Johnny Cash

**John Ray** "**Johnny**" **Cash** (born **J. R. Cash**; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was a Grammy Award-winning American musician, actor and author. He is considered one of the most important musicians of the 20th century. He is well known for his country music, his music spanned many other genres, including gospel, folk and rock and roll. Because of this, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. He died from diabetes on September 12, 2003 when he was 71 years old.

## Early Life

Cash was born J. R. Cash in Kingsland, Arkansas in the United States on February 26, 1932. His parents named him J.R. Cash because they could not decide on his name between John and Ray. He only started using the name "Johnny Cash" when he joined the Air Force. He started working in fields when he was five years old, singing with his family. He had an older brother, Jack, who died when Johnny was 12. Cash started smoking at 12 years old.

Cash's first memories had a lot of gospel music in. He was taught by his mother and her friend to play the guitar and sing. When he was 18, he joined the United States Air Force where he made his first band, called 'The Landsberg Barbarians'. He left the military in 1954.

Cash was arrested multiple times, once breaking his toe when he tried escaping by kicking the bars of his jail cell.

## Career

Cash was often called "The Man in Black" because of the clothes he wore, and was best known for his deep voice and powerful music. Early in his career he was very popular because of his 'outlaw' image and rebellious actions, although later in his life he became very humble.

He was well known for the free concerts he held for prisoners and by starting most of his concerts with the words "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash". Lots of his music focused on making good or bad choices in life and what happens after choices are made. It also focused on sadness and being saved or forgiven by God. Some of his best known songs are "I Walk the Line", "Folsom Prison Blues", "Ring of Fire", "God's Gonna Cut You Down", "A Boy Named Sue", "Hurt", "Mister Garfield", and "Man in Black". Cash often recorded songs that other singers first made popular.

## Family Life

Cash met his first wife, Vivian while training in the Air Force. They wrote hundreds of letters to each other while he was in Germany with the Air Force, and married on August 7, 1954. They had four daughters called Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy and Tara. They got a divorce in 1966 because Cash drank too much alcohol, took drugs and had lots of affairs.

Cash asked June Carter Cash to marry him in 1968, while on stage. They got married on March 1st, 1968. She co-wrote one of Johnny's most famous songs, Ring of Fire. They stayed together until she died in 2003.

## Death

Cash died on September 12, 2003 in Nashville, Tennessee from complications of diabetes. He was 71 years old. Cash was buried next to his wife, June Carter Cash, who had died 4 months earlier.

## Success

Cash sold over 90 million records in his nearly fifty-year career, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

## Related pages

- Personal Jesus (song that Cash has covered)
- List of country musicians from Arkansas

## Other websites

- Johnny Cash Video

## Infobox (musical artist)

- **embed**: yes
- **background**: solo_singer


## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Johnny Cash
- **image**: Johnny Cash 1977.jpg
- **caption**: Cash in 1977
- **birth name**: John Ray Cash
- **birth place**: Kingsland, Arkansas, U.S.
- **death place**: Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
- **resting place**: Hendersonville Memory Gardens, Tennessee, U.S.
- **years active**: 1954–2003
- **spouse**:

- **children**: 5, including Rosanne Cash, Rosanne and John Carter Cash, John Carter