Robert Hilburn was the chief music critic and pop music editor for the Los Angeles Times for more than three decades. The author of the bestselling memoir Cornflakes with John Lennon, Hilburn has reported extensively on most of pop music's legends, including Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and Johnny Cash.
Named one of this fall's hottest biographies by Kirkus "Veteran
music writer Hilburn...masterfully separates fiction from fact in
an exhaustive, but never exhausting, biography of the legendary
musician...The personal knowledge aided by extensive archival
research and always compelling, accessible writing makes this an
instant-classic music biography with something to offer all
generations of listeners." -- Kirkus (starred review)
"Johnny Cash covers Cash's monumental highs and bottomless lows in
unprecedented detail...The book is stuffed with warts-and-all
revelations that might surprise you." -- Rolling Stone
"Johnny Cash will be the definitive bio of the tortured, truculent
but often generous singer.... Hilburn penetrates the heart of
Cash's artistry.... The behind-the-scenes stories Hilburn unearths
from those early days are engrossing for anyone interested in
American roots music." -- Kirkus Reviews
"'Do we really need another Johnny Cash book?' Yes, we really do,
as it turns out, because Johnny Cash is so very good.... Hilburn's
work is far and away the most insightful, entertaining,
comprehensive, and well-told Cash biography to date." -- Slate
"A comprehensive and thoughtful biography, cognizant always of how
hard it is for heroes to make it in America...Hilburn does an
artful, enviable job of reconciling all the facets [of
Cash]...[and] writes with a remarkably steady hand...JOHNNY CASH is
measured and mindful, allowing of all the paradoxical bits that
constitute a human life." -- Los Angeles Times
"A deeply personal, multi-faceted portrait." -- Parade
"A definitive biography.... He tells, in great and sometimes
harrowing detail, how Cash's professional advancement and personal
decline blossomed simultaneously." -- The Washington Post
"A definitive new biography of an American original.... How do you
write an interesting biography of such a beloved figure? First,
hire Robert Hilburn. He is a prodigious researcher, but he keeps a
steady hand on the tiller, and never allows his research to swamp
his narrative." -- The Economist
"A library's worth of existing Johnny Cash volumes has finally
gained a bio that depicts him as a fully-rounded human being.... No
matter how many Johnny Cash books you've read, Robert Hilburn's
Johnny Cash: The Life will be a different animal." -- CMT News
"A meticulous biography.... Hilburn gives a frank account of the
singer's life...." -- The New Yorker
"A riveting new biography of the Man in Black.... From Cash's birth
in Kingsland, Arkansas, to his triumphant last decade, Hilburn
covers it all through seven hundred pages of intimate and startling
detail. It's the Man in Black in full." -- William Welch, Garden &
Gun
"A thorough and thoughtful portrait of the Man in Black and a deep
appreciation of his artistry... Hilburn writes most powerfully
about Cash's trajectory as an artist... His writing is as
authoritative as it's engaging when he's discussing the
singer-songwriter's music." -- Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
"An excellent biography.... A story that's both larger and more
fascinating than the legend.... Hilburn has created the definitive
narrative of this 'symbol of American honor, compassion and
struggle.' It's a biography worthy of its subject." -- USA
Today
"Arguably the ultimate biography of The Man in Black." -- The San
Antonio Current
"Assiduously researched and entertaining.... Hilburn rightly
believes his subject's life is so extraordinary that there's no
need for fanciful embellishment from anyone, including Cash
himself." -- Entertainment Weekly
"Brilliant.... There are already over 50 titles written about or by
Cash, yet Hilburn's work is a standout." -- Maclean's
"Drawing on his own interviews and personal experience with Cash,
former L.A. Times music critic Hilburn exhaustively chronicles,
almost year by year, Cash's rise to fame from his childhood in
Dyess, Ark., through his stint in the military, the peak of his
success in the 1970s with the Johnny Cash Show, and on to his slow
decline in health in the 1990s.... Hilburn is a spellbinding
