My friend Tim is the one who really turned me onto Johnny Cash. Always praising the “man in black” with a quick Folsom Prison reference or pointing to the ad up on his office wall.

“There ain’t nobody else like him, and there will never be anyone else like him,” Tim would say, obsessing about his vinyl Cash collection while having me time him solve the myriad of Rubik’s cubes we kept around the office.

He was right.

Johnny Cash is the only musician I know who can write songs about his faith in God, his enduring love for wife June while intermingling these songs about coke and violence to women. And modern-day parents think Marilyn Manson is bad.

Sanctuary Records knew Johnny was on his way out when they started the reissue process for the long out-of-print, Bob Elfstron documentary, “Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music,” but they’ve done the world a service as the industry awakens from it’s bi-annual slumber to give musicians their due.

Last year, it was Johnny Cash and this year was Ray Charles. Arguably, both changed the musical landscape for their genres more than anyone ever will. But I have to say, I’m glad Cash didn’t show up on “Genius Loves Company.”

The DVD has no format, no narration and I think the cameramen were drunk, high or both when recording. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be a roadie for one of the greats, this is the DVD for you. Filmed in the late 60s, you find yourself on stage with Cash, on the bus with Cash, June and company, hanging out with Cash’s family — a window into the root of his musical talents and ambitions — and even playing to maximum-security prisoners and feather-clad Native American dignitaries.

One of my favorite moments is Cash’s visit to the site of the Wounded Knee massacre with relatives of slain Indians. In our PC culture today, we forget that it’s okay to show compassion — something Cash never blinked twice about.

Other highlights include June Carter Cash singing “Jackson” in a duet with Johnny on “Jackson”; Carl Perkins, with “Blue Suede Shoes,” and I just wasn’t ready for what came next. Bob Dylan chomping on gum across from Cash as they cut through “Blistered” by Edd Wheeler. It was the late 60’s, so Cash knew the impact Dylan already had on the modern culture but totally held his own.

Tim and I know Johnny Cash wasn’t a God, but he came close.

Thankfully God left us the bible, and Bob Elfstrom left us this DVD. Check it out.

“Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music” is available nationwide on March 8, 2005.