Harold Ford, just like Johnny Cash, sings from the heart

Harold Ford, middle as Johnny Cash and Laura Lucy as June Carter Cash will bring the Man in Black back to life Friday at ROH. (Courtesy photo)

Back in 2007 Harold Ford, then in his late 50s, got talked into singing a Johnny Cash song at an open mic night in Greenwich, N.Y., and the rest is history.

"I got more response than I thought I'd get," Ford said today in a telephone interview from his home in upstate New York. "About 100 people came up and said, 'You look like and sound like Johnny Cash.'"

Ford will bring his Johnny Cash-like looks and clear, deep baritone voice to the Rochester Opera House on Friday night, and it will be a night that not only celebrates the music of "The Man in Black" but also his life and times.

"I tell stories about the songs he sang and how they came to be as a lead-in," said Ford, who earlier in his life spent time training as an Olympic athlete in weightlifting and then many years as a logger out west.

"I traded in my chain saw for a guitar, but I still make chords," he jokes.

Ford's considerable fame is no joke, however, as he has toured across all of the United States and Canada full time for the past seven years. He's been coming to the Rochester Opera House every year for about five years, he said.

Surprisingly, Ford admits he never took any special interest in Cash's music growing up, but enjoyed "all types of music."

"I remember in my earliest years riding my bike to drive-in movies to see musicals," he said. "My favorite rock band was Foreigner."

But as he grew older he developed a deeper appreciation for Cash as a singer and a storyteller.

"I realized he was different than other artists," Ford said. "His songs were more personal. He didn't just pick out a topic and make a few lines that rhymed, he wrote how he felt. Nobody else was doing that, writing from the heart, so I kind of got caught up in the message."

Ford deepened his understanding and appreciation for Johnny Cash through talking at length with Tommy Cash, his brother.

Due to his acceptance by the Cash and Carter families, Ford said his road show that features the music of both Johnny Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, is the only one allowed by the estate of the late country singer to use certain posters and other memorabilia no other group can use.

Ford said it's a joy to have such a voluminous body of work to choose his nightly playlist from, adding that even though it's huge, he doesn't find it daunting to remember all those lyrics.

"People ask all the time how do I remember all those songs," he said. "But if something has meaning, you have a tendency to remember it."

For more info on Friday's concert click here.