Country Music Legend Johnny Cash Dies at 71 | Fox News Country Music Legend Johnny Cash Dies at 71 Published September 12, 2003 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Email Print NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Johnny Cash ( search ), the gravel-voiced icon of American music known worldwide as "The Man in Black," has died at the age of 71. "Johnny died due to complications from diabetes, which resulted in respiratory failure," said Cash's manager, Lou Robin, in a press release issued by Baptist Hospital in Nashville. "I hope that friends and fans of Johnny will pray for the Cash family to find comfort during this very difficult time," Robin said. Cash gained his legendary status by spanning the musical spectrum in country, rock and folk — as his wry lyrics and deadpan delivery earned him the respect of millions of fans and music critics around the globe. Photo Essay: An American Icon "More than any single person I can think of, Johnny Cash broadened interest in country music all around the world. He was just a huge star, and became a cultural icon in America," said Ed Benson, executive director of the Country Music Association. "It's extremely sad.

He's certainly someone who is irreplaceable in the music business, and in the hearts and minds of many Americans." Cash's importance still resonates with today's musicians, and he was nominated for seven awards, and won one, at MTV's 2003 Video Music Awards ( search ) for his heartbreaking rendition of a Nine Inch Nails song, "Hurt." The video was a reflection on mortality that showed his brittle health. The lyric "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die," from his hit song "Folsom Prison Blues" remains one of the most talked about and controversial quotes in recent music history. He was also nominated for three Country Music Awards, including Album of the Year. The awards are to air Nov. 9. The release said Cash died at the hospital at 3 a.m. EDT. He was released from Baptist on Wednesday where he had spent two weeks being treated for an unspecified stomach ailment. "I hope that friends and fans of Johnny will pray for the Cash family to find comfort during this very difficult time," Robin said.

Cash had battled a disease of the nervous system, autonomic neuropathy, and pneumonia in recent years and was once diagnosed with a disease called Shy-Drager's syndrome, a diagnosis that was later deemed to be erroneous. Dozens of hit records like "Folsom Prison Blues," "I Walk the Line," and "Sunday Morning Coming Down" defined Cash's persona: a haunted, dignified, resilient spokesman for the working man and downtrodden. Cash's deeply lined face fit well with his unsteady voice, which was limited in range but used to great effect to sing about prisoners, heartaches, and tales of everyday life. He wrote much of his own material, and was among the first to record the songs of Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson. "One Piece at a Time" was about an assembly line worker who built a car out of parts stolen from his factory. "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" told of the drunken death of an American Indian soldier who helped raised the American flag at Iwo Jima during World War II, but returned to harsh racism in America.

"A Boy Named Sue," written by Shel Silverstein, was a comical story of a father who gives his son a girl's name to make him tough, and Cash took it to No. 1 in 1969. Cash said in his 1997 autobiography "Cash" that he tried to speak for "voices that were ignored or even suppressed in the entertainment media, not to mention the political and educational establishments." His career spanned generations, with each finding something of value in his simple records, many of which used his trademark "boom-chicka-boom" rhythm. Cash was a peer of Elvis Presley when rock 'n' roll was born in Memphis in the 1950s, and he scored hits like "Cry! Cry! Cry!" during that era. He had a longtime friendship and recorded with Dylan, who has cited Cash as a major influence. "His influence spread over many generations of different people," said Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger. "I loved him as singer and a writer.

I remember years ago a big part of our repertoire was two of my favorite Johnny Cash songs, 'I Walk The Line' and 'Ballad Of A Teenage Queen.'" Elvis Costello, who once recorded with Cash, called him "a great, great man. ... He made me feel very welcome in his home and I will never forget that." Country singer Barbara Mandrell recalled his star quality. "Truly I can only think of two people in my life, where you knew it when they were in the building just by their presence. The air would just get exciting and stimulating and electric even if you couldn't see them. Those two people were Johnny Cash and Billy Graham," she said He won 11 Grammys — most recently in 2003, when "Give My Love To Rose" earned him honors as best male country vocal performance — and numerous Country Music Association awards. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. His second wife, June Carter Cash ( search ), and daughter Roseanne Cash also were successful singers.

