Pick a Day

James Taylor makes his TV debut, performing "Sweet Baby James," "Fire and Rain" and "Country Road" on The Johnny Cash Show.

The final episode of The Johnny Cash Show airs on ABC. Cash closes the show with thanks to the cast and fans before moving into a rendition of "I Walk the Line."

"Jesus Music" (later known as Christian contemporary) takes center stage at Billy Graham's Explo '72 in Dallas, where acts like Larry Norman and Love Song perform along with Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, and Andrae Crouch. Graham calls it the "Christian Woodstock."

"Mother" Maybelle Carter dies in Hendersonville, Tennessee, at age 69, inspiring her son-in-law Johnny Cash's song "Tears in the Holston River."

Nick Lowe marries Johnny Cash's stepdaughter, country singer Carlene Carter, in Los Angeles. The wedding is reenacted in Lowe's video for "Cruel To Be Kind." The pair get divorced in 1990.

Johnny Cash sings a duet of "Jackson" with Miss Piggy on The Muppet Show. He also gets under the fur of Rowlf the dog with his song "Dirty Old Egg-Sucking Dog."

Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, who are in Germany appearing at different festivals, join Johnny Cash on stage in Stuttgart for a performance that is recorded and released as the album The Survivors. The trio toured together back in 1957.

The first Farm Aid concert plays in Champaign, Illinois, to benefit American farmers trying to survive amidst a national agricultural crisis.More

Columbia Records, Johnny Cash's home for 28 years, drops the singer from its roster of artists. He signs with Mercury but continues his career decline until 1994, when he releases the first of six acclaimed albums on Rick Rubin's record label.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces its seventh class of inductees, including Jimi Hendrix, Booker T. & the MG's, Sam & Dave, The Yardbirds, The Isley Brothers, Johnny Cash, and Bobby "Blue" Bland.

Johnny Cash, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Booker T. & the MG's, The Isley Brothers, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Sam & Dave, and The Yardbirds are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Producer Rick Rubin sees Johnny Cash perform at the Rhythm Café in Santa Ana, California, and convinces him to make an album of stripped-down cover songs. With Rubin producing, he makes the album American Recordings, which revives his career. They team up to record five more minimalist albums before Cash's death in 2003.

Johnny Cash releases American Recordings, the first of a series of albums produced by Rick Rubin that revitalize his career.More

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, with opening ceremony performances by Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Al Green, The Allman Brothers Band, Booker T. & the MG's, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, The Pretenders, John Fogerty, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, George Clinton, The Kinks, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, The Animals' Eric Burdon, and Boz Scaggs.

Johnny Cash releases Unchained, his second album produced by Rick Rubin. He's backed by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and covers their song "Southern Accents."

Johnny Cash plays Coyote, Homer Simpson's imaginary guru, on The Simpsons. Coyote tells Homer to buy more material possessions.

Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson appear on VH1's Storytellers, where they play each other's songs and swap stories. It's released as an album the following year.

During a concert in Flint, Michigan, Johnny Cash tells the crowd he has Parkinson's Disease after he falls over trying to pick up a guitar pick. The crowd thinks he's joking, but Cash's manager confirms it in a statement two days later.

Weeks after Johnny Cash's Unchained wins the Grammy for Best Country Album, his producer Rick Rubin takes out a full-page ad in Billboard with a photo of the singer giving the middle finger along with the text, "American Recordings and Johnny Cash would like to acknowledge the Nashville music establishment and country radio for your support."More

A year after nearly dying from pneumonia, Johnny Cash finds himself battling the condition again. Cash is listed in serious condition at Baptist Hospital in Nashville.

Johnny Cash gets out of the hospital, where he is treated for pneumonia, and makes it to the Grammy Awards that night, where he wins for Best Male Vocal Country Performance for "Solitary Man" - his 10th Grammy.More

Johnny Cash releases American IV: The Man Comes Around, his last album before his death 10 months later. Like the previous three in the series, it's produced by Rick Rubin and made up mostly of home recordings. His cover of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" gets a startling video that shows Cash looking back at his life knowing he's nearing the end.

June Carter Cash's funeral is held in her hometown of Hendersonville, Tennessee. Among the 2000 mourners are Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, The Oak Ridge Boys, Sheryl Crow - and her husband, Johnny Cash.

A week after his death at the age of 71, country legend Johnny Cash is bestowed with artist, song and album of the year awards at the Americana Music Awards ceremony in Nashville. Cash wins Song of the Year for his cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" and Album of the Year for American IV: The Man Comes Around, the fourth in a series produced by Rick Rubin.

Johnny Cash is buried in the Cash family cemetery in Hendersonville, Tennessee, next to his wife, June Carter Cash. Among the mourners at the private ceremony: Al Gore, Emmylou Harris and Sheryl Crow.

Johnny Cash dies of complications from diabetes in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 71. One of the biggest stars of the '60s and '70s, he made some of his most memorable music near the end of his life with a set of back-to-basics albums produced by Rick Rubin, including American IV: The Man Comes Around, which wins the CMA for Album Of The Year posthumously.

An emotional tribute to the recently deceased Johnny Cash is held at Nashville's famous Ryman Auditorium, featuring classic Cash songs performed by Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, and Steve Earle.

The movie Walk The Line, based on the life of Johnny Cash and starring Joaquin Phoenix as the singer, opens in US theaters.More

I Walk the Line: A Night for Johnny Cash airs on CBS, with U2, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Lee Lewis and several others paying tribute to the singer.

The Johnny Cash album American V: A Hundred Highways, released three years after his death, goes to #1, becoming his only studio album to top the chart. It's part of a series of unadorned albums produced by Rick Rubin that started with American Recordings in 1994.