In 1942, at the age of 10, Johnny Cash got his first guitar.  Influenced by the songs and tales of farm hands in the south, Cash's musical career would become one that would change the Nashville status-quo, would cross genres, and influence generations of singers and songwriters that would follow him.  Just as he would influence others, music influenced him his entire life, from the country-tinged gospel of his mother, his father's country-western band, the Dixie Rhythm Ramblers, to the radio shows he'd listen to. 

In the middle of 1950, Cash signed up with the U.S. Air Force, serving four years with them before settling down in Memphis, Tennessee.  Once out, he married Vivian Libarto and began pursuing the love he'd been tinkering with most of his life.  Picking up a guitar, he went on to front the Tennessee Two, which featured not only himself, but bassist Marshall Grant and guitarist Luther Perkins.  Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two took their country gospel sound and won the chance to record with Sun Records, who had recorded Elvis Presley's first single, "That's All Right," just a couple of years prior.  Record execs felt the sound wasn't going to sell, and the boys were told to come back with something a little more dangerous.  With that, they crafted a unique blend of country and blues, a sound that would eventually be coined "rockabilly," and earned another opportunity to make a record with Sun.  Their first single, "Hey Porter," found lukewarm reception.  Soon, "Hey Porter" was backed with  "Cry, Cry, Cry," which found massive success with country audiences, reaching #1 on the local charts, edging out the great Elvis Presley.  "Cry, Cry, Cry" even found a spot at #14 on the Billboard Country & Western charts.  While it may have spawned a career that would take him decades, it wasn't a big money maker, at least not then.  His first royalty check was for an astounding... $2.41.

His follow-up records, "So Doggone Lonely" and "Folsom Prison Blues" (a song originally written for Tennessee Ernie Ford) would fare even better on the charts, breaking into Billboard's Top 10 on the C&W charts.  With all this new-found success, it was his next hit "I Walk the Line" that would give Cash the starts to a career that would last a lifetime.  The single shot straight up to #1 and called that spot home for an amazing 43 weeks.  The song was the first of many to cross genre boundaries, finding success on the pop charts and breaking into its Top 20.  It was all during this time, under the watchful guidance of Sun Records that Cash joined Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis - creating a group that would be known as "The Million Dollar Quartet."  Cash began appearing on the Grand Ole Opry as well as an appearance one week after Elvis on the Jackie Gleason Show.  He also recorded his (and Sun Records') first long-play album, 1957's Johnny Cash and his Hot and Blue Guitar.  The potential knocking away at Johnny Cash's door, as well as the departure of Elvis Presley made a move from Sun Records all the more appealing. 

The following year, once his contract with Sun expired, Cash went to Columbia Records with a deal that was sealed with a handshake after a handshake agreement that would bring Cash to Columbia Records, he recorded The Fabulous Johnny Cash.  Entering the charts at #19, it was the single "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" that found popularity with audiences.  As evidenced with his early musical success with "Folsom Prison Blues," Cash had an interest in the lives and welfare of prisoners.  In 1960, he played his first free show at San Quentin Prison, where he would find a 22-year old inmate by the name of Merle Haggard sitting in the first row.  Legend has it, it was Cash that convinced the soon-to-be country legend to turn to music instead of a life of crime.

As his professional life became increasingly successful, his personal life was paying the price.  In the place of a steady family life and rest from the intense touring schedule he maintained (an astounding 300 shows a year at one point), Cash turned to drugs and alcohol, a choice that would end his marriage with Vivian in 1966.  The marriage probably wasn't helped any by the emergence of June Carter in his life.  In 1964, they sang duet on "It Ain't Me Babe," which was penned by Bob Dylan.  The song went to #4 on the Country & Western chart and remained on the chart for 22 weeks in total.  Cash's 1966 hit, "Ring of Fire," written by June Carter, was based on the conflict she dealt with in their initial attraction.  At the time, both were married and Cash's drug problems, the "ring of fire" as they were referred as in the lyrics, were worsening with every day.  After their prospective divorces, and a Grammy win for their duet on "Jackson," the pair married in 1968.