June Carter Cash, who co-wrote Cash's hit "Ring of Fire" and partnered with her husband in hits such as "Jackson," died in May 2003. "It's a sad day in Tennessee, but a great day in Heaven," said Merle Kilgore, best man at their wedding. "The 'Man in Black' is now wearing white as he joins his wife June in the angel band." Truck driver Bobby Williams of Spokane, Wash., en route from Tennessee to Tampa, Fla., stopped and bowed his head for a moment when he heard Cash had died. "He was the greatest man ever picked a guitar. He spoke to the American man. He did songs people could understand and relate to," said Williams, who then sang a few lyrics of his favorite Cash recording, "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky." The late 1960s and '70s were Cash's peak commercial years, and he was host of his own ABC variety show from 1969-71. In later years, he was part of the Highwayman supergroup with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kristofferson.

In the 1990s, he found a new artistic life recording with rap and hard rock producer Rick Rubin on the label American Recordings. And he was back on the charts in with the 2002 album "American IV: the Man Comes Around." Most recently, Cash was recognized for his cover of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt." He had hoped to attend the MTV Video Music Awards, where the video won for best cinematography, but he was hospitalized. He also wrote books including two autobiographies, and acted in films and television shows. In his 1971 hit "Man in Black," Cash said his black clothing symbolized the downtrodden people in the world. Cash had been "The Man in Black" since he joined the Grand Ole Opry at age 25. "Everybody was wearing rhinestones, all those sparkle clothes and cowboy boots," he said in 1986. "I decided to wear a black shirt and pants and see if I could get by with it. I did and I've worn black clothes ever since." John R. Cash was born Feb. 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Ark., one of seven children.

When he was 12, his 14-year-old brother and hero, Jack, died after an accident while sawing oak trees into fence posts. The tragedy had a lasting impact on Cash, and he later pointed to it as a possible reason his music was frequently melancholy. He worked as a custodian and enlisted in the Air Force, learning guitar while stationed in Germany, before launching his music career after his 1954 discharge. "All through the Air Force, I was so lonely for those three years," Cash told The Associated Press during a 1996 interview. "If I couldn't have sung all those old country songs, I don't think I could have made it." Cash launched his career in Memphis, performing on radio station KWEM. He auditioned with Sun Records, ultimately recording the single "Hey Porter," which became a hit. Sun Records also launched the careers of Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and others. "Folsom Prison Blues" went to No.

4 on the country charts in 1956 and featured Cash's most famous couplet: "I shot a man in Reno/ just to watch him die." Cash recorded theme albums celebrating the railroads and the Old West and decrying the mistreatment of American Indians. Two of his most popular albums were recorded live at prisons. Along the way he notched 14 No. 1 country music hits. Because of Cash's frequent performances in prisons and his rowdy lifestyle early in his career, many people wrongly thought he had served prison time. He never did, though he battled addictions to pills on and off throughout his life, and was arrested for bringing amphetamine pills in his guitar case across the Mexican border in 1965. He blamed fame for his vulnerability to drug addiction. "When I was a kid, I always knew I'd sing on the radio someday. I never thought about fame until it started happening to me," he said in 1988. "Then it was hard to handle.

That's why I turned to pills." He credited June Carter Cash, whom he married in 1968, with helping him stay off drugs, though he had several relapses over the years and was treated at the Betty Ford Center in California in 1984. June Carter Cash was the daughter of country music great Mother Maybelle Carter, and the mother of singer Carlene Carter, whose father was country singer Carl Smith. Together, June Carter and Cash had one child, John Carter Cash. He is a musician and producer. Singer Rosanne Cash is Johnny Cash's daughter from his first marriage, to Vivian Liberto. Their other three children are Kathleen, Cindy and Tara. They divorced in 1966. In March 1998, Cash made headlines when his California-based record company, American Recordings, took out an advertisement in the music trade magazine Billboard. The full-page ad celebrated Cash's 1998 Grammy award for best country album for "Unchained." The ad showed an enraged-looking Cash in his younger years making an obscene gesture to sarcastically illustrate his thanks to country radio stations and "the country music establishment in Nashville," which he felt had unfairly cast him aside.

