Johnny Cash
Feb. 26, 1922 - Sep. 12, 2003
As little as I know about Johnny Cash, I can honestly tell you that he had a way of taking a song and making it his own. The finest example of this is his cover of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt", recorded late in his career. He took a good song and made it great....truly great. Johnny Cash, who was born on this day in 1922, had a long career in country music. Having been born and raised in Texas, I was obliged to listen to him on virtually a daily basis. It's very much in the same way that a Canadian is forced to listen to Rush, or a person from Alabama gets constant and repeated exposure to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Having heard him so much I am quite familiar with his work, even though I have never been a country music "fan" per se. I like some of his songs, sure, and he had a great (especially speaking) voice, but he never really was my thing. I did enjoy his work with Highwayman, though (the 1985 "supergroup" with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson).
Johnny's wife, June Carter Cash, died from complications during heart valve surgery in May of 2003, and Johnny died from diabetes and other health issues on September 12, 2003. His home was purchased by Bee Gees vocalist Barry Gibb in 2006 but was destroyed by fire before he and his wife could move into it.
Three things you did not know about Johnny Cash:
1) Wrote a novel in 1986 called Man in White, about the Apostle Paul.
2) Narrated an audio book, Johnny Cash Reads The Complete New Testament, in 1990.
3) In 1991, sang vocals on a cover of his song "The Man in Black" for a Christian punk band called One Bad Pig.
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