Johnny Cash (aka "The Man In Black") was a legendary country musician known best for his outlaw songs and notable prison performances. With his instantly recognizable deep baritone voice, Cash enjoyed a long-lasting career that began in the mid-1950s at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. Alongside other future stars such as Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison, he recorded a handful of rockabilly songs that introduced audiences to his intense performance style. Over the years, Cash would adapt to outlaw country and rock styles, in addition to incorporating the gospel influences he'd absorbed as a boy growing up in Arkansas. His empathy for the fringes of society, including the poor and the imprisoned, led to his dressing in all black, a representation of his desire to fight for those who couldn't fight for themselves. In the late 1960s, Cash recorded two live albums at Folsom and San Quentin prisons, performing songs such as "A Boy Named Sue" and "I Walk the Line" for the prisoners. Beginning in the mid-1990s and lasting beyond the next decade, he enjoyed an impressive career resurgence thanks to his American Recordings series. The albums, all starkly produced by Rick Rubin, saw Cash hauntingly covering a wide range of material from artists as diverse as Nine Inch Nails, Neil Diamond, Bruce Springsteen and Bonnie "Prince" Billy. He died in 2003 at the age of 71, but his mark on popular music will unquestionably remain for generations to come.
