"I remember Johnny had dressed up in his black suit and had a little tuxedo shirt on ... open at the collar, and he was sitting at Columbia Records. And this little kid came in with filthy blue jeans, filthy hair, and he circled him like an Apache circling a campfire. And he said, "Pardon me. What is your name?" "Well my name is Johnny Cash." He said, "Man you are truly beautiful." Johnny got real nervous, he said. "What's your name." He said, "Bob Dylan." - Singer, songwriter, Merle Kilgore.

    From 1969 thru 1971, Cash hosted his own network television show. The broadcast opened each week with Cash, his back turned to the audience and his guitar slung behind him. Then, as he turned to face the audience, his low southern drawl would open the show with, "Hello. I'm Johnny Cash". Aside from Cash's music, such young performers as Linda Rondstadt. Neil Young, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins and Bob Dylan were regularly featured on the show.

    In the early 80's Cash was dropped by Columbia Records. Just as his career began to ebb, he met with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson to form the quartet of country music legends, "The Highwaymen", in 1985. Their albums and tours were wildly successful even as a trend toward Country Pop threatened to change their industry.

    A life threatening bout with double pnuemonia in 1988 and the loss of his recording contract with Mercury Records shortly afterwords would seem to portend the close of any viable recording career.

    In 1995, producer Rick Rubin, who had worked with the Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers, approached Cash with an offer to record for his alternative music label. Cash accepted and his American Recordings (1994), brought about a renewed interest in this uniquely American icon. The 13-track acoustic album mixed traditional ballads with modern compositions. "The lyrical content of the songs. If you want to stick 'em to me and say these are Johnny Cash. Then, I'm part good and part bad. But I'm redeemed." Says Cash. The album earned Cash a new audience and a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

    In the late 1990s, Cash revealed that he was suffering from a rare nervous-system disorder called Shy-Drager Syndrome (a nuerogical disease, similar to Parkinson's). However, Cash's health continued to improve over the next few years, causing doctors to suspect that his condition may have been misdiagnosed.

    Upon his return to the studio in 2000, Cash recorded a three-disc set entitled Love, God, Murder. (The songs on each disc were devoted to a single theme — love, god, and murder.) Although Cash seldom performs in person anymore, he continues to work in the recording studio. In fact, at the age of 70, he recorded a new album to go along with the tribute album being compiled by artists like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Dwight Yoakum, Travis Tritt, Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris among others.

    There is a great musical tradition that flows through the bloodlines of the Carter/Cash clan. Aside from Johnny and wife June Carter and her family, there is Rosanne Cash by his first marriage along with her ex-husband Rodney Crowell, Carlene Carter by her first marriage along with her ex-husband Nick Lowe, and Marty Stuart who was once married to their daughter Cindy. Of Johnny Cash, Stuart. the executive producer of the Cash tribute album says. "He is a very humble character. I mean his humility is astounding sometimes. He has the right to be as arrogant as a human being can be. He possesses that right. ... That verse in the Bible says 'A kings throne is attained through rightiousness'. And there it is. He really is a man of God."

Sources:     Bravo Profiles - Johnny Cash    Biography.com