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John R. "Johnny" Cash, born on February 26 1932, Kingsland Arkansas) is an American country music singer and songwriter. His parents gave him the middle name “R.” only.

The son of a poor farmer, his family soon moved into a farm in Dyess, Arkansas provided cheaply by the government as part of the New Deal and by age five he was working in the cotton fields. He began playing guitar and writing songs as a young boy and in high school sang on a local radio station.

After serving in the U.S. Air Force, Cash moved to Memphis, Tennessee where he sold appliances and studied to be a radio announcer. At night, he played in a trio and one day approached Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Because he had been singing mainly gospel tunes, Phillips said "go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell." He did and in 1955 his first recording at Sun, “Cry Cry Cry", was released, meeting with reasonable success on the country hit parade.

His next record, "Folsom Prison Blues," made the country Top 5 and his, "I Walk the Line," was number one on the country charts and made it into the pop charts Top 20. In 1957, Johnny Cash became the first Sun artist to release a long-playing album. The following year he left Sun to sign a lucrative offer with Columbia Records where his single, "Don't Take Your Guns to Town," would become one of his biggest hits.

Within a few years, Johnny Cash had to battle drug problems that severely affected his career and on several occasions he wound up spending a night in jail, charged with a variety of offenses. Despite this, his record, "Ring of Fire," went to number one on the country charts and broke the Top 20 on the pop charts. However, his drug addiction deepened and in 1965 he was arrested in El Paso, Texas for attempting to smuggle amphetamines into the country stashed inside his guitar case. His destructive behaviour led to a divorce and numerous problems performing.

The personal problems continued until he moved to Nashville, Tennessee and began a relationship with June Carter, who had written "Ring of Fire". With Carter's help, he overcame his addictions and became a born-again Christian. They were married in 1968 and that year, Cash released his most successful album ever titled "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison." The following year, he released another prison album titled, "Johnny Cash at San Quentin" that included the song "A Boy Named Sue." Released as a single, "A Boy Named Sue" went to number one on the country charts and to number three on the Top Ten pop charts.

Immensely popular, and an imposing tall figure, he began performing dressed all in black, wearing a long black knee-length coat. Dubbed "The Man in Black," in 1969 he had his own television show on the ABC network and sang with Bob Dylan on Dylan's country-rock album, "Nashville Skyline."

In the mid-'70s, Cash's popularity and hit songs began to decline, but his autobiography, titled “Man in Black” was published in 1975 and sold 1.5 million copies. In 1980, Johnny Cash was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. During the nineteen eighties his records failed to make a major impact on the country charts, but he continued to tour successfully.

Over the course of his career, Johnny Cash won 11 Grammy awards, one of which came for a 1985 album with Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. Titled, "The Class Of '55," the record celebrated their debut days at Sun Records.

In 1996, Johnny Cash was honored with a Kennedy Center Award.

The most popular songs from Johnny Cash:

• "Hey Porter"
• "Cry, Cry, Cry"
• "Folsom Prison Blues"
• "I Walk the Line"
• "Don't Take Your Guns to Town"
• "Ring of Fire"
• "Orange Blossom Special"
• "Daddy Sang Bass"
• "A Boy Named Sue"