R.I.P. TO THE MAN IN BLACK

A legend has been taken from us. But it's not a tragedy; death will eventually get all of you and me too, one way or the other. And the truth is, Johnny Cash probably lived about two decades longer than anyone should've expected, given the way he spent his youth. But those last two decades were probably the most amazing decades in any entertainer's life, and they followed several amazing decades that had already made him a legend.

Do you want to write the Great American Novel? Just base your main character on Johnny Cash.

Born in the Depression, son of a farmer and one of six kids, Johnny Cash enlisted in the Air Force in the early 50s. On his first duty station, in Germany, he started his first band. He would never be the same, and neither would the musical world.

He knew Elvis before Elvis knew he was Elvis. Even young, Cash had a voice that sounded old, like an aged sage full of grit and vinegar. He looked like a gnarly old man by the time he was 30. Johnny Cash was there for the invention of rock-n-roll, but wasn't a rocker himself for long. He went country before the genre existed.

He was a wild man who loved to live hard at night and boast in the morning. He was an outlaw poet.

And he just kept on. He sang at prisons, penning the ultimate prison anthem, "Fulsom Prison Blues."

His demanding tour schedule in the 50s and 60s made him one of the must successful musicians in America, and a drug addict. It wrecked his marriage, but made him a musical god. He wrote "Don't Take Your Guns to Town," "I Got Stripes," and "Ring of Fire." And he remained an outlaw. Then he met June Carter, who turned him around, married him and civilized him.

But in the 70s and 80s something changed. Cash's roots had always been Gospel. He left Sun in the 50s because he thought that would give him a better shot at recording Gospel songs. Like a whisper that you can't quite hear but can't quite shake, something kept getting under Johnny's skin. Pretty soon the Outlaw returned to his roots, announcing that he was a Christian. He wrote "The Man in Black," which summed up the man and his personna, and his faith, in 1971.

In the 90s the legend continued to grow. Critical acclaim came his way; young up-and-coming musicians cited him among their influences. He recorded a string of riveting work, raw and dark and real.

Johnny Cash's life was long and rich and full of twists and turns, like a great drama made real. Johnny Cash never re-invented himself; we just kept re-discovering him. He will be missed.