NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Johnny Cash, a towering musical figure whose rough, unsteady voice championed the downtrodden and reached across generations with songs like "Ring of Fire," "I Walk the Line" and "Folsom Prison Blues," died Friday. He was 71.
Cash, known as "The Man in Black," died at 2 a.m. in Baptist Hospital of complications from diabetes that resulted in respiratory failure, said his manager, Lou Robin. The funeral service will be private, but a public memorial is being planned and the date will be announced later.
In his songs, Cash crafted a persona as a dignified, resilient voice for the common man — but there was always a dark edge.
One of the most haunting couplets in popular music comes from "Folsom Prison Blues," which went to No. 4 on the country charts in 1956: "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die."
Forty-seven years later, Cash's arresting video for "Hurt" was nominated for six MTV Video Music Awards, winning one.
His deeply lined face fit well with his voice, which was limited in range but used to great effect to sing about prisoners, heartaches and tales of everyday life.
As news of his death spread, other musicians praised Cash for his independent, rebellious streak that made him a powerful influence in country, rock, folk and gospel music.
"His influence spread over many generations," said Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. "I loved him as a singer and a writer. I remember years ago a big part of our repertoire was two of my favorite Johnny Cash songs, 'I Walk the Line' and 'Ballad of a Teenage Queen.' "
Marty Stuart, who was once in Cash's band and married to his daughter Cindy, said Cash "answered to no one but himself, what he heard in his own heart and own mind and own soul. He was never dictated to by a trend or convention or by corporate powers that be. He did it his way."
Cash had been released from the hospital Tuesday after a two-week stay for treatment of an unspecified stomach ailment. The illness caused him to miss last month's MTV awards, where his "Hurt" — a cover of Trent Reznor's hard rock song with Nine Inch Nails — won for cinematography.
"To hear that Johnny was interested in doing my song was a defining moment in my life's work," Reznor said Friday. "To hear the result really reminded me how beautiful, touching and powerful music can be. The world has truly lost one of the greats."
Cash had battled a disease of the nervous system, autonomic neuropathy, and pneumonia in recent years. His second wife, singer June Carter Cash, who co-wrote Cash's hit "Ring of Fire," died in May.
Cash wrote much of his own material and was among the first to record the songs of Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson.
"One Piece at a Time" was about an assembly line worker who built a car out of parts stolen from his factory. "A Boy Named Sue," a Shel Silverstein song he took to No. 1 in 1969, was a comical story of a father who gives his son a girl's name to make him tough.
Cash said in his self-titled 1997 autobiography 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."
His career spanned generations, with each finding something of value in his simple records, many of which used his trademark rockabilly rhythm.