At his funeral, daughter Rosanne Cash said he was "a Baptist with the soul of a mystic." Pop idol Sheryl Crow sang "The Old Rugged Cross." The only sour note, by some accounts, was struck by Al Gore, who seemed to forget who was at center stage. "I wish I could stand here . . . and tell you I was Johnny Cash's closest friend. I can't. I'm not a singer. I'm not a preacher. I'm just a recovering politician . . . who used to be the next president of the United States of America."

Former Vice President Al Gore, who knew Cash but said he wouldn’t claim to being a close friend, said that he felt he could “speak for the millions who felt like they knew Johnny Cash.” Gore drew laughter when he said that he was “not a singer or a preacher. I’m just a recovering politician. I used to be the next president of the United States of America. If it had been up to Johnny Cash, I would have been the next president of the United States of America.” Cash, Gore said, was able to empathize and feel the suffering of the underclass and identify with prisoners so effectively because Cash “had come to understand that there is a prison within, and he lived in that prison. He found a way out, but he was a recidivist, a repeat offender. He came to understand through the healing love of time and his family that he could explore the truth within him and reach out to his savior and break loose of those walls.”