the man in black

A New Species of Black Tarantula Is Being Named After Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash At Madison Square Garden
Photo: © Corbis. All Rights Reserved.

Johnny Cash, the Man in Black, is being honored with a big hairy spider. A new species of black tarantula was founded in the Sierra Nevada foothills, near Folsom Prison, where Cash recorded one of his most famous albums. Aphonopelma johnnycashi was one of 14 new tarantula species discovered in the area, spider-studying scientist Chris Hamilton told the BBC. “It’s a perfect name,” he explains. “It fits the spider — it’s found around Folsom and the males are predominantly all black, so it fits his image. I have a Johnny Cash tattoo so I was very happy that it worked out that way.” As Cash himself said, “And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder. One of the four beasts saying, Come and see, and I saw, and behold a black spider.”

New Black Tarantula Named After Johnny Cash