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.

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

More Song Stories entries »

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