Johnny Cash walked the line for nearly 50 years, every inch of his journey through the country, gospel, folk and rock worlds etched into his craggy face.
The journey ended early Friday. Cash, weakened in recent years by diabetes, glaucoma asthma and a chronic nervous-system disorder, died at a Nashville hospital. He was 71. Cause of death was said to be respiratory failure, the result of diabetes.
It was just two days ago, on Wednesday, that Cash was released from the same facility, Baptist Hospital, following a two-week stay there for a stomach ailment. At the time, Cash's manager, Lou Robin, told E! Online that the entertainer was "feeling much better and looking forward to coming to California next week to finish his album."
On Friday, Robin was asking for prayers for the Cash family, beset in months by the deaths of their two towering leaders.
Cash's beloved wife and worthy musical partner, June Carter Cash, died just four months ago, succumbing May 15, days after heart-valve surgery. She was 73.
Carter Cash was a member of the pioneering Carter clan, literally the first family of country music. Cash's reach, at least across genres, was even greater, certified by his membership in both the Country Music and Rock and Roll hall of fames. (He also was an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.)
In all, the original Man in Black leaves behind more than 70 albums, 11 Grammys (news - web sites) and enough hits to keep a jukebox playing long into the night.
"I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire," "Folsom Prison Blues," "Don't Take Your Guns to Town," "A Boy Named Sue," "If I Were a Carpenter," and the eponymous "Man in Black" were among Cash's signature tunes.
Some, he wrote; some, he just recorded. All, he lived.
"I'd die if I retire," Cash told Rolling Stone in 2002. "Like a shark--got to keep moving."
Always a battler, Cash overcame a drug and booze habit, endured 30-plus operations for a broken jaw, and underwent heart surgery. In recent years he battled autonomic neuropathy, a chronic condition that attacked that made him extremely susceptible to pneumonia and kept him in and out of the emergency room.
For the past two weeks he had been back in the hospital pancreatitis, an inflammation of the stomach unrelated to his other health problems.
The ailment forced him to miss out on the MTV Video Music Awards last month in New York, where the video for his Nine Inch Nails cover "Hurt" was up for six prizes and snagged one, for Best Cinematography. The song and video made the veteran singer an unlikely hero among the Gen Y set.
J.R. Cash, born February 26, 1932 in Kingsland, Arkansas, first made his mark in the 1950s, signing a deal with Sam Phillips (news)' Sun Records and joining a lineup that included Elvis Presley (news) and Jerry Lee Lewis (news). Phillips, Cash's producer until 1958, urged him to shift his focus from gospel to country and western, and gave him the new nickname "Johnny." And Cash's first public performance was opening for Presley. (Phillips died in July at 80.)
With his rebellious image and his stripped-down rockabilly sound, Cash quickly became one of the biggest artists of the '50s and '60s. He scored more than 130 hits in his career, helping him sell more than 50 million records.
At the same time, Cash suffered several lifetimes worth of hardship. After his initial success, the singer fell into the depths of drug addiction, only to eventually break free with the help of future wife June Carter.
Surprisingly enough, his next life was as a TV star, hosting a variety show on ABC from 1969 to '71. The Johnny Cash (news) Show featured guests such as Bob Dylan (news), Carl Perkins, Joni Mitchell (news) and the Statler Brothers. And after a lull in the '80s, Cash rebounded once again in the 1990s. With the help of Rubin, he found a whole new audience with the American albums, featuring unlikely covers such as "Rusty Cage" by Soundgarden and the Nine Inch Nails tune. All with his deep, rootsy signature sound.
Upon his release from the hospital earlier this week, Cash said through Robin that he was eager to resume working with producer Rick Rubin on American V, the follow-up album to American IV: The Man Comes Around. Cash had recorded more than 50 tracks for the project, which had been slated for release in 2004.
Worshipped by his peers, Cash played or recorded with the likes of Springsteen, Sheryl Crow (news), Beck, Willie Nelson (news), Lyle Lovett (news), Dave Matthews and even U2, providing lead vocals for "The Wanderer," a track that appeared on the Irish supergroup's 1993 Zooropa album.
"I'm proud to say that I worked with Johnny Cash, and when he came through the studio door for the first time it was like Moses himself had arrived," Bono said last year when Cash was celebrating his 70th birthday.
"He is a character of truly biblical proportions, with a voice, all wailing freight trains and thundering prairies, like the landscape of his beloved America. He has a soul as big as a continent, full of righteous anger mixed with human compassion."
Rest in heavenly peace. 
