the original punkrocker is dead:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/6754620.htm

Posted on Fri, Sep. 12, 2003 Country Singer Johnny Cash Dies at 71
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.

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