Press Reviews

• Nicole Carmichael

  Sunday Express

  Rock biographies can feel like they are ten-a-penny so it is a refreshing change to read a meaty no-holds barred, non-sycophantic record of legendary Man in Black Johnny Cash ... The wealth of detail on every page, in ever incident of Cash's life (1932-2002) is both impressive and a joy to read. Unlike so many biographies that are reported incidents jigsawed together, this is almost an eyewitness account with not always favourable opinions, perfecting its colour and