Wichita ? When Johnny Western picked up his telephone in 1965, the voice on the other line spoke with sheepish guilt.

“Johnny. I lost your car. I don’t know where I left it.”

The car, Western’s brand-new Cadillac, was recovered later that day in downtown Los Angeles.

The driver, Johnny Cash, was high on drugs and still three years away from recovery.

Memories like that one flooded back for Western when he sat down recently in a Wichita theater and watched “Walk the Line,” a new movie that portrays the lives of Johnny Cash and his wife, singer/songwriter June Carter. Western toured with Cash for nearly 40 years and was lifelong friends with both.

“There were sure times I was so caught up in it (the movie), I thought I was looking right at Johnny and June,” Western said.

Johnny Western, 71, spins classic country hits at KRTI Radio in Wichita. Western toured with Johnny Cash from 1958 to 1997. Western says the movie Walk

Western, now 71 and spinning classic country hits for KFTI 1070-AM, was the opening act and emcee for Cash’s tours from 1958 to 1997. In addition, he played guitar on 71 Cash songs on five albums.

The movie – starring Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as Carter – begins at the start of Cash’s career with Sun Records in 1955 and ends with his marriage to Carter in 1968.

Western says the movie is 95 percent accurate in its portrayal of Cash and Carter. He smiled while recalling Cash’s infatuation with Carter but also sadly recalled the depths of Cash’s prescription drug addiction during the ’60s.

Western, Cash and Carter made a living in a business where it’s easy to forget the town and day when you perform. But Western easily recalls dates and places from his years with Cash.

Like the time Western first went on tour in 1958 and Cash warned him that June Carter belonged to Cash, even though Cash was already married, and not to Carter.

Or the time Western helped Cash record the 12-song record “Now That’s a Song” in four hours.

Or a Jan. 1, 1960, performance at California’s San Quentin penitentiary, where an inmate named Merle Haggard watched from the front row.

When Cash tapped Western to tour with him, Western was already making a name for himself in Hollywood and in music. He was a vocalist and guitarist for Gene Autry and was writing songs for TV Westerns such as “Have Gun, Will Travel.”

But the chance to work with Cash, who by 1958 already had a string of popular hits including “Folsom Prison Blues,” was too much to pass up.

This signed 1980 photo of Johnny Cash, left, and Johnny Western, hangs in Western's office at KFTI Radio. It reads: To

Cash called Western and asked him to open three dates in California in early November. That turned into a 16-show tour across the Midwest a few weeks later.

For the next 39 years, Western spent up to 200 days a year with Cash, introducing him to millions with the line: “Ladies and gentleman, the fabulous Johnny Cash.”

“And he really was fabulous,” Western said.

As the movie shows, Cash’s life wasn’t always fabulous. For more than a decade, he was addicted to prescription amphetamines.

Western saw the worst of the addiction – as well as Cash’s recovery.

With no tour buses, the performers drove themselves from town to town for shows. They would take pills to stay awake.

“The pills probably saved more lives than anything,” Western said. “They gave you energy.”

But because of Cash’s addictive personality, the pills consumed him, Western said.

Western recalls one day in Waterloo, Iowa, in the early 1960s.

Cash’s band, and Western, entered Cash’s motel room. Cash was passed out on his bed, wearing only underwear, with the window wide open.

“His body was ice cold,” Western said.

Not able to find a pulse, bass player Marshall Grant held a shaving mirror to Cash’s mouth. Small breaths fogged the mirror, showing he was still alive. They called a doctor, who revived him.

“He missed the matinee, of course,” Western said. “But somehow he made the night show.”

It wasn’t just pills that Cash was addicted to, Western said. There were other things: Cigarettes. The road. June Carter.

“She was vivacious,” Western said. “Big smile. Cute as a bug.”

Western talked about how he, his first wife and their two daughters would spend Sundays at Cash’s home in Encino, Calif., with Cash’s first wife, Vivian, and their daughters.

“We were as close as Saturday is to Sunday,” Western said of the families.

Western remembers sitting next to Cash’s pool, bouncing his daughter on one knee and Cash’s daughter Rosanne on the other while the two girls fought over a chicken leg.

But Cash’s love for Carter was always present. Western said it was like watching a train wreck about to happen.

“The whole darn world knew about it,” Western said. Even Cash’s wife, Vivian.

Carter wrote about the relationship in the hit song “Ring of Fire,” which Western helped record and Cash made famous.

“I knew he wanted to marry her (Carter) in the world’s worst way,” he said.

Cash eventually did marry Carter in 1968, providing “Walk the Line” with its happy ending.

Cash died on Sept. 12, 2003, not long after Carter died.

“We gave Johnny six months after June died,” Western said. “He didn’t last four.”

With the new movie, Cash seems to be as cool and popular today as he was in the mid-’50s with rockabilly songs about heartbreak and jail. The popular British band Coldplay has recorded a tribute to Cash on its latest hit album, “X&Y.”

On its current U.S. tour, the band has played a version of “Ring of Fire,” with thousands of fans singing along.

Western says Cash’s ability to cross musical genres and create controversy contributes to his continuing popularity.

“He had a magnetism. People in Beverly Hills had his records and people living in shotgun shacks in the South had his records,” Western said.