Waylon Jennings, a close friend, once said of Cash: "He's been like a brother to me. He's one of the greatest people in the world." Cash once credited his mother, Carrie Rivers Cash, with encouraging him to pursue a singing career. "My mother told me to keep on singing, and that kept me working through the cotton fields. She said God has his hand on you. You'll be singing for the world someday." Cash lived in Hendersonville, Tenn., just outside of Nashville. He also had a home in Jamaica. Fox News' Mike Hess and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Advertisement Johnny Cash: 10 facts about the 'Man in Black' - Music Music Previous slide Next slide 1 of 10 View All Skip Ad Johnny Cash (far right) with Jerry Lee Lewis (left), Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley at the Sun Recording Studios, Memphis, in December 1956. The title for Walk the Line was a suggestion from Carl Perkins. It was announced in December 2013 that a dozen newly-discovered recordings made by Cash three decades ago were being released in 2014 as an album called Out Among the Stars.

Johnny Cash - Guitarist, Songwriter, Singer - Biography.com Johnny Cash Johnny Cash, the Man in Black, was a singer, guitarist and songwriter whose music innovatively mixed country, rock, blues and gospel influences. IN THESE GROUPS » quotes “I'd like to wear a rainbow every day / and tell the world that everything is OK / But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back. / Until things are brighter, I'm the Man in Black.” “I was evil. I really was.” “I think [country music] speaks to our basic fundamental feelings … of emotions, of love, of breakup, of love and hate and death and dying, mama, apple pie, and the whole thing. It covers a lot of territory.” “I wouldn't let anybody influence me into thinking I was doing the wrong thing by singing about death, hell and drugs. 'Cause I've always done that. And I always will.” “I forgave myself. When God forgave me, I figured I'd better do it, too.” “I wanted to get just about that high off the ground before I'd go onstage.

Sometimes, I'd misjudge how high I was, you know, and I'd get onstage and I was a wreck.” “I appreciate all that—all the praise and the glory. It doesn't change the way I feel about anything, though. I just do what I do.” “There's no way around grief and loss ... sooner or later you just have to go into it. ... The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.” “You can't fool the audience. You can't fool yourself. If you're not yourself onstage, it shows.” “Every pill I ever took was an attempt to regain the wonderful, natural feeling of euphoria I experienced the first time. ... It was never as great as the first time, no matter how hard I tried to make it so.” “Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble.” “You've got to know your limitations. ... I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way.” “[I've] never done a concert in anything but black. You walk into my clothes closet.

It's dark in there.” Johnny Cash Johnny Cash - The Man in Black (TV-14; 1:11) Watch a short video about Johnny Cash and find out the highlights and low lights of the career of this rock, gospel and country legend. Synopsis Born in 1932 in Arkansas, Johnny Cash grew up in a poor farming community and joined the Air Force in 1950. He co-founded a band following his discharge, and within a few years Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two had scored hits with songs like "Walk the Line." Cash's career was nearly derailed in the 1960s by a serious substance-abuse problem, but his marriage to June Carter and acclaimed album Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968) put him back on track. In later years, Cash joined the country supergroup the Highwaymen and released a series of recordings with producer Rick Rubin. He died of complications from diabetes on September 12, 2003. Early Life Singer and songwriter Johnny Cash was born J. R. Cash on February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas.

The son of poor Southern Baptist sharecroppers, Cash, one of seven children born to Ray and Carrie Rivers Cash, moved with his family at the age of 3 to Dyess, Arkansas, so that his father could take advantage of the New Deal farming programs instituted by President Franklin Roosevelt . There, the Cash clan lived in a five-room house and farmed 20 acres of cotton and other seasonal crops. J. R. spent much of the next 15 years out in the fields, working alongside his parents and siblings to help pay off their debts. It wasn't an easy life, and music was one of the ways the Cash family found escape from some of the hardship. Songs surrounded the young J. R., be it his mother's folk and hymn ballads, or the working music people sang out in the fields. From an early age Cash, who began writing songs at age 12, showed a love for the music that enveloped his life. Sensing her boy's gift for song, Carrie Rivers Cash scraped together enough money so that he could take singing lessons.

