Johnny Cash : Rest In Peace

Damn. I get up this morning and hear John Ritter (of 3's Company) died at age 54, and while I'm spinning over that one, they announce THE MAN IN BLACK is no longer with us. I admire Johnny so much for his composure after June's passing, supposedly he was working on American 5 when he was admitted to the hospital again....I don't know what to say, but.....DAMN.

 

Johnny Cash is gone.........

I'm glad he is out of pain and with June forever..........

 

WOW, I heard the news today oh boy, about John Ritter but it seemed like I just heard Johnny Cash was just out of the hospitol and was doing fine. What couple of shockers to hear in the wee hours of the morning

 

What a horrible, horrible morning this is... John Ritter's father Tex, the great country singer, died quite young as well.

 

****. What an awful day. We'll miss you, Johnny.

 

More info on Johnny:

Country Singer Johnny Cash Dies at 71

The Associated Press

NEW YORK - Johnny Cash, a towering figure in American music spanning country, rock and folk and known worldwide as "The Man in Black," has died, according to hospital officials in Nashville, Tenn. He was 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.

The release said Cash died at the hospital at 1 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. "A Boy Named Sue" was a comical story of a father who gives his son a girl's name to make him tough. "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.

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."

Cash's 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.

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, 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.

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."

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.

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. Together, the couple 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 were 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.

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.

 

First thing I heard on CNN at 6AM. Very sad but, not really unexpected given his fragile health in recent times. Sad none the less.

Chris

 

I have really, REALLY enjoyed his American series of releases....phenomenal stuff.
RIP and thanks for the great music!

 

So sad.. I've never listened to his music (yet) but it saddens me to hear he's no longer with us.

RIP, Johnny

 

Damian....try Unchained, it's an album he did with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers....he does great cover versions of Soundgarden's Rusty Cage and Petty's Southern Accents..and a great Beck song.....among other great songs....of course, there are his old classics.....but this one is really easy to get into

 

To me, Johnny Cash is every bit as important to music as Elvis. His brand of Country was so unique when it first came out that it heavily influenced Rock and Roll, and was actually considered crossover. He's been a big influence on so many people, and it's impossible to say just how deeply he has affected so many lives. What he has taught me personally I could write about for days.
I knew he was sick, I knew he was devastated at losing June. Still, I rooted for him because I always wanted to see him happy tho I know he was tormented inside, and lately he's produced some of his deepest music ever, taking other people's songs and making them entirely his own. Not many can pull that off. It was/is so inspiring I didn't want it to end. I take comfort in knowing that Rubin has taken care of the tapes...they're priceless.

 

I just heard about Johnny Cash on CNN. John Ritter too? Not to thread crap, but was John Ritter ill?

 

What kind of morning is this?!?! I am truly saddened by these two deaths.

I hope MTV is now sorry for not bestowing their VMAs on his more-than-worthy video for "Hurt."

 

Thanks Dave. The Beck song should be Rowboat, if I recall correctly?

In any case, I've read too much about 'Live At Folsom Prison' not to buy that one first. I'm sure I'll enjoy it whenever I do.

 

"San Quentin" is also a great one to start with.

 

Why Johnny was so great!

Attitude!

 

A couple of months ago, I was driving through town blaring Ring of Fire with the windows open. A 12-year-old (probably) kid came up on his bike and said "that's a great song." That made my day. R.I.P. Johnny and June.

 

Big loss to American music. I didn't own any of his recordings but what weirds me out a little was he fact that yesterday afternoon I pulled the "unofficial" cassette tape The Dylan-Cash Sessions (1969) out of a drawer for the first time in several years and slapped it on in the car. The last song playing as I pulled into the driveway was Cash singing "One Too Many Mornings"

 

I've been dreading this day for a while now. They say these things happen in three's. When Warren Zevon died Sunday, I got a little twinge thinking about Johnny, but I shrugged it off.

Some people -- you just think they're going to be around forever. I've been listening to Johnny Cash since I was in the third grade (that would have been in 1968). He has always seemed invulnerable to anything -- drugs, pain, age, loss, and even Columbia Records. When I was a kid, I always thought of him as being in the same camp with Paul Bunyan and that ilk. That idea changed very little, even as I grew older and became more aware of the fragile nature of human existence.

I'm a teacher, and I get two personal days per year. I covet them and use them sparingly. But I used them in 1996 to go see Johnny Cash at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC. That decision ranks right up there with the top 5 decisions I've ever made in my life. It was a classic show -- everything I had grown to expect over the years.

Today is 9/12, and I, like everyone else, know full well the tragic event we remembered in reverence yesterday. Well, if you ask me, 9/12/03 is the day the third tower fell. Now I just have to get through this lonesome day.

 

Sad day. ---RIP.

 

RIP Johnny, You will be missed

 

Sad, very sad, my heart goes out to both family's.

 

anybody here ever see that film of John Lennon and Bob Dylan riding in the back of that car, talking amongst other things about how much they like Johnny Cash? Wow, when you got two towering giants praising you, I think it speaks volumes about your influence. The poor Cash family have been through so much this year.....