Throughout all of this, Johnny cash built a romanticized reputation as a sort of outlaw with songs like "Busted" and a re-make of the Jimmie Rodgers tune "In the Jailhouse Now," even though he'd never spent a day in prison.  In 1969, for his highly acclaimed live recording, Johnny Cash at San Quentin, he recorded the hit song "A Boy Named Sue."  Written by Shel Silverstein, the song tells the tale of a boy named Sue who seeks revenge on his absent father for giving him a girl's name.  The song reached #1 on the country charts, reached #2 on the pop charts, earned Johnny Cash a Grammy Award, and went on to become one of Cash's most beloved hits.  Tales of a tough life, revenge and even redemption were recurring themes in the music Johnny Cash chose to perform and record.  Cash eventually found his own redemption in the early 70s, giving up the life of drugs and finding spirituality through church. 

From 1969 to 1971, The Johnny Cash Show aired on ABC.  Opening with the Statler Brothers and featuring Cash alongside such artists at James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and a young, up-and-coming songwriter by the name of Kris Kristofferson.  As the years would go by, as other country artists took to flashier looks with rhinestone studded outfits and fancy cowboy boots, Johnny Cash took a dark simple appearance and was often seen wearing all black, including his famous long black coat.  "The Man In Black" was both a reality for Cash and the name of an album and song of the same name. 

As if two and a half decades in music wasn't enough, in 1980 Cash became the youngest living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame.  Albums upon albums later, he teamed up with Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson to form the country "supergroup," The Highwaymen.  At that time, his solo albums didn't have the effect of his earlier work, but two albums released by The Highwaymen went on to become hits. 

Growing weary from the lack of attention Columbia Records had given him during the 1980s, Cash recorded an intentionally bad single "Chicken in Black."  Now free of Columbia, Cash went back to Sun Studios in order to meet up with Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.  Together, they recorded Class of '55, a tribute to those who'd come through the ranks at Sun Records in that year.  For this they also recorded "Interviews from the Class of '55," which earned the participants the 1987 Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album.  One especially fascinating find at Sun Records includes the recorded jam sessions of Elvis, Perkins, Lewis and Cash which was released as The Million Dollar Quartet, and featured a number of tracks, including a cover of Elvis' own "Don't be Cruel" with Elvis doing an impersonation of Jackie Wilson. 

Health issues began taking their toll on Cash in the late 1990s, though this didn't stop Cash from recording the kind of music he wanted to.  In January of 1992, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a month later was given the Grammy Legend Award.  1993 saw Cash performing a guest vocal on U2's Zooropa for the song "The Wanderer, and by the middle of 1994 he was signed with Rick Rubin's American Recording's label, which was better known in the rap and hard rock genre than with what Cash was familiar.  Taking the chance proved to be one of the smartest moves in bringing Cash's generation-defying music to Generation X.  Cash's 1994 record, American Recordings, featured him on guitar and was recorded in the simple environment of his living room.  The following year, the well-received album won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

Severe pneumonia and a diabetes-related illness called autonomic neuropathy prompted Cash to give up touring entirely in 1997.  Despite this, he continued to make hits with VH1 Storytellers: Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, American III: Solitary Man and American IV: The Man Comes Around.  His cover of the Nine Inch Nails song, "Hurt," and its accompanying video was considered by many to reflect his life story, the sadness and redemption, loneliness and pain for him and his loved ones caused by his various addictions throughout the years.  American IV would also become the last complete studio album released by Cash.

After 35 years of trials and tribulations, June Carter and Johnny Cash remained married until the death of June in May of 2003.  A quick 4 months later, Johnny succumbed to his illnesses.  To many, it felt like Cash knew his time was ending soon.  Four weeks after his death, his first posthumous album was released, featuring music chosen by Cash himself, Artist's Choice: Music That Matters to Him. 

Through the years following, his legend as an alternative country icon would continue to grow with works being unearthed and released to a public that can't seem to get enough of Johnny Cash.  He and June were portrayed in the 2006 Academy-Award winning film, Walk the Line, cementing the legacy of the Man in Black into the very fabric of American Culture.  It shouldn't be any surprise, really.  All in all, Cash recorded well over a thousand songs, far surpassing the vast majority of so-called legends in music.  Though he may not be with us any longer, through his body of work Cash can continue to influence listeners and artists in the future, reminding us all why he's the Man in Black.