Cash, 71, the singer and songwriter, had suffered from serious health problems in recent years. Mr. Cash had had bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia, had diabetes, and also had a little known neurological condition called the Shy-Drager syndrome. Mr. Cash died in Nashville, Tennessee on Sept. 12, 2003 of the "complications of diabetes," four months after the death of his wife, June Carter Cash, 73, herself a member of a legendary musical family. (Pictured: Cover from The Man Called CASH).

Despite worldwide acclaim, the author of his authorized biography, Steve Turner told ANS, “Johnny Cash suffered physical, spiritual and mental pain. However, he never gave up. His story illustrates the triumph of life lived with the spirit. For some reason he was given extra suffering, maybe because he was also given extra talent and extra earthly glory. He was one of the few Christians admired across the board even though he never compromised his beliefs.”

JUNE’S DEATH

Turner said, “He was naturally devastated when June [his wife] died but decided from the hospital that he was going to go back to work almost immediately. Music became a form of healing for him.

He was lonely though. He would sit in his office and often people would see him crying and talking to pictures of June.

He had her image painted on the elevator doors in his home (he was now confined to a wheelchair). (Pictured: Cash and June talk backstage Courtesy of House of Cash).

Anthony DeCurtis wrote in Rolling Stone (October 14 2004, “If you don't well up when Turner recounts the singer's devastation as June slips away into death, you simply don't care about Johnny Cash. Turner does, and he cares about his music as well, moving between the life and the work with grace. The Man Called Cash takes a genuine hero, examines him thoroughly and leaves both his heroism and his humanity intact. In what may be the most admirable of its many achievements, it's as good as Cash deserves."

BILLY GRAHAM

Steve Turner also spoke about Cash’s friendship with evangelist Billy Graham. “They were close friends and spent a lot of time in each other’s homes. Johnny would often call him for spiritual advice,” he said. “Billy did an endorsement for my book. In the 1970s Johnny started appearing at various crusades to speak and perform. Billy, in turn, encouraged him to write songs that would communicate to the counter culture kids who loved Cash but probably wouldn’t go to a church “

On the event of Cash death, Billy Graham said, “Johnny Cash was not only a legend, but was a close personal friend. Johnny was a good man who also struggled with many challenges in life. (Pictured: Pastor John Cobaugh baptizes Cash in the Jordan River in 1979 Courtesy of House of Cash).

"Johnny was a deeply religious man. He and June came to a number of our Crusades over a period of many years. Ruth and I took a number of personal vacations with them at their home in Jamaica and in other places. They both were like a brother and sister to Ruth and me. We loved them.

"We are praying that God will comfort his family and staff at this critical time. I look forward to seeing Johnny and June in heaven one day."

London-based Turner then explained how the Johnny Cash book came about. “I was approached last year by Thomas Nelson who had an idea for doing a ‘spiritual biography’ of Cash,” he said. “They had asked around in Nashville for suitable authors and my name came up – presumably because I have a track record for working on books that deal with rock music and the spiritual.

When I agreed to do it, Nelson suggested approaching Cash’s management either to get an endorsement or an interview.

“When it was put to him it was the only project he wanted to do and he wanted it to be his spiritual autobiography – by Johnny Cash with Steve Turner. I had met him in 1988 and had given him a copy of my book ‘Hungry For Heaven: Rock n Roll and the Search for Redemption’. He phoned me up two or three days later to tell me how much he had enjoyed the book and so he knew who I was. However, just after he’d signed the contract he died. For a few days I wondered whether it would happen but saw no reason why it shouldn’t. I would just have to get all my information from other people rather than him (we had booked to do 20 hours of interviews in October). The management thought that we should continue and it was decided to make it simply the ‘authorized biography’ rather than a ‘spiritual biography’ although the spiritual was so dominant in his life there’s actually not a lot of difference.”

He then spoke about how he researched the book. “First I read all the previous books written on or by Cash,” said Turner. “Then I read every interview and review I could find. I visited America twice to do interviews and to visit Dyess, Arkansas, the town in was raised in. In interviewed around 120 people from school friends, family and service colleagues to well known musicians like Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Bono. I interviewed Cash in 1988 and the interview, unpublished at the time, is included at the back of the book.

SURPRISES?

“I was surprised to find that he had been a very straight sort of guy until he started taking drugs in 1957. In his books he had portrayed himself as wild, violent and a bit of a drinker when he was in the USAF in Germany but all the ex-serviceman I spoke to remembered him as virtually teetotal, faithful to his girlfriend back in America (later to be his first wife) and mild mannered. He didn’t like to party. I was also surprised to find out that he’d had a relationship with Hank Williams’ widow while he was still married to Vivian. I managed to interview Billie Jean and I don’t think she had spoken about it before.

“I don’t think Cash struggled with doctrines but he did struggle with what he referred to as ‘the beast’ inside him. He went through an abstemious period after he married June but the lure of drugs (mostly amphetamines) pulled him back down. He did struggle a bit with the formal aspects of religion. It was hard for him to settle in a church and (this was another surprise) he got himself ordained so that he could organize his own church at the House of Cash in Hendersonville. He could preach, marry and baptize.”

Before he died, said Turner, Johnny Cash did okay the book.

“Yes he did okay the book and his family has supported it,” he said. “When I was in NYC to publicize the book John Carter Cash, his son, did some of the interviews with me – including one for CNN.”

Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson, a longtime Cash friend, wrote the foreword to Turner's book, and Cash's family and manager were involved as well.

On a personal note, I first met Johnny Cash in London, England, in the early seventies, after my second book, STRESSPOINT came out. It featured the story of his early battle with drink and drugs and had his photo on the front over. I went to a media event to present him with a copy of the book and his manager asked me, “Does Johnny know about this?” I told he didn’t. He then said, “Just get on the stage, present it to him and run….” I did just that, but not before a photographer got our picture together!