Shelby Lynne pays tribute to Cash by playing his mother

Shelby Lynne remembers every detail of where she was and what she was doing when she heard Johnny Cash had died.

Her reaction was akin to what her parents' generation felt upon hearing of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, or her grandparents' generation after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Cash was such an immense influence on her life that, to her, it was like bombs dropping around her.

"I was sitting at my desk in my living room, and Nic Harcourt of (radio station) KCRW Los Angeles mentioned that Johnny passed away that morning," Lynne said by phone from her home in Palm Springs, Calif. "It just hit me; it was a very emotional day."

Lynne did what she always does when she needs to release her emotions: She sat down and wrote a song, "Johnny Met June," in which she imagined The Man in Black meeting his beloved wife at the Pearly Gates. Then she recorded it that day in her home studio.

That very same track is on her latest CD, "Suit Yourself," released in May on Capitol Records, sans any overdubs or other studio trickery. It's just Lynne and an acoustic guitar as she sings in a weary voice, letting the pain swell within her chest before purging it.

"The day I wrote the song is what you hear on the record. It was all one take," Lynne said.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Lynne makes her feature-film debut as Cash's mother, Carrie, in "Walk the Line," opening nationwide today. It's a daunting role for any actress, especially one with virtually no on-screen experience (she had a bit part in the 1991 Willie Nelson TV movie "Another Pair of Aces: Three of a Kind"), but for Lynne, it was a chance to be part of something that paid tribute to one of popular music's most influential figures.

"I heard about the film, and I didn't really know what was available as far as parts, but I kind of put a vibe out there hoping that something would come up," she said. "They were looking for someone to play Johnny's mother from the 1930s all the way to when the film ends. I think having an accent had a big part in it."

To study for the role, Lynne read "everything I could get my hands on." Still, details on Cash's mother were scarce, so Lynne had to mostly rely on her own interpretation.

"I just tried to get a picture of her in my mind and heart, and tried to paint a character out of someone who really existed," she said.

"She was a very Christian lady, who worked her fingers to the bone; they were poor sharecroppers. A stoic character of few words, just a lot of feelings. I tried to take what I knew about her and take some of who I am and graft other women in my life who were strong, and create something that really made a difference."

Lynne has much in common with Cash. Both had traumatic childhoods: Cash's 14-year-old brother died in an accident when he was 12; Lynne's alcoholic father shot and killed her mother before turning the gun on himself in front of 17-year-old Shelby and her sister. Both battled -- and overcame -- drug addictions.

And like Cash, who was shunned by Nashville in the '80s only to be embraced by a young, alternative-rock audience, Lynne suffered a decade of setbacks in Music City before finally ignoring the old country guard with "I Am Shelby Lynne," an eclectic mix of rock, jazz, country and R&B that caught the attention of modern-rock radio and netted her a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2001. (The irony of winning the award for her sixth album wasn't lost on Lynne, who noted as such in her acceptance speech.)

"In their eyes, I hadn't done anything before," she said. "It was understandable on one hand, and kind of ridiculous on another."

Lynne's already thinking about taking on more acting roles, but she emphasizes she won't just jump at any part, "because that's when you start making a fool out of yourself." She also wants to try her hand at writing a book and scoring a movie.

"I don't have any plans right now," she said. "I'm going to hopefully sit around and write, read scripts, and see what the next chapter is."

Whatever Lynne chooses, there has to be one requirement: She does it because she wants to. That's another thing she has in common with Cash. "You've got to please yourself sometimes," she said. "Otherwise, you please nobody."