Four decades after he was hauled off to the pokey for snagging a stranger’s flowers right out of their yard, Johnny Cash will be officially let off the hook by the uptight Mississippi town that put him away in the first place:

It is reported that Cash was arrested in May 1965 whilst picking flowers from somebody’s garden in the town, inspiring him to write a song ‘Starkville City Jail’, which he performed at San Quentin prison.

Johnny Cash later wrote in his autobiography that he was arrested whilst walking from his motel to a grocery store after a party on the Mississippi State University campus.

“I was screaming, cussing, and kicking at the cell door all night long until I finally broke my big toe,” he explained. “At 8am the next morning they let me out when they knew I was sober.”

Now that’s gangsta. The get out of jail free card will be posthumously bestowed upon the Man in Black at the “Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival” in November.

Johnny Cash To Recieve Pardon 42 Years After His Arrest [NME via Paper Thin Walls]