However, after just three lessons his teacher, enthralled with Cash's already unique singing style, told him to stop taking lessons and to never deviate from his natural voice. Religion, too, had a strong impact on Cash's childhood. His mother was a devout member of the Pentecostal Church of God, and his older brother Jack seemed committed to joining the priesthood, until his tragic death in 1944 in an electric-saw accident. The experiences of his early farming life and religion became recurring themes in Cash's career. Military Service and Musical Aspirations In 1950, Cash graduated high school and left Dyess to seek employment, venturing to Pontiac, Michigan, for a brief stint at an auto body plant. That summer he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force as "John R. Cash"—military regulations required a full first name—and he was sent for training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where he met future wife Vivian Liberto. For the bulk of his four years in the Air Force, Cash was stationed in Landsberg, West Germany, where he worked as a radio intercept officer, eavesdropping on Soviet radio traffic.

It was also in Germany that Cash began to turn more of his attention toward music. With a few of his Air Force buddies he formed the Landsberg Barbarians, giving Johnny a chance to play live shows, teach himself more of the guitar, and also take a shot at songwriting. "We were terrible," he said later, "but that Lowenbrau beer will make you feel like you're great. We'd take our instruments to these honky-tonks and play until they threw us out or a fight started." After his discharge in July 1954, Cash married Vivian and settled with her in Memphis, Tennessee, where he worked, as best he could, as an appliance salesman. Pursuing music on the side, Cash teamed up with a couple of mechanics, Marshall Grant and Luther Perkins, who worked with Johnny's older brother Roy. The young musicians soon formed a tight bond, with the crew and their wives often heading over to one of their houses to play music, much of it gospel. Cash, who banged away on an old $5 guitar he'd purchased in Germany, became the frontman for the group, and they honed their unique synthesis of blues and country-and-western music through live performances.

"He was a decent singer, not a great one," wrote Marshall Grant, in his 2006 autobiography, I Was There When it Happened: My Life with Johnny Cash. "But there was power and presence in his voice." Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two In July 1954, another Memphis musician, Elvis Presley , cut his first record, sparking a wave of Elvis-mania as well as an interest in the local producer, Sun Records owner Sam Phillips , who had issued the record. Later that year Cash, Grant and Perkins made an unannounced visit to Sun to ask Phillips for an audition. The Sun Records owner gave in and Cash and the boys soon returned to show off their skills. Phillips liked their sound but not their gospel-driven song choices, which he felt would have a limited market, and asked them to return with an original song. The trio did just that, beginning work on the Cash-written "Hey Porter," shortly that first Sun session. Phillips liked that song, as well as the group's follow-up effort, "Cry, Cry, Cry," and signed the newly branded Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two.

"Hey Porter" was released in May 1955 and later that year "Cry, Cry, Cry" peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard charts. Other hits followed, including the Top 10 tracks "So Doggone Lonesome" and "Folsom Prison Blues." But true fame arrived in 1956, when Cash wrote and released "I Walk The Line," which catapulted to No. 1 on the country music charts and sold 2 million copies. He released his debut album, Johnny Cash with His Hot & Blue Guitar in 1957, and cemented his fame with chart-toppers like "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" and "Don't Take Your Guns to Town." Drugs and Divorce By the early 1960s, Johnny Cash, who had relocated his family to California and left Sun for Columbia Records, was a musical superstar. On the road for 300 nights a year with the group now known as the Tennessee Three, he was often accompanied by June Carter, who co-wrote what became one of the Man in Black's signature songs, "Ring of Fire" (1963).

Cash also sought to establish himself as an actor, starring in the movie Five Minutes to Live (1961) and a few Western-themed TV programs. But the schedule and the pressures that faced him took a toll on his personal life. Drugs and alcohol were frequent tour companions while Vivian, left home to take care of their family, which now included daughters Rosanne (b. 1955), Kathy (b. 1956), Cindy (b. 1959) and Tara (b. 1961) grew increasingly frustrated with her husband's absence. In 1966, she finally filed for divorce. Cash's personal life continued to spiral out of control. The following year, after a serious drug binge, Cash was discovered in a near-death state by a policeman in a small village in Georgia. There were other incidents, too, including an arrest for smuggling amphetamines into the U.S. across the Mexican border, and for starting a forest fire in a California park. "I took all the drugs there are to take, and I drank," Cash recalled. "Everybody said that Johnny Cash was through 'cause I was walkin' around town 150 pounds.

