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Music legend Johnny Cash dies at 71

Singer Johnny Cash at a performance in 1995. PHOTO: AP

Johnny Cash, a towering figure in American music spanning country, rock and folk and known worldwide as "The Man in Black," died yesterday at age 71.

"Johnny died due to complications from diabetes, which resulted in respiratory failure," Cash's manager, Lou Robin, said in a statement issued by Baptist Hospital in Nashville. He said Cash died at the hospital at 1am.

"I hope that friends and fans of Johnny will pray for the Cash family to find comfort during this very difficult time," Robin said.

Cash had been released from the hospital Wednesday after a two-week stay for treatment of an unspecified stomach ailment. The illness caused him to miss last month's MTV Music awards, where he had been nominated in seven categories.

Cash had battled a disease of the nervous system, autonomic neuropathy, and pneumonia in recent years.

Dozens of hit records like Folsom Prison Blues, I Walk the Line and Sunday Morning Coming Down defined Cash's persona: a haunted, dignified, resilient spokesman for the working man and downtrodden.

Cash said in his 1997 autobiography Cash that he tried to speak for "voices that were ignored or even suppressed in the entertainment media, not to mention the political and educational establishments."

He won 11 Grammys -- most recently this year, when Give My Love To Rose earned him honors 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, and daughter Roseanne Cash also were successful singers. June Carter Cash died in May.

The late 1960s and 1970s were Cash's peak commercial years, and he was host of his own ABC variety show from 1969 to 1971. In later years, he was part of the Highwayman supergroup with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kristofferson.

Most recently, Cash was recognized for his cover of the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt with seven nominations at last month's MTV Video Music Awards. The video won for best cinematography.

Cash was born Feb. 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas, one of seven children.
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