His album "Ring of Fire" (1964) was the first country album to ever reach the top of the US pop charts.
His album, "The Man Comes Around", features his rendition of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt". NIN's frontman Trent Reznor admitted that at first he was angry about the cover, as he wrote it from a deeply personal point of view. However, when he heard the song and saw the video for the first time, he was deeply moved and found Cash's cover beautiful and meaningful.
His good friend Kris Kristofferson admitted that he wrote his well-known and not-entirely-flattering "Pilgrim" about Cash.
His guitarist, Bob Wootton of The Tennessee Three, acted as Cash's stunt double anytime there was a scene that required him to ride a horse because he had a fear of horses.
His older brother (the sibling Johnny was closest to as a child) died in a horrible accident involving a buzz saw when Johnny was young, and it was never clear whether it was accidental, suicide, or even murder. Wracked with guilt, Johnny, by most accounts, never got over the death (it was a little-known, personal obsession of his to investigate the incident) and it is widely thought that his dark world view was shaped by it.
His size varied considerably over time. Standing 6' 2", he weighed about 200 pounds as a young man, but then his weight plummeted to an unhealthy 140 pounds when his drug addiction was at its peak in the mid-1960s. His weight increased when he kicked his habits, and he eventually became overweight, weighing about 250 pounds by his 50s.
His songwriting went from a brief process to a very long one as he aged and his health declined. He wrote the song "Big River" while on a short boat-ride across the Hudson River in the 1950s, while he spent weeks crafting "The Man Comes Around," one of the last songs he wrote.
In his song "Man in Black" he explained that he wore predominately black clothing to honour and remind others of the suffering of the world's poor and oppressed.
In the 1970s he tried to help his close friend, legendary Nashville guitarist Hank Garland, restart his career by bringing him into the studio to record.
In the 1980s he found love letters to wife June Carter Cash from Elvis Presley in their attic. Upon finding these, he burned them.
In the years shortly before his death, he recorded songs by other contemporary artists, including cover versions of U2's "One", Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus", Richard Thompson's "Tear Stained Letter", Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water", Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", Loudon Wainwright III's "The Man Who Couldn't Cry", Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and the song "Thirteen" written especially for him by gothic rocker Glenn Danzig.
Is mentioned in the Danish band Nephew's single "Superliga".
Is the only person besides Hank Williams to have been inducted into the Songwriters, Country Music, and Rock And Roll Halls of Fame.
January 2006: His long-time lakeside home in Hendersonville, TN, was bought by a corporation owned by The Bee Gees' Barry Gibb.
Johnny's "Hurt" was the theme song of WWE's Raw Tribute to the late Eddie Guerrero. The song plays while Guerrero's memorial is playing.
Kingsland, AR (pop. 477), is also the birthplace of Paul "Bear" Bryant, one of the greatest football coaches of all time (University of Alabama).
Member of the Highwaymen, with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. The foursome had recorded several albums together in the 1980s & 1990s.
Mentioned in the song "Life Is a Rock But the Radio Rolled Me" by Reunion.
November 1997: Treated for pneumonia.
Once had his truck catch on fire and burn down half of a national forest, when the judge asked him why he did it, he said, "I didn't do it, my truck did, and it's dead."