Country music legend Johnny Cash, "The Man in Black," died Friday morning at

age 71 of respiratory failure, just three days after being discharged from

Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, following a bout of pancreatitis.

"Johnny died due to complications from diabetes, which resulted in respiratory

failure," manager Lou Robin said in a statement.

A hard-living rebel who nevertheless won widespread acclaim for his music, Cash was a solitary figure in pop culture: a devoutly religious man who wrote tales of vengeful murder and mayhem, and a lifelong radical with a rock and roll heart who never had time for the polite country music establishment.

The author of more than 400 songs, yielding 100 top-40 country hits as well

as dozens of crossover pop hits, Cash was the multifaceted voice of the

American experience. He spoke for the condemned man and his redeemer, the downtrodden coal miner, the hopeless romantic, the junkie and the righteous man.

With songs that often relied solely on his imposing baritone voice and spare,

percussive acoustic guitar, Cash blurred the line between country and rock,

running afoul of the Nashville orthodoxy with his dangerous, rebellious spirit

and teaching generations of rockers about the importance of emotional honesty

in storytelling. From his second single, 1956's "Folsom Prison Blues," Cash

displayed a dark edge that was hard to match in country or rock, growling in his

famous, deep-thunder deadpan, "I shot a man in Reno/ Just to watch him die."

It was that signature mix of outlaw spirit and religious conviction that

helped make Cash a towering influence spanning generations and genres, from

country to punk, rock to folk and gospel, the '50s to the '00s. Cash was a ragged

example of the power of music to cross boundaries, winning young recruits over

the past decade via his Rick Rubin-produced series of albums, which introduced Cash's booming voice to a new generation of fans. Manager Robin said Thursday that 11-time Grammy winner Cash had been planning to fly to Los Angeles next week to complete work on his follow-up to 2002's American IV: The Man Comes Around.

Though he was too ill to attend, Cash's legend loomed large at this year's

MTV Video Music Awards, as the haunting video for his cover of the Nine Inch Nails song

"Hurt" was nominated for six Moonmen, winning one for Best Cinematography.