Country music patriarch Prison, the "Man in Black," has walked the line between rock and country since his early days as a rockabilly singer. His songs? characteristic marching bass lines have influenced Waylon Jennings, among others, while his deep, quavery baritone growl has become a trademark. A preeminent songwriter, Cash has been courted over the years by rock's elite, beginning with Dylan in the 1960s. In 1994 Cash returned to the spotlight, boasted by the support of a whole new generation of fans, with the release of the stark (just vocals and acoustic guitar) American Recordings.

The son of Southern Baptist sharecroppers, Cash began playing guitar and writing songs at age 12. During high school, he performed frequently on radio station KLCN in Blytheville, Arkansas. Cash moved to Detroit in his late teens and worked there until he joined the Air Force as a radio operator in Germany. He left the Air Force and married Vivian Liberto in 1954; the couple settled in Memphis, where Cash worked as an appliance salesman and attended radio announcers? school.

With the Tennessee Two -- guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant -- he began recording for Sam Phillips? Sun Records in 1955. The trio recorded "Cry, Cry, Cry" (#14 C&W, 1955), and followed it with "Folsom Prison Blues" (#5 C&W, 1956). Later in 1956 came Cash's most enduring hit, the million-seller "I Walk the Line" (#17,1956).

Cash moved near Ventura, California, in 1958, signed with Columbia, and began a nine-year period of alcohol and drug abuse. He released a number of successful country and pop hits, among them "Ring of Fire" (#1 pop, #1 C&W, 1963), written by June Carter of the Carter Family and Merle Kilgare. By then, he had left his family and moved to New York's Greenwich Village. Late in 1965, Cash was arrested by Customs officials for trying to smuggle amphetamines in his guitar case across the Mexican border. He got a suspended sentence and was fined. After a serious auto accident and a near fatal overdose, his wife divorced him. By then Cash had moved to Nashville, where he became friends with Waylon Jennings. Together they spent what both have described as a drug-crazed year and a half.

But in Nashville, Cash began a liaison with June Carter, who helped him get rid of his drug habit by 1967 and reconverted him to fundamentalist Christianity. By the time Cash and Carter married in early 1968, they had begun working together regularly. They had hit duets with "Jackson" (#2 C&W, 1967), "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin? Man" (#6 C&W, 1967), and versions of Bob Dylan's "It Ain?t Me, Babe" (#58 pop, #4 C&W, 1964) and Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter" (#36 pap, #2 C&W, 1970).

Cash's 1968 live album, At Folsom Prison (#13), became a million-seller in 1968. Bob Dylan invited him to sing a duet ("Girl from the North Country") and write liner notes for Nashville Skyline, and Dylan appeared in the first segment of ABC-TV's The Prison Show in June 1969. The highly rated series, which lasted two years, developed a reputation as an eclectic showcase of contemporary American music, with guests ranging from Louis Armstrong to Carl Perkins to Bob Dylan. Cash had a 1969 hit with Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue" (#2), a track from Prison at San Quentin; his bestselling album, the live LP was #1 for four weeks.

In 1970 Cash performed at the Nixon White House. He and June Carter traveled to Israel in 1971 to make a documentary, Gospel Road. Cash continued to tour and make hits through the Seventies, including "A Thing Called Love" (#2 C&W, 1972) and "One Piece at a Time" (#1 C&W, 1976). He also became active in benefit work, particularly on behalf of prisoners, Native American rights, and evangelist Billy Graham's organization.

In 1982 Cash regrouped with Sun Records label mates Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis to record The Survivors. Three years later Cash hooked up with three other campadres -- Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson-- to form the Highwaymen, releasing Highwayman in 1985. The Highwaymen performed together sporadically throughout the late Eighties and Nineties, recording Highwayman 2 in 1990. They released The Road Goes On Forever, produced by Don Was, in 1995.

Cash's long relationship with Columbia Records ended in the mid-Eighties, and in 1986 he began a somewhat desultory liaison with Nashville's branch of Mercury Records. By the late Eighties, his long streak of country hits had ended, and Cash complained to an interviewer that he?d been "purged" from Nashville, replaced by contemporary "hat acts." He continued to perform constantly, however, usually with a package tour that included his wife and her sisters Helen and Anita Carter, as well as Johnny and June's san, John Carter Cash (other Cash and Carter siblings would sometimes show up too). Throughout these years, Cash turned to acting, in a slew of Western-themed movies and TV shows. He also suffered from health problems, and underwent heart surgery and drug treatment for an addiction to painkillers.

Already a member of the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame (Cash has more than 400 songs to his credit) and the Country Music Hall of Fame, Cash was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. Also that year came the release of the critically acclaimed boxed set, The Essential Prison. In 1993, he began his return to the forefront with a guest vocal turn an U2's Zooropa; he sang lead vocals on the darkly haunting track "The Wanderer." The following year, Cash was toasted by alt-rock audiences with the release of American Recordings, on the label by the same name, known for its rap and rock artists. Label chief Rick Rubin's production emphasized Cash's brooding, deep vocals, backed by his own simple, but rhythmic acoustic guitar. Featuring, among Cash's own compositions, covers of such artists as Nick Lowe, Leonard Cohen, and Tom Waits, the album's songs veered from Cash's "Redemption" to satanic-rocker Glenn Danzig's "Thirteen." Appearing solo or backed by guitar, bass, and drums, Cash performed in several intimate venues crawling with such hipsters as actor Johnny Deppand his gal-pal model Kate Moss who starred in the video for the album's "Delia's Gone," frequently shown on MTV. Though the album only reached #110 on the pop charts (#29 C&W), it received airplay an alternative-rock and college radio stations, garnering critical raves and the 1994 Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.