Cash, Johnny (1932-2003)

US country singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His early hits, recorded for Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee, included the million-selling ‘I Walk the Line’ (1956). Many of his songs have become classics.

Cash's gruff delivery and storytelling ability distinguished his work. He was widely respected beyond the country-music field for his concern for the underprivileged, expressed in albums such as Bitter Tears (1964) about American Indians and Live At Folsom Prison (1968). He was known as the ‘Man in Black’ because of his penchant for dressing entirely in black. Performing regularly with the county-music group the Carter Family from 1961, he married June Carter in 1968. He published an autobiography, Man in Black, in 1975.