I looked like walking death." Remarriage and Revival Cash got the lifeline he needed from his old touring companion, June Carter, who helped him refocus on his Christian faith and get the drug addiction treatment he needed. The two were married on March 1, 1968. With his new wife, Cash embarked on a remarkable turnaround. In 1969, he began hosting The Johnny Cash Show, a TV variety series that showcased contemporary musicians ranging from Bob Dylan to Louis Armstrong . It also provided a forum for Cash to explore a number of social issues, tackling discussions that ranged from the war in Vietnam to prison reform to the rights of Native Americans. The same year his show debuted, Cash also took home two Grammy Awards for the live album Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968). A critical and commercial success, the album was credited with helping to revive the artist's popularity. In early 1970, Cash and Carter experienced more joy with the birth of their first and only child, John Carter Cash.

The ensuing decade offered up more success for the artist, as Cash's music career flourished with the release of hit singles like "A Thing Called Love" (1972) and "One Piece at a Time" (1976). He also co-starred with Kirk Douglas in A Gunfight (1970), wrote music for the feature Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970) and published a bestselling autobiography, Man in Black (1975). In 1980, he became the youngest living person to be elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Cash continued to maintain a busy schedule, and he increasingly teamed up with other musicians. In 1986, he banded with old Sun Records colleagues Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison to record the widely popular compilation The Class Of '55. Meanwhile, he joined forces with fellow country stalwarts Kris Kristofferson , Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to form the Highwaymen, which released three studio albums between 1985 and 1995.

In the early 1990s, Cash stepped into the studio with U2 to record The Wanderer, a track that would appear on the group's 1993 release, Zooropa. Throughout this time, though, Cash's health problems and his continued battles with addiction were nearby. After undergoing abdominal surgery in 1983, he checked himself into the Betty Ford Clinic. In 1988, Cash again went under the knife, this time for double-bypass heart surgery. But, like always, Cash pushed on. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and in 1994 he teamed with music producer Rick Rubin to release American Recordings. A 13-track acoustic album that mixed traditional ballads with modern compositions, American Recordings earned Cash a new audience and a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. He followed with another Rubin-produced album, Unchained (1996), and in 1997 he published his second memoir, Cash: The Autobiography. Final Years and Legacy Cash's physical health became more of an issue in the late 1990s.

He was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Shy-Drager syndrome—a misdiagnosis that was later corrected to autonomic neuropathy—and was hospitalized for pneumonia in 1998. Still, the artist continued making music. In 2002, he released American IV: The Man Comes Around, a mix of originals and covers, including songs from the Beatles to Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The album, recorded at the Cash Cabin Studio in Henderson, Tennessee, was the fourth Cash-Rubin compilation. Over the next year, Cash's health continued to decline. He was devastated when his longtime love, June Carter, died in May 2003, but he continued to work. With Rubin at his side, the singer recorded what would become American V: A Hundred Highways. Just a week before his death on September 12, 2003, from complications associated with diabetes, Cash wrapped up his final track. "Once June passed, he had the will to live long enough to record, but that was pretty much all," Rubin later recalled. "A day after June passed, he said, 'I need to have something to do every day.

Otherwise, there's no reason for me to be here.'" That November, Cash was posthumously honored at the CMA annual awards, winning best album for American IV, best single and best video. In 2005, the story of his life and career through the late 1960s was made into a feature film, Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the Man in Black and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter. In 2006, fans were treated to new music from the late artist. May brought Personal File, a two-CD set of unreleased material recorded decades earlier. In July, American V: A Hundred Highways was unveiled. Starkly arranged and sometimes mournful, the songs highlighted Cash's older and rougher sounding voice, which seared with a raw honesty. Not surprisingly, Cash's influence continued to resonate. In 2007, the community of Starkville, Mississippi, paid honor to the performer and his arrest there in 1965 for public intoxication with the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival. The following year, the late artist won another Grammy, for Best Short Form Music Video for God's Gonna Cut You Down.

