NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE Questions & Answers: Cash Back Oct 20, 2000 Johnny Cash: American legend, quintessential bad boy and a man who doesn’t back down easily. The resilient singer has made dozens of albums, played countless shows and enjoyed a near half-century of continuous success. So when the 68-year-old Cash was diagnosed in 1997 with Shy-Drager’s Syndrome-a terminal illness-he kept it from the public.

TWO YEARS LATER, doctors told him he had actually been misdiagnosed. They blamed all the time he’d spent in the hospital—including two weeks in a coma—on a mix of pneumonia, a diabetes-related ailment and nerve damage. Rejuvenated by the news, though still quite ill, the gravel-voiced singer put together a highly personal new collection of songs, “Solitary Man.” NEWSWEEK’s Lorraine Ali recently sat down with Cash, who was accompanied by his wife and son, for a talk about the last couple years and the new album.

Newsweek: Compared to your last album, this is a simpler, more pared-down approach.

Johnny Cash: We have a studio in a cabin, a log cabin in the woods near my house...We started off with two acoustic instruments, my guitar and one or two others at the most. And when we took the project to California, Rick [Rubin, of American Records] liked it so much that he said, “Let’s keep the scale down.” We did finish it in California in Rick’s house in a beautiful studio he has in his home there, in Beverly Hills. It was a very loose, laid-back atmosphere.

Having your studio in this cabin, was it sort of an effort of yours to get back to a simpler sound?

I had an idea 25, 30 years ago. I wanted to do an album called “Johnny Cash, Late and Alone.” I mentioned it to Rick, and he liked the idea. He said, ‘Well, let’s see how you will sound late and alone.’ ...But it is an idea I had many years ago. It’s always been there in the back of my mind and in my heart; Rick brought it out of me.

I’ve always had a sense that you were sort of fighting against what everyone expected to hear.

I’d say I’m influenced the least by what other people do in the music business. I don’t really know what’s going on in the music business. I know when my record comes out and I see it out there, and I see other peoples’ works out there as well. But I’m a scanner when it comes to cable. I watch a little MTV. I watch CNN, I watch the Weather Channel. And I like—let’s see—the E! Channel and entertainment news. I watch all that, but I watch it as a spectator and not as a competitor—as a fan.

You weren’t feeling well when you were doing the songs for this record. What was driving you? Just the passion for it?

The passion for it, yeah, that’s what I do. It’s hard to just lay there and not do what you do. You know? It’s as natural to me as breathing to want to make records. And after withdrawing from the concert rat race, we’re focusing all of that energy now into the creativity end of it—into writing and recording. And we’re spending more and taking all the time we need to to work on the record, to get it out and get it right. Whereas in years past, like 10 or 20 years ago, we used to squeeze in records in between concerts—and that’s a terrible way to have to do it. It leaves you with no time off and no time to grow. It’s all drain, drain, drain.

[To wife June Carter Cash, also present] So how much was working on this album a family affair?

June Carter Cash: Well, I put love and prayer behind him making this record. He is dedicated to this album. He’s growing every day and, you know, I’m thrilled to see that. We got sick but he decided that he just wasn’t going to have that disease... I like Johnny Cash. I love working with him all these years. He is a great husband, and he’s a great lover. He’s a great kind of person I’ve grown a lot from being around. And hopefully maybe he’s grown a little from being around me.

Johnny Cash: Do you know what I call her? My spark plug. When I run down, there she is. Zap.

You said earlier that this album had more “fighting” songs, like “Won’t Back Down.”

There are a couple of lines in it that I think relate to: “I know what’s right, I have just one life. I’ll stand my ground, and I won’t back down.” That, to me, is my spirituality. Not so much as religion. I don’t talk religion. But I’m a spiritual person and faith in God is another meaning that I have when I sing that song. I won’t back down from that. That it doesn’t matter to me where I am, if you ask me, I believe in God. And he’s been the power, the nucleus, and the very soul of my work. And it’s a positive force that will never be denied in my life and in my heart. You might see all kinds of shaggy ragged thoughts, but that nucleus is always there that I won’t back down from.

Do you think that fighting this illness and overcoming it is reflected in this album?

Rick pointed out to me that this album was lighter. And I believe that, too. I said, “Well,” in response to that line, “Well I was looking to the lights.” ... When I was incapacitated, I was looking to the light, and it was the light that drew me out. The light of love, the light of joy, the light of peace, the light of health by God that drew me out. And it was that light that I’m still riding now.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about you?

I don’t especially enjoy being somebody that everybody knows. I’m a very private person. I like to draw my family around me and I’m a family person. I’m always surprised when people in New York stop me on the street and recognize me. A prime example is we have tickets to a Broadway show tonight, and I was debating whether or not I would go because of the crowd, you know.

Can I ask what you were sick with?

I was diagnosed with a disease called Shy-Drager’s Syndrome in October of 1997 ... When my doctor informed me that they had misdiagnosed, I said, “You know I knew I didn’t have such a nasty sounding disease anyway.” ... I have just absolutely rejected any disease and have found myself lost in my work, and I love it. And so long as I’m able to do that, I don’t have a disease, I’m not sick. Sickness is not a part of what I do.