KINGSLAND - For everyday people around the town of Kingsland and Cleveland County as a whole, the infamous shooting of the water tower in May of 2022 is old news they would like to forget.
That is not the case however for the rest of the world, specifically for Kasson, Minnesota singer-songwriter (and furniture salesperson) Cori Kennedy.
Kennedy stumbled upon news footage of the water tower shooting which depicted music icon and Kingsland native Johnny Cash "leaking from the sky" after the shot was fired in what then-Mayor Luke Neal called a "sensitive area."
Finding the incident hilarious and ironic, Kennedy wrote a song about it in the style of Johnny Cash.
She posted a video of the song across her social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram and others on Sunday, March 9. The video quickly went viral and within a week surpassed 11 million views, steadily climbing closer to 20 million at the time of publication.
@cori__kennedy The irony of this story being exactly something he would write about 😂😂😂 #singersongwriter #johnnycash #themaninblack #vandalism #originalmusic #original #country #countrymusic ♬ original sound - Cori Kennedy
Kennedy's video going viral mirrors that of the original shooting footage in 2022 going viral and making world news attracting people to Kingsland.
The runaway success of the song brought many surprises Kennedy's way. She called in to the Free Range Conversations podcast to discuss how the song came about and everything "bonkers" that has happened since.
Chatting with hosts Douglas Boultinghouse, Britt Talent and Roy Phillips (a double, second cousin once removed to Cash), Kennedy shares her amazement at the whole ordeal.
When she found the news clip, she thought to her self, "This is just the silliest thing I've ever seen. It sounds like something Johnny Cash would either write about, or probably do honestly, so I wrote about it." The song came to her quickly and she finished it in about an hour.
"Those are the easiest ones to write when it's all the true story, because you have your plot right in front of you."
Similarly to how she found the water tower footage, Boultinghouse found Kennedy's video on Instagram the following Tuesday and quickly reached out to the singer to see if she had a moment to talk.
It turned out, he was not the only one from Cleveland County who reached out to Kennedy.
She shared she had received a message from Timothy Sled, who was found guilty by a jury in Cleveland County Circuit Court in May of 2023 of two felony charges for shooting a hole in the water tank.
Kennedy shared she had a video conversation with Sled, who now resides in Florida, to learn more about the incident.
According to Kennedy, Sled shared with her that the shot was made with a 308 and a scope bought from Walmart.
Kennedy said knowing how the shot was made was the burning question from her family, including her Grandma Linda, a skilled trap shooter.
"He's an interesting guy," she said.
Kennedy has also had people reaching out to her from all over the world, including record labels in England.
While she said she is not sure of her plans to sign with a label or remain an independent artist, she has gone into the studio to record the song, now titled "Hey, Who Shot The Water Tower?" which will be released on all streaming platforms Thursday, March 27.
She considers the success of this video her "kick in the butt" to get things going and is looking to record other songs she has written.
Another thing on Kennedy's agenda is making a trip to Kingsland to visit the water tower in person for a new video. While she initially hoped to make that trip within the coming weeks, her plans are delayed by other obligations keeping her in Minnesota.
For a possible future visit, Boultinghouse has been working with the singer to figure out the logistics to have her as one of the acts at this year's Rison in the Fall festival in October.
"I'm going to try and make that for sure if I can," Kennedy said.
Boultinghouse said he is currently working on the budget and scheduling with additional acts to complete the festival lineup. He said since Kennedy's video went viral, he had several requests for her to perform at the festival.
He said ultimately it will depend on Kennedy's schedule and the costs to get her to Rison from Minnesota.
'I'm about 12 hours from you if I were to get in my Toyota Corolla and head on down,' she said.
Boultinghouse said, "We'd love to have her here." Also during the podcast, Kennedy shares tales of being a college athlete and how softball tournaments once brought her to Arkansas, how her grandparents influenced her love of traditional country music (and her humor), and if she plans to pivot from selling office furniture to making music full-time.
She also tells another Cashrelated story of how a friend of a friend in Memphis lives in one of the star's former apartments.
"I guess there's a lot of odd things that happen in that apartment, whether you want to call it paranormal or not," she said. "Tthey always joke that, 'Oh, Johnny Cash, that's just Johnny.' But they said that she sent her friend the video because she lives in that apartment. And she said when she played the video, the lights started flickering like crazy," she said.
"That is the weirdest thing ever," she said.
Boultinghouse added that Cash was known for a wicked sense of humor, much like Kennedy.
The full episode of the podcast is streaming now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and ClevelandCountyHerald.com below: