BBC Johnny Cash: The Last Great American (Reseed) 2004

Johnny Cash: The Last Great American
BBC TV broadcast, FEB 27th 2004

This extraordinary and affecting documentary covers everything from Cash?s childhood roots to his early Sun recording sessions to his drug-fueled days as a hell-raising outlaw to his commercial rise and fall and finally to his stunning rebirth as an elderly troubadour contemplating his own mortality.

The Man In Black would have been 73 this year and, had he survived, likely still working on a career that spanned four decades of American popular music.

Johnny Cash sang with Elvis in the 1950s, Dylan in the 1960s, and Bono in the 1990s, then was discovered by yet another generation of fans through his work with Def Jam founder and producer Rick Rubin in the last decade of his life.

He was a complex country singer bold enough to oppose the Vietnam War and caring enough to play concerts for soldiers in the field. Rare early footage of him on stage imitating Elvis reveals a seldom seen humorous side, and touching interviews with family members and fellow musicians like Roseanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, and Elvis Costello complete the portrait