To mark what would have been Johnny Cash’s 93rd birthday, we’re revisiting our special Hot Press tribute to the Man in Black...
Originally published in Hot Press in 2003…
“Well, y’know… not too good.”
Billy Bob Thornton’s reply to the inquiry after Johnny Cash’s health was succinct enough as he sat in his Vicar St. dressing room some 18 months ago, but in his expression – part pained grimace, part philosophical shrug – was writ volumes of respect and regret. Cash had written a complimentary endorsement to go on the sleeve of Thornton’s album Private Radio; for the actor, writer and singer, and for scores of other disciples in new country, old country, alt-country, folk and rock ’n’ roll circles, there was palpable sorrow in the realisation that these were the twilight days of a patriarch.
So yes, there was an element of foregone conclusion about Cash’s death. He’d been in severe physical pain for years. His body was ravaged by decades of substance abuse, diabetes, and heart surgery. In 1999 he was misdiagnosed with a neurological disorder known as Shy-Drager syndrome, and subsequently had to wean himself off the medication. Pneumonia put him in a coma for eight days in October 2001. His eyesight was poor from glaucoma and his breath short from asthma. He was in constant discomfort from having his jaw broken during dental surgery; he refused surgery to correct it for fear it might endanger his singing career. He also refused painkillers, wary that it might cause him to relapse into drug addiction. The only time that pain faded was when he was onstage singing.
But following the passing of his wife and soulmate June Carter Cash last May, there was now pain in his soul, and anyone who knew anything about love and death would’ve predicted that he couldn’t last long. Although he kept busy recording spiritual and gospel songs with Rick Rubin, many close to him felt the heart had gone out of the man.
Posted from: https://www.hotpress.com/music/remembering-johnny-cash-that-voice-cut-through-the-generations-23072979
