It started as just a live recording, albeit with a message of rehabilitation at its heart. Jan. 13 marks the 50th anniversary of Johnny Cash's concert at Folsom Prison. Yet what has become such a solid part of Folsom, and California history, was never expected to be so legendary.That day, in 1968, was unique in a lot of ways. For one thing, Gene Beley, a reporter from Ventura, California, was sitting in the audience, a free man in the middle of a captive audience of hundreds."We'd like to tell you how much we appreciate your being here and you providing us an audience," DJ Hugh Cherry announced before Cash hit the stage. A nervous Beley was worried about how easy it would be to cause a riot and take Beley and Johnny Cash's father, who was also in the audience, hostage. That was, until he saw the parapet above, filled with guards, all armed with shotguns.Getting to the concert had been a bit of wistful good fortune for Beley. His friend and photographer, Dan Poush, had scored them the trip."He (Dan) said, "Well I met this minister at this New Year's Eve party and he invited us."The minister, Floyd Gressett, had been the one to plant the idea in Cash's head that he should play for the prisoners. Gressett, who had Cash's ear, was also a minister to prisoners. He helped Cash explore the idea.Interestingly enough, not everyone thought the show was a great idea, and others thought it wouldn't succeed. As famous and influential as the concert is today, at the time, Cash had difficulty selling it. His record company, Columbia, was not interested in spending a lot of money on the show. Add to that the fact that Cash had earlier had run-ins with the law and his popularity was waning. At the time, his wife, June Carter, was actually more popular than he was.Cash called several prisons, including San Quentin, where he would later play and record, but Folsom was the prison that said yes, and it was a good fit. Years before, Cash's song "Folsom Prison Blues" had been a big hit.Beley and Poush were invited by Gressett to visit him and the Cash family the weekend before the show. While there, the duo shot a myriad of candid and intimate photos of Cash and his family.Poush, Beley, Gressett and Cash, with his entourage, took a PSA Airlines flight to Sacramento. Unlike other stars of his status, Cash didn't stay somewhere fancy. He took a room in the El Rancho Motel in West Sacramento, were he and the Statler Brothers rehearsed the night before the concert. Beley recorded those rehearsals, the only tape of that night, with his reel-to-reel recorder.While at the El Rancho, Gressett approached Cash, saying he'd been given a demo tape by a prisoner, Glen Sherley, of a song called "Greystone Chapel." Beley offered his tape recorder, so that Cash could listen to the song. Cash was so enamored with the song, he immediately took the tape and began writing down the lyrics and learning the song. Beley said he told Cash, "Let that guy out of prison he'll put you out of business."Cash would play the song at the prison the next day, surprising and delighting the prisoner, who would meet the Man in Black and later have a country career of his own.Cash arrived with a bus full of people at the gates of Folsom Prison and posed for many of those iconic photos, taken by Dan Poush. Then, with the utterance of just four words, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash," he rocketed Folsom Prison and the city of Folsom into international stardom, are followed by the immense cheering and love of the incarcerated crowd."He was accepted by the prisoners there and that energy was something he wanted to share with people," said Cash's son, John Carter Cash. "It's a piece of history I don't think it can be recreated I don't think there's an act that could come in and do what Johnny Cash did again in Folsom Prison. I don't think it could be done exactly as it was. It would have to be something different."John Carter Cash added that his father knew what he was doing. He had a knack for relating to and endearing himself to everyone, from the prisoner to the guard with the gun next to him. Even with his bad-boy image, Johnny Cash had a way to connect with and empower those who didn't always get to experience empowerment.Since the day of the concert, the city and the prison have embraced its heritage and message of rehabilitation."It is internationally known. Why not promote it? Why not celebrate it?" said current Folsom Mayor Steve Miklos. "So we've taken under very serious wings, for lack of better term, and said listen, 'Let's just keep promoting.'"And they've taken on that message with a vengeance. Folsom has the Johnny Cash Trail, the Johnny Cash Bridge. The Folsom Parks Department is working on a multimillion-dollar art project, asking for donations, and putting Cash-related art along the entire Folsom bike trail.On top of that, Cash's message of inclusion and rehabilitation was not lost on the city. It now embraces the prison, which is one of the state's largest employers. Fifty years on, the Cash and Carter families and the city of Folsom say they know that this legacy will endure, maybe on to 100 years.