"I think he'll be remembered for the way he grew as a person and an artist," wrote Kris Kristofferson in 2010, upon Cash's selection by Rolling Stone magazine as the 31st greatest artist of all time. "He went from being this guy who was as wild as Hank Williams to being almost as respected as one of the fathers of our country. He was friends with presidents and with Billy Graham . You felt like he should've had his face on Mount Rushmore." In 2010, additional material from recording sessions with Rubin were released as American VI: Ain't No Grave. In December 2013, it was revealed that another album from Cash had been unearthed. Out Among the Stars, which had been recorded in the early 1980s but never released by Columbia Records, was discovered by John Carter Cash in his father's archives. Underscoring the singer's sustained popularity, the album became a chart-topper following its release in March 2014.

Videos Johnny Cash | Rolling Stone artists > J > Johnny Cash > Bio Johnny Cash Bio Johnny Cash was a towering figure in 20th century American music, a minimalist with a booming Old Testament baritone who could wrench an abundance of power from stark settings. At first Cash was backed by guitar and bass; in the end it was simply guitar. But when a voice can tell a story with as much resonance as Cash's could, not much else is needed. Cash's songs – from his early gospel recordings and the resonant outlaw-country of Fifties classics like "Folsom Prison Blues" to late efforts like his unlikely, gut-wrenching cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" – influenced not only his fellow country musicians, but also rockers from Bono to Bob Dylan. By turns those songs were laden with pathos, whimsy, regret, hope, lust, and fury; they always cut to the heart of its subject matter, whether it be God, love or the plight of prisoners and Native Americans. Cash led a tumultuous life, battling drug addiction, chaffing against orthodoxy, and doing things his own way.

But by the end The Man in Black became an icon, a man who earns almost universal respect among music fans. The son of Southern Baptist sharecroppers, John R. Cash was born in 1932 and began playing guitar and writing songs at age 12. During high school, he performed frequently on radio station KLCN in Blytheville, Arkansas. Cash moved to Detroit in his late teens and worked there until he joined the air force as a radio operator in Germany. He left the service and married Vivian Liberto in 1954; the couple settled in Memphis, where Cash worked as an appliance salesman and attended radio announcers' school. They had four daughters, the oldest being singer Rosanne Cash, who was born in 1955. With the Tennessee Two (guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant) he began recording for Sam Phillips' Sun label in 1955. The trio recorded "Cry, Cry, Cry" (Number 14 C&W, 1955), and followed it with "Folsom Prison Blues" (Number Five C&W, 1956).

1956 brought Cash's most enduring hit, the million-selling "I Walk the Line" (Number 17, 1956). At Sun, he was also part of an impromptu gospel sing-along with label mates Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis that was widely bootlegged as The Million Dollar Quartet and finally released commercially in 1981 (on the U.K. label Charly). His career fully established, Cash moved to Ventura, California in 1958, signing with Columbia, and beginning a nine-year period of alcohol and drug abuse. He released a number of successful country and pop hits, among them "Ring of Fire" (Number One pop, Number One C&W, 1963), written by June Carter of the Carter Family and Merle Kilgore. By then, he had left his family and moved to New York's Greenwich Village. Late in 1965 Cash was arrested by customs officials for trying to smuggle amphetamines in his guitar case across the Mexican border. He got a suspended sentence and was fined. After a serious auto accident and a near fatal overdose, Liberto divorced him.

By then Cash had moved to Nashville, where he became friends with Waylon Jennings. Together they began what both have described as a drug-crazed year and a half. But in Nashville, Cash began a relationship with June Carter, who by 1967 helped him kick his drug habit and reconverted him to fundamentalist Christianity. By the time Cash and Carter married in early 1968, they had been working together regularly. They had hit duets with "Jackson" (Number Two C&W, 1967), "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man" (Number Six C&W, 1967), and versions of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me, Babe" (Number 58 pop, Number Four C&W, 1964) and Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter" (Number 36 pop, Number Two C&W, 1970). Cash's 1968 live album, At Folsom Prison (Number 13), became a million-seller.

Bob Dylan invited him to sing a duet ("Girl From the North Country") and write liner notes for Nashville Skyline, and in June of 1969 Dylan appeared in the first segment of ABC-TV's The Johnny Cash Show. The highly rated series, which lasted two years, developed a reputation as an eclectic showcase of contemporary American music, with guests ranging from Louis Armstrong to Carl Perkins to Bob Dylan to Joni Mitchell. Cash had a 1969 hit with Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue" (Number 2), a track from Johnny Cash at San Quentin; his best-selling album, the live album was Number One for four weeks. In 1970 Cash performed at the Nixon White House. He and June Carter traveled to Israel in 1971 to make a documentary, Gospel Road Cash continued to tour and make hits through the Seventies, including "A Thing Called Love" (Number Two C&W, 1972) and "One Piece at a Time" (Number One C&W, 1976). He also became active in benefit work, particularly on behalf of prisoners, Native American rights, and evangelist Billy Graham's organization.

