During my adulthood, Cash became one of my voices, much in the same way that Cobain, Corgan and Reznor were during my youth. When I heard that Johnny Cash died on September 12, 2003 I felt similar to when I heard the news about Cobain years earlier. I truly felt like I lost a voice.

Cash’s death made me think back to the Neil Young lyric that Kurt quoted in his suicide note, “It is better to burn out than to fade away”. As you may recall Ramone, I strongly felt Kurt copped out when he threw in the towel.  In contrast, you can make a strong argument that the Man in Black burned out, instead of fading away. There was a period in the late 70s/80s when it appeared he was fading into obscurity, but in the 90s he started...

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