Johnny Cash's house burns to the ground

April 10, 2007

Tennessee - The beautiful lakeside Tennessee home of the legendary Johnny Cash has been destroyed in a fire.

It burned down on Tuesday while renovations were being carried out for its new owner, Bee Gee Barry Gibb.

The interior of the house, in Hendonsville, Tennessee, was used in the video for Cash's final hit, his 2002 cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt.

Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, lived in the house from 1968 until their deaths, months apart, in 2003.

'Sanctuary and fortress'

The cause of the fire has not yet been identified. According to the Associated Press news agency, one firefighter was hurt tackling the blaze.

The agency said the fire spread quickly because construction workers had recently applied a flammable wood preservative to the exterior of the house during renovations.

"So many prominent things and prominent people in American history took place in that house - everyone from Billy Graham to Bob Dylan went into that house," country singer Marty Stuart, a neighbour, was quoted as saying by AP.

"It was a sanctuary and a fortress for him," Stuart said. "There was a lot of writing that took place there. The Folsom Prison prison record came from there, the San Quentin record, The Holy Land, the Man in Black book came from there."