BIOGRAPHY AND PERSONALITY OF A FAMOUS PISCES: JOHNNY CASH

Country singer, guitarist, songwriter. Born February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas. The son of poor Southern Baptist sharecroppers, Cash was raised in Dyess, Arkansas, where he worked in the cotton fields. Driven by the influences of local country and gospel music, Cash began playing guitar at age 12. After a four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force (1950-54), Cash settled in Memphis, Tennessee, where he married Vivian Liberto and worked as an appliance salesman. Pursuing music on the side, Cash fronted the band Tennessee Two, which featured bassist Marshall Grant and guitarist Luther Perkins. Their sound was a synthesis of blues and country-and-western music, which was coined "rockabilly" by those in the record industry. (In 1960, with the addition of drummer W.S. Holland, the group was later named Tennessee Three.)

In 1955, Cash was awarded the opportunity to record his first single with the Sun Records label, Hey Porter, which met with mediocre reviews. However, Cash's second release, Cry, Cry, Cry (1955), peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard charts. Under the tutelage of Sun Records' producer Sam Phillips, Cash joined an elite group of artists that included Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis - they were known as "The Million Dollar Quartet." In 1956, Cash recorded his signature hit Folsom Prison Blues, which he was inspired to write after seeing a powerful film about Folsom Prison. That same year, I Walk the Line marked his first No. 1 country hit. The following year, Cash released his debut album, Johnny Cash with His Hot & Blue Guitar.

In 1958, Cash moved to Ventura, California, where he developed a near fatal addiction to amphetamines and alcohol. Despite his drug dependency, Cash continued to record a slew of popular hits over the next few years, including Ring of Fire (1963) and Understand Your Man (1964). He also appeared regularly on the Louisiana Hayride and Grand Ole Opry radio broadcasts through the early 1960s.

During the mid-1960s, Cash's escalating drug use began to take a toll on his personal life. In 1966, after Vivien filed for a divorce, Cash returned to Memphis. The following year, he met singer-songwriter June Carter, a member of the founding family of country music. The couple collaborated on a succession of acclaimed duet recordings, including Jackson and Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man (both 1967), before marrying in 1968. With Carter's support, Cash kicked his drug habit and became a devout Christian fundamentalist.

In 1969, he began hosting The Johnny Cash Show, a TV variety series that showcased contemporary musicians ranging from Bob Dylan to Louis Armstrong. Later that same year, he took home two Grammy Awards for the live album Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968). The album was a critical and commercial success and reached Gold record status by December 1969.

In the 1970s, Cash's music career continued to flourish with the release of the hit singles A Thing Called Love (1972) and One Piece at a Time (1976). In 1975, he published a bestselling autobiography Man in Black.

In 1987, Cash banded with former Sun Records' artists Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison to record the widely popular compilation The Class Of '55. For the album The Highwayman (1985), Cash collaborated with Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings. Billed as the Highwaymen, the quartet consistently toured throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, releasing two more records - The Highwayman 2 (1990) and The Road Goes on Forever (1995).

Cash achieved his biggest success to date with the release of American Recordings (1994), a 13-track acoustic album that mixed traditional ballads with modern compositions. The album earned Cash a new audience and a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Cash's next compilation was a three-disc set appropriately titled Love, God, Murder (2000).

Cash also appeared in numerous dramatic roles in movies and television, including the Westerns The Gunfight (1971) and The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James (1986). In addition, he wrote the scores for the feature Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970), and the TV movie The Pride of Jesse Hallam (1980).

In 1980, Cash was accepted as the youngest member of the Country Music Association Hall of Fame and, in 1992, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He has won 10 Grammy Awards, including the 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award. In a career spanning six decades, Cash has recorded over 1,500 songs, which predominantly expressed his empathy for the downtrodden and socially outcast. Cash remains to be a fervent supporter of Native American and prisoners rights, as well as an active member of Billy Graham's Evangelistic Association.

In the late 1990s, Cash revealed that he was suffering from a rare nervous-system disorder called Shy-Drager Syndrome. Cash died of complications from diabetes on September 12, 2003. He was posthumously honoured at the CMA annual awards that year, winning best album for American IV, best single, and best video. In 2005, the story of his love affair with June Cash was made into a feature film, Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

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