Johnny Cash Leaves Hospital

Johnny Cash was released from Nashville's Baptist Hospital on October 22nd after a two-week stay for bronchitis. The sixty-nine-year-old country/rockabilly legend was admitted to the hospital on October 7th as a precautionary measure, according to management, so that the bronchitis didn't lead to a more serious condition.

The hospitalization was Cash's second this year. On February 11th, he checked into Baptist Hospital with pneumonia after returning from Jamaica. Four years ago, Cash was misdiagnosed as having Shy Drager Syndrome, a form of Parkinson's Disease. Late last year, doctors changed their diagnosis to autonomic neuropathy, a condition that affects the nervous system.

There is no word yet on when Cash may resume recording his fourth album for American Records. Cash has been working on the project sporadically through the year, but details have been kept hush. In the spring, he and guitarist Norman Blake (who picked for Cash in the early Seventies in addition to playing on last year's American III: Solitary Man) recut "Mr. Garfield" at Cash's Tennessee cabin, a song they originally recorded nearly three decades ago, but it's not clear whether the resuscitated track will appear on Cash's next release.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“The Pretender”

Foo Fighters | 2007

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter