I remember it had something to do with him recording new material and all they wanted to do was release greatest hits and not let him have his new material on their label. If that is not right can someone set me straight I've always wondered about this. I found this:
Cash's recording career and his general relationship with the Nashville establishment were at an all-time low in the 1980s. He realized that his record label of nearly 30 years, Columbia, was growing indifferent to him and wasn't properly marketing him (he was "invisible" during that time, as he said in his autobiography). Cash recorded an intentionally awful song to protest, a self-parody. "Chicken in Black" was about Johnny's brain being transplanted into a chicken. Ironically, the song turned out to be a larger commercial success than any of his other recent material. Nevertheless, he was hoping to kill the relationship with the label before they did, and it was not long after "Chicken in Black" that Columbia and Cash parted ways. Interesting question
Johnny didn't seem to fit into the Urban Cowboy, John Travolta. After that just vision the country pop Ann Murray and Barbara Mandrell sort of tunes. Didn't Dolly sing "Working 9 to 5" in the 80s?
That said, Johnny did a great job in the movie "Murder In Coweta County" (1983).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085977/
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