In Memphis, Cash met bass player Marshall Grant and guitarist Luther Perkins. In mid-1956, Cash left Louisiana Hayride to perform on the Grand Ole Opry, but his stint on the Opry was short because Cash preferred not to appear in Nashville every Saturday night.
With his third release, “I Walk the Line” and “Get Rhythm” (1956), Cash established himself as a rising star. At the end of 1957, Cash was the third-best-selling country artist in America and began appearing on national television programs …show more content…
In early 1968, Vivian Cash was granted a divorce from her husband, and Cash promptly married June Carter.
On February 4, 1968, Johnny Cash triumphantly returned to Arkansas for a special “Johnny Cash Homecoming Show” at the Dyess High School gymnasium. Arkansan Bob Wootton, born in the small town of Paris (Logan County), joined Cash's band as a permanent replacement after literally coming out of the audience to play guitar during a concert in Fayetteville (Washington County) on September 17, …show more content…
That same year, Cash was dropped from Columbia Records, and he signed with Mercury/Polygram Records, with which he recorded four albums: Johnny Cash is Coming to Town (1987), Water from the Wells of Home (1988), Boom Chicka Boom (1989), and The Mystery of Life (1991). During the 1990s, Cash received recognition from many organizations: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1992), the Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Contribution to American Culture (1996), the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame (1996), and the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement (2000)—one of numerous Grammy Awards he received.
In 1994, Cash signed an unlikely contract with rap producer Rick Rubin and American Recordings and released a successful album, American Recordings. In March 2003, Country Music Television proclaimed Johnny Cash the “Greatest Man in Country Music.”
In 1997, Cash published a new version of his autobiography, titled Cash: The Autobiography. Almost four months later, on September 12, 2003, Johnny Cash died at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, from respiratory failure brought on by complications from diabetes—one of the many physical ailments Cash had been facing over the years. Several posthumous albums of Cash's material have been released, including the "lost album" recorded in the early 1980s: Out Among the Stars (2014) on Columbia Records.
Tourists continue to visit Dyess to see the place that