The home where the “Man in Black” Johnny Cash learned to walk the line, lived with June Carter for 35 years after they got married in a fever and filmed the video for his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” is on the market in Hendersonville, Tennessee, just 20 miles outside of downtown Nashville.
Cash purchased the four-lot, 4.5 acre property along Old Hickory Lake in 1968. He pursued unwilling owner and Nashville builder Braxton Dixon to sell after he fell in love with the property.
It’s where he retreated to detox from his long-time drug addiction.
One of the more memorable scenes in the Cash biopic, Walk the Line, shows the detox with Carter (played by Reese Witherspoon) and her parents chasing off Cash’s dealer as he was on the mend, and the Carter and Cash families began blending.
Cash and Carter made the property theirs after they were married and stayed there for 35 years, until they passed away.
This was the home where Cash hosted his famed “guitar pulls,” where the day’s top artists would gather and share their music. The list includes Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, The Statler Brothers, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Hank Williams, Jr., Joan Baez and Kris Kristofferson, who famously landed his helicopter there in a plea to pitch Cash a song.
It was at one of these gatherings where famed American poet Shel Silverstein unleashed “A Boy Named Sue,” which was later recorded at San Quentin Prison and became a No. 1 hit.
Other distinguished house guests on Cash’s lakefront estate included Billy Graham, Al Gore and even former President Ronald Reagan.
Carter died in May of 2003, and Cash followed that September.
Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees bought the estate in 2006 for $2.3 million with hopes to remodel and eventually retreat there to write songs with his wife.
Unfortunately, the original 13,880-square-foot home burned down in a fire in 2007.
The three-story structure was composed primarily of wood with touches of contemporary and old materials including stone, marble and old barn wood, compliments of Dixon.
Gibb had not yet moved into the home. The fire started around 1:40 a.m. from an unknown spark and spread quickly due to the flammable wood that had just been applied by workers to the exterior of the home and the preservative that was in the process of being applied to the interior.
Fire trucks arrived in five minutes, but to Gibb’s devastation, the structure was all but destroyed by then. Gibb sold the Cash property in 2014 for $2 million.
On the remains of the Cash home, the current owner completed an apartment remodel in what was originally a three-car garage that turned into Cash and Carter’s wardrobe room. It’s the standing structure you will see in the photos below.
The owner is selling due to health issues — and it’s no wonder, considering the epic American musical narrative of the estate, that the hunt is on to find a buyer who will preserve the property’s rich legacy for years to come.
The estate is expected to be sold through an auction-like process. There’s no listing price for the four parcels, but they were last appraised at $1.14 million.
[Inman Slideshow]
For more information contact agent Stan Peacock.