Johnny Cash has died in a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 71.
It is reported he had suffered respiratory failure following complications from diabetes. Cash had battled a disease of the nervous system, autonomic neuropathy, and pneumonia in recent years.
Cash's manager, Lou Robin, said the singer passed away at around 1 a.m. local time (6 a.m. Irish time) at Nashville's Baptist Hospital.
Cash (71) was released from hospital on Wednesday where he had been treated for an unspecified stomach ailment for two weeks.
He had been admitted to hospital on August 25th, forcing him to miss the MTV Video Music Awards in New York City, where his video for the song Hurt, a song about drug addiction written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, won the award for best cinematography.
The artist, known worldwide as "The Man in Black", was a towering figure in American music spanning country, rock and folk.
Dozens of hit records such as "Folsom Prison Blues", "I Walk the Line" and "A Boy Named Sue" defined Cash's persona: a haunted, dignified, resilient spokesman for the working man and downtrodden.
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The Man In Black
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Cash's deeply lined face fit well with his unsteady voice, which was limited in range but used to great effect to sing about prisoners, heartaches, and tales of everyday life.
He wrote much of his own material, and was among the first to record the songs of Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson. He had a long-time friendship and recorded with Dylan, who has cited Cash as a major influence.
Cash was also a peer of Elvis Presley when rock'n roll was born in Memphis in the 1950s, and he scored hits like "Cry! Cry! Cry!" during that era.
Cash won 11 Grammys - most recently in 2003, when "Give My Love To Rose" earned him honours as best male country vocal performance - and numerous Country Music Association awards. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
His second wife, June Carter Cash, who co-wrote the hit "Ring of Fire" and partnered her husband in hits such as "Jackson", died in May.