9/12/2003 -- (CNN) -- He was a poor sharecropper's son from Kingsland, Arkansas, who sang to himself while picking cotton in the fields -- then later sang to millions through recordings, concerts and his late-'60s TV variety show.
He became a country music statesman who found a home with rap-rock producer Rick Rubin's American Recordings.
He was called the "Man in Black," who once sang "I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die," but opened his concerts with the friendly, modest greeting, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."
Johnny Cash -- legend, model, icon -- died Friday. He was 71.
Cash died of complications from diabetes at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, hospital spokeswoman Nicole Bates said. He had just been released Wednesday after entering the hospital August 25 with an undisclosed stomach ailment....
