves] a massive void.”
The most recent time that Rosanne performed with Kris was at the 90th birthday celebration for Willie Nelson, at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023. As Rosanne began singing Kris’s “Loving Her Was Easier,” Kris was watching in the wings. Unexpectedly he walked onstage to duet with her. Despite the memory loss that his Alzheimer’s effected, Kris knew the lyrics to every one of his songs. Naturally, at the conclusion of the song, Rosanne couldn’t help tearing up when she and Kris hugged.
When I ask whether she’ll be talking or singing about him in upcoming concerts, she replies, “Well, it would be hard not to, right? When a musician that you admire so much dies, it’s like you want to touch something real of his and that would be his songs.” However, she acknowledges that it might be too difficult emotionally for her to do so onstage.
Rosanne regards McCarter Theatre as “a beautiful, really good-sounding theater with enthusiastic audiences,” and the added bonus that “I get to go home [to Manhattan] after the gig.” She may even encourage several Princeton University professors whom she counts as friends to attend the concert. Besides a few selections from The Wheel and Rumble Strip, Rosanne and John will perform a generous sampling from her 45-year catalog, including the latest releases, She Remembers Everything and The River & The Thread.
To purchase tickets to the October 18 concert, go to the McCarter Theatre Center website.
The deluxe edition of The Wheel, to be released on November 17, includes the original, remastered album, alongside a second live LP with Rosanne’s 1993 Austin City Limits appearance and a rare broadcast of the Columbia Records Radio Hour. Available for the first time on vinyl, The Wheel has been pressed in a few formats: the deluxe 2LP 180-gram vinyl edition, the original remastered LP, and a 2CD deluxe edition, all available for pre-order.