Johnny Cash: The Life
by Robert Hilburn
Buy on AmazonThe national bestseller celebrated as "the ultimate Johnny Cash biography....Rock writer great Robert Hilburn goes deep." -- Rolling Stone In this, the definitive biography of an American legend, Robert Hilburn conveys the unvarnished truth about a musical superstar. Johnny Cash's extraordinary career stretched from his days at Sun Records with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to the remarkable creative last hurrah, at age 69, that resulted in the brave, moving "Hurt" video. As music critic for the Los Angeles Times, Hilburn knew Cash throughout his life: he was the only music journalist at the legendary Folsom Prison concert in 1968, and he interviewed both Cash and his wife June Carter just months before their deaths.…
Recommended by
"Johnny Cash became a legend long before he died, and there’s no doubt that he’s one of the most iconic American musicians of all time. Figures as beloved as the “Man in Black” present a hazard for biographers — it’s easy for chronicles of their lives to turn into hagiographies. Journalist Robert Hilburn deftly avoids this trap in Johnny Cash, which is as fascinating as it is honest. Cash wouldn’t have been who he was if it weren’t for his capacity for both love and sin, and Hilburn’s portrait of a genius in constant battle with his demons is as absorbing as any biography published this year."
NPR Books We Love — 2013 · apps.npr.org
Publishers Weekly's Best Books — 2013 · publishersweekly.com