storyteller." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Excellent."--Andrew Martin, The New York Review of Books
"Full of information that will at once delight, depress, stimulate
and surprise Cash's fans, Hilburn's admirable biography also evokes
an image of the 'Man in Black, ' staring ahead, somberly and slyly,
and daring you to 'Figure me out, son.'" -- Tulsa World
"Hilburn got as close to the Cash inner circle as any journalist
could...The most authoritative and revealing portrait to date." --
Wall Street Journal
"Hilburn humanizes the larger-than-life Man in Black in this
evocative and surprising biography." -- Los Angeles Magazine
"Hilburn writes in a clear, straightforward style... and fills in
the outlines of Cash's life with meticulous detail... Cash is
well-served by a biographer who finds a balanced approach to an
often unbalanced life." -- Columbus Dispatch
"Hilburn writes passionately and respectfully....What Hilburn also
does perfectly is present enough of Cash for you to love, hate and
love him over and over again." -- Edge Media
"Hilburn's "Johnny Cash: The Life" is the big biography Cash's fans
have been waiting for since the singer's death in 2003 and Hilburn
doesn't let them down." -- Jeff Baker, The Oregonian
"Hilburn's experience as a journalist and music critic yields a
detailed, readable account, avoiding the overly stylized prose that
sometimes undermines music biographies. His solid critical
instincts offer insight.... Hilburn offers a straightforward
sobering look at Cash's dramatic physical decline...." --
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Hilburn's writing is simple, ego-free and casually magisterial.
There's no bombast to it; he lets Cash and company supply all the
pyrotechnics." -- The Washington Post
"It's always tricky to call a biography "definitive," but this one
must surely come close." -- Booklist
"More thorough, compelling and honest than even [Cash's] own two
autobiographies." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune
"No doubt this long-awaited tome will go down as the definitive bio
of the Man in Black - an epic befitting its subject." -- Vintage
Guitar Magazine
"The definitive biography.... Hilburn is frank without indulging
voyeurism... [and] manages the delicate balance of opportunity that
a posthumous work provides.... Hilburn unflinchingly and humanely
follows the long, rocky road to its end."--Kevin Lynch, No
Depression Americana and Roots Music
"The definitive work about Cash, a rich, engaging look at a very
complicated man that is, by far, the best book ever about him and
one of the best biographies, music or otherwise, that I've read....
It's a depiction of its subject that's as honest, revealing and
resonant as The Man in Black himself." -- Lincoln Journal Star
"The perfect Cash biography, as simple, fast and lean as 'Folsom
Prison Blues'... Such a monumental figure deserves no less than
this caring treatment of his sin-stained greatness." -- People
"The result of Hilburn's wrestling with his subject's life and with
his own moral compass is perhaps the richest biography of a
musician I have ever read, and one of the best biographies I have
read, period.... Hilburn knows how to organize a life in print
skillfully.... Hilburn is a first-rate stylist. His sentences often
sing." -- Atlanta Journal Constitution
"The ultimate Johnny Cash bio.... Rock writer great Robert Hilburn
goes deep...." -- Rolling Stone
"The Man in Black's many fans will find this huge, sympathetic yet
critical study of his serial rises, falls, betrayals and
redemptions definitive." -- The Globe and Mail
"This is a very big and significant American life and this is a
very big and thorough book about that life by a writer steeped
enough in it to present a definitive version of the facts for years
to come." -- The Buffalo News
"Told with clear-eyed, riveting detail." -- San Antonio
Express-News
"Undoubtedly a must-read for the completist, deep Cash fan." -- The
Detroit News
"While many others have tried to tell this story, including Cash
himself with a couple of worthy autobiographies, Hilburn adds fresh
and revealing details.... Quite simply, it's a monumental biography
of a monumental American artist." -- Toronto Sun
Named one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2013 by Publishers Weekly
Named one of NPR's Great Reads of 2013
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