In 20 years of writing about music and getting to meet and sometimes hang out with those who make it, I’ve asked for exactly one autograph — from Johnny Cash. I got the signature from the Man in Black for my dad. But it was just as much for me.

Because Lloyd (that’s where the L. in my byline comes from), was such a big Cash fan, I grew up with Johnny’s music. I recall writing him a fan letter while his ABC variety show was on from 1969-71. I caught a few of his shows over the years and got to talk to him three times.

The final time was at South By Southwest a few years ago when Cash was the keynote “speaker,” though he mostly played guitar and sang. He did a photo session for the press a few minutes later and I made it a point to talk with him for a while and ask for the autograph.

It’s from that perspective, as a lifelong fan of the man and his music, that I offer a few observations of “Walk The Line,” the new Johnny Cash biopic that stars Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter and is primarily the story of their tumultuous relationship leading up to their marriage.

n Because it ends with Johnny and June’s wedding, then notes their passing four months apart in 2003, “Walk The Line” omits 25 years of Cash’s life and career. There’s nothing wrong with that. But the film leaves an incorrect impression that Cash remained a highly visible country music icon from the late ’60s to his death.

Nothing could be further from the truth. By the late ’80s, Cash, like nearly all the country artists of his generation, was cast aside by Nashville, which was more interested in selling millions of country pop records than in its heritage. While some of the new country stars paid lip service to Johnny, Merle Haggard and the like, it took maverick producer Rick Rubin to bring Cash out of semi-retirement and create some of the greatest recordings of his life during his final years.

n It took a couple viewings of the film for me to figure out what “Walk The Line” didn’t get right about Cash. At first, I thought the problem was physical. Phoenix doesn’t look much like him. More important, he’s a small guy and Cash was big, intimidatingly so when he got older and larger.

But that isn’t really what’s missing in the film. What is seen only once, during the sequence leading up to and during the Folsom concert, is Cash’s cocksure rebelliousness. He had an edge to him that was obvious in person and it was manifested in actions like kicking out the footlights at the Grand Ole Opry. A little more of that and a little less touchy-feely would have captured more precisely the real Johnny Cash.

n If you’re wondering why the music in “Walk The Line” is at least passable — even with the actors singing the songs — credit music producer T-Bone Burnett, who, since “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” has become Hollywood’s go-to guy for authentic film music. And Phoenix and Witherspoon deserve some accolades for working their chops.

But the secret weapon is Cowboy Jack Clement. An engineer at Sun Records when Cash cut his early records at the legendary Memphis studio, Cowboy Jack remained a Cash confidant over the years, writing songs like “Ballad of a Teenage Queen,” “Guess Things Happen That Way” and “Dirty Old Egg Sucking Dog” that Johnny recorded from the ’50s through the ’80s.

On the soundtrack, Clement plays the chick-a-boom acoustic guitar that anchored the sound created by Cash and the Tennessee Two/Three. I’m guessing Cowboy Jack had the piece of paper stuck in the strings on the neck of the guitar that created the distinctive sound. But there’s no paper in Phoenix’s guitar on screen.

Clement is a true character and music legend. Check out his Website at www.cowboyjackclement.com. And if you’ve got Sirius satellite radio, catch “The Cowboy Jack Clement Show” on Outlaw Country (Channel 63) Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. or on its rebroadcast from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. I promise you’ll learn something and be entertained.

n I went to a Monday night screening of “Walk The Line” and listened to comments from moviegoers coming out. One of the most common was the movie made them want to hear some Johnny Cash songs.

Here are a couple of recommendations: Universal/American has just released “The Legend of Cash,” a single CD that spans his entire career, starting with “Cry, Cry, Cry,” his first Sun hit, and ending with “Hurt,” his heartrending cover of the Nine Inch Nails song. It includes six Rubin-produced tracks, so it’s heavy on the late-career material. But those songs are great, and it’s a good place to start.

For those who want to get deeper into Cash, there are several boxed sets on the market. I’d recommend “The Essential Johnny Cash 1955-1983” and “Unearthed,” which contains much of what he recorded with Rubin.

There are some good June Carter retrospectives around, and three years ago, Columbia reissued “Carryin’ On With Johnny Cash & June Carter,” their entertaining duet album that contains the great “Jackson.”

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.