Tommy Cash Dead at 84

The brother of one of the most iconic voices of our time has passed away.

Tommy Cash, the brother of Johnny Cash, passed away on Saturday.

It is rather eerie that Tommy passed away nearly 21 years to the day that Johnny left us.

Brother Reunite

Tommy passed on Saturday, September 14, 2024, while his brother Johnny passed away on September 12, 2003.

His passing was announced on social media by the Johnny Cash Museum, but no cause of death was listed.

Tommy clearly never had the career that Johnny had, but he was a decent singer with a very familiar voice.

Tommy also cited his brother as the reason that he learned how to play, stating, “I probably would have never learned to play the guitar if it wasn’t for him.”

Both Tommy and Johnny Cash have a lot of things in common about their lives, the stardom set aside.

For instance, Tommy played in the high school band and served in the military.

After leaving the service, he entered the music business (he was a disc jockey in the military), playing with Hank Williams Jr.

When Cash finally released his first single, it was in 1969, called “Six White Horses,” and it was by far the most successful single he had.

If you listen, it sounds a lot like “Folsom Prison Blue,” which was written about 15 years prior to Tommy putting out his single.

That song reached #1 in Canada and #4 in the United States, but that was about as good as it would get for Tommy.

“Rise and Shine” and “One Song Away” both hit #9 in the United States, but they would be the last Top 10 songs that Cash would release.

Even though he was not cracking the Top 10, his songs were performing respectively through 1973, but then the bottom started to fall out, and he would only have four songs hit the Top 100 for the remainder of his career.

From time to time, Tommy did get a boost by performing with Johnny. For instance, in 1987, they played together at Austin City Limits, with Johnny stating, “We’ve been down the road together, Tommy and I.

“Had a lot the same problems, shared a lot of the same joys, a lot of the same sorrows as brothers do. Brothers don’t get along sometimes, but brothers make up, because brothers love each other.”

That was after a long hiatus between the two, as Johnny became abusive toward his brother when he was addicted to drugs.

Cash’s last record was released in 2008, and this final release was “Fade to Black: Memories of Johnny.”