In 1982 Cash regrouped with fellow surviving Million Dollar Quartet members Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis to record The Survivors. Three years later Cash hooked up with Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson to form the Highwaymen, releasing Highwayman in 1985. The country supergroup performed together sporadically throughout the late Eighties and Nineties, recording Highwayman 2 in 1990 and Highwaymen: The Road Goes On Forever (produced by Don Was) in 1995. Cash's 25-year relationship with Columbia Records ended in the mid-Eighties, and in 1986 he began an on and off relationship with Nashville's branch of Mercury Records. By the late Eighties, his long streak of country hits had ended, and Cash complained to an interviewer that he'd been "purged" from Nashville, replaced by contemporary "hat acts." He continued to perform constantly, however, usually with a package tour that included his wife and her sisters Helen and Anita Carter, as well as Johnny and June's son, John Carter Cash (other Cash and Carter siblings would sometimes show up too).

Throughout these years, Cash turned to acting; as the years went by he participated in a long parade of Western-themed movies and TV shows. He also suffered from health problems and underwent heart surgery as well as drug treatment for an addiction to painkillers. Already a member of the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame (he has more than 400 songs to his credit) and the Country Music Hall of Fame, Cash was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. That year also saw the release of the critically acclaimed box set The Essential Johnny Cash. In 1993 he began his return to the forefront with a guest vocal on U2's Zooropa; he sang lead on the darkly haunting track "The Wanderer." The following year, Cash was toasted by alt-rock audiences with the release of American Recordings, on the label by the same name that was best known for its rap and rock artists. Label chief Rick Rubin's production emphasized Cash's brooding, deep vocals, backed by his own simple, but effective acoustic guitar.

Featuring tunes by such artists as Nick Lowe, Leonard Cohen, and Tom Waits, the program veered from Cash's own "Redemption" to metalhead Glenn Danzig's "Thirteen." The move was the singer's boldest in years, revitalizing his artistry and earning him a sizable new audience. Appearing solo or backed by guitar, bass, and drums, Cash performed in several intimate venues that were a long haul from the summertime fairgrounds and theatre shows that he and June the Carters were used to playing. Though the album only reached Number 110 on the pop charts (Number 29 C&W), it received airplay on alternative-rock and college radio stations, and earned itself a wealth of critical raves. In 1996 Cash released another well-received album, Unchained, on which he was backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and covered edgy songs by the likes of Beck and Soundgarden. The album won the Best Country Album Grammy, and Cash also garnered a Lifetime Achievement Award Grammy. Then, after experiencing dizziness and tremors in 1997, Cash was diagnosed with the degenerative nervous disorder Shy-Drager syndrome.

He retired from the road and began treatments for his illness, but he kept giving interviews, kept working, and made some of the best music of his life. In 1999 Cash was the subject of a televised tribute (featuring Dylan, U2, Springsteen, and others) and made his first public appearance since his diagnosis. In 2000 Cash's health seemed better, and his doctors were beginning to question if they'd made the right diagnosis. Cash released another critically acclaimed album, American III: Solitary Man, which won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. (It also brought him back to Columbia, which had begun distributing the American label.) In 2002, Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around continued his commercial success with his rendition of Nine Inch Nails's cover "Hurt." The striking video for the song, directed by Mark Romanek, was awarded a Grammy for Best Video of the Year. On May 15, 2003, June Carter Cash died while undergoing heart valve replacement surgery. Less than five months later, on September 12, Johnny Cash succumbed to respiratory failure due to complications from his long battle with diabetes. He was 71.

