"I don't give a damn about your yellow buzzards"

In honour of the Man in Black's would-be 78th birthday, Flavorwire kindly shared 78 things you didn't know about Johnny Cash.

Some faves:

7. When he was a child working in the cotton fields, Cash used to eat young cotton buds, despite his mother’s warnings that they would give him bellyaches.

15. During his stint in the Air Force, Cash learned to translate Russian Morse code.

25. When Cash first moved to Memphis, he enrolled in a radio class at Keegan’s School of Industry, hoping to become a DJ.

32. After an oil leak from Jesse James set the Los Padres National Wildlife Refuge on fire, Cash became the only person ever successfully sued by the U.S. for starting a forest fire.

33. The blaze Cash’s camper started killed all but 9 of the endangered condors at the refuge. When questioned about the birds at the deposition, Cash replied: “I don’t give a damn about your yellow buzzards."

65. He used to carry around a jar of instant coffee and ladle spoonfuls of it into the coffee he ordered in restaurants.

Read 'em all here.