‘Tis the season for spooky… and more than a few country artists have shared their own run-ins with potential ghosts or spirits. With Halloween coming up this month, it’s always fun to get in the spirit and I love reading about stories like this, as long as it’s not too scary… I’m good. And the one Johnny Cash recalled from when he was under the knife in 1988 is fascinating. Back in 1988, the country icon underwent a double-bypass heart surgery, and the procedure was performed after a routine physical revealed he had two arteries that were 90% obstructed. In a news article from the time, which was shared on the official Roy Orbison Facebook page, Cash explained that he had been “saved” from the grave by the ghost of another music legend, Roy Orbison. Cash and Orbison worked together frequently throughout their careers and were lifelong friends. In fact, Cash was instrumental in helping Orbison get a record deal with Sun Records, and they remained close until Orbison’s passing in 1988. Cash’s surgery occurred merely weeks after Orbison died, and as he recalled later, he “died” on the operating table during the surgery, but felt a “spirit” beside him during that exact moment: “It was like a wind. That’s the best way to describe it. And then it spoke to me. It said: ‘You can’t go yet Johnny. You’ve still got a lot of singing and living to do.’ I’d recognize that voice anywhere. It was my old buddy Roy Orbison.” Cash explained that Roy told him to “go back” because it was not his time to go yet: “Go back John. It’s not your time yet, pal.” After being released from Nashville Baptist a couple weeks after the surgery, Cash doubled down on the fact he knew he died, and he recalled how he felt like he was floating over his body, watching the surgeons try to save him below: “I know I died. It was as if everything stood still and I could feel myself floating. I could see the surgeons working frantically to save me. And I also knew it was too late. There was nothing more they could do.” Indeed, the hospital confirmed that emergency procedures were employed to revive Cash, and in reality, it “only last a few moments,” though they say “everything was under control” the whole time: “The emergency lasted only a few moments, but long enough to be identified and dealt with. Everything was under control.” Another member of the operating staff said if it would have last any longer, Johnny would not have made it, but he ultimately “came back on his own” and lived to tell this tale: “If it had continued like that for a few more moments, we would have lost him… but then Johnny came back on his own.” Whether you believe it was the spirit of his friend Roy Orbison encouraging his friend in a life or death situation, who himself had passed away from a heart attack at just 52-years-old, or just the heavy meds Cash was on for such a complex surgery, it no doubt inspired Cash following such an intense surgery and gave him great peace and comfort about life after death. This is one of the more interesting celebrity ghost encounters, if you will, I’ve heard, and it’s actually really not all that scary at all… my kind of ghost story. Of course, I have to leave you with this vintage performance they did together of “Oh, Pretty Woman” back on The Johnny Cash Show in 1969. It’s just timeless: The post Johnny Cash Claimed The Ghost Of Roy Orbison Told Him To “Go Back” During Open Heart Surgery: “I Know I Died… Everything Stood Still” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.