In 2005 Joaquin Phoenix starred as Johnny Cash in a biopic about the singer's turbulent and extraordinary life entitled Walk The Line. Reese Witherspoon played June. The Cash family homestead in Hendersonville, Tennessee, under the new ownership of Bee Gees singer Barry Gibb, was destroyed by fire in April 2007. Comprised of leftover tracks from the Cash-Rubin sessions, Volume V of the American Recordings series was released as A Hundred Highways in 2006; Volume VI: Ain't No Grave followed in 2010. Just after Cash's death, Rolling Stone featured the singer on the cover of the October 16, 2003 issue. Among more than a dozen tributes to Cash in the issue – from Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Bono, Rick Rubin, Al Gore and many others – one of the most effusive came from a man not known for excessive praise: Cash's old friend Bob Dylan. "He is what the land and country is all about, the heart and soul of it personified and what it means to be here; and he said it all in plain English," Dylan said.

"Listen to him, and he will always bring you to your senses." Portions of this biography appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Jim Macnie contributed to this story. 10 Most Famous Country Singers | Made Man 10 Most Famous Country Singers Facebook Twitter Stumble Google+ Save Everyone has their favorite country singer, but here is a list of some of the 10 most famous country singers of all time. Feel free to make up your own list of who you think are the most famous country singers. Johnny Cash, dubbed “The Man in Black,” was the youngest inductee to the Country Hall of Fame. Two of his most famous hits were “I Walk the Line” and “Ring of Fire.” He married June Carter, and they had seven children. He sold over 90 million records during his lifetime. GeorgeStraitwas inducted in 2006 to the Country Hall of Fame. He had seventeen number one hits on Billboard in the 1990s.

Some of his more famous songs are “All My Exes Live in Texas,” “Love Without End, Amen,” and “I Cross My Heart.” He won the CMA award for his album in 1985, for his singing in 1986, and many more awards after that. Loretta Lynn won her first CMA award in 1972 for Entertainer of the Year. She is best known for her hits “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “I Lie.” She has had 52 top ten hits, sixteen number one hits, and also won the Vocal Duo of the Year with Conway Twitty from 1972 to 1976. After taking time off to care for her sick husband in the 1990s, she came back to a whole new group of fans. Rebe McEntire was awarded the National Artistic Achievement Award by the U.S. Congress. She has sold over 55 million albums, had 63 top ten hits, fifteen AMA awards, nine People’s Choice Awards, seven CMA awards, two Grammys, and a sitcom.

She has made 34 studio albums, and is known for her hit singles “When You Love a Child” and “Consider Me Gone.” Garth Brooks is the Number One solo artist in U.S. history having sold over 128 million albums. His album “The Ultimate” went 5X Platinum. His TV special “Ireland and Back” had over 15.7 million viewers. He retired with his wife Trisha Yearwood and his three daughters in 1998, but still comes out for charitable events. He has won numerous awards for entertainer, male artist, and songwriting. Patsy Cline died at the young age 31 from an airplane crash in 1963, but not before she had an effect on country music. Ten million albums of her greatest hits sold in 2005. She was best known for her songs “Crazy” and “I Fall to Pieces.” She appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in 1958 and after her death was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Carrie Underwood, 2004 American Idol winner, had ten number one singles from her first two albums.

Some of her popular songs are “Jesus Take the Wheel” and “Before He Cheats.” She has won five CMAs, eight ACMs, four Grammys, and other awards from People’s Choice, Billboard, Teen Choice, AMA and CMT, plus two awards for songwriting. She was entertainer of the year 2009 and 2010, and her first album went 7X Platinum!! Eddy Arnold was best known for introducing Nashville and country music to the world and was a regular host on the Grand Ole Opry. In 1948 he had six songs in the top ten at one time. He is best known for “Make the World Go Away” and “What’s He Doing in My World.” He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966. George Jones received the Medal of Arts for artistic excellence, in 2002 from President Bush. He is best known for “Why Baby Why” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today” which won him every award in country music including a Grammy, CMA Single of the Year for 1980 and 1981, and even Favorite Country Song ten years later.

After years of drug and alcohol problems, George lives a sober life today and performs approximately 100 times per year. Merle Haggard is best known as a lyricist and poet of the common man. Many of his songs are sorrowful and painful, but usually include humor and hope. When he was young, he had problems with the law but received an unconditional pardon. Two of his best known songs are “Sing a Sad Song” and “The Fugitive.” show comments

Question: What musician was known as "The Man in Black"?
Answer: Johnny Cash