After all the years of singing and all the phases and changes, ups and downs, the truth is that every guitar player I know can pull out about 5 or so Cash songs if needed, some of them learned by osmosis, rather than consciously trying to learn them, and be able to trot them out at a gathering to a good response from warm memories and not have it considered a guilty pleasure when they are doing it. So throw away the talk of Religion, posing, personal demons and such for a moment, and just consider the place his songs hold in the people's hearts. I first heard him as a kid, and at 57 years old, I can never remember a time when some of his SONGS were ever completely out of fashion, even if he himself drifted in and out. Even you professed non-fans out there can do a few by heart and a vocal imitation of both speech and song that no matter how bad it is, people will know what you're attempting-Don't lie to me now. Neither Richard T. or Brittney has THAT down yet. (Bob Wills, yes, to some extent).

THAT, my friends, constitutes a REAL ICON. Brittney Spears, as somebody brought up, may someday become an Icon through rediscovery but Johnny Cash never completely LEFT the consciousness of the country (or Mexico or the UK) as a whole, as even such Icons as Bob Wills or Professor Longhair had to stay in the regional consciousness before all the local fans and musicians had to point them out to the masses as source points. Occaisional waning, but NO eclipse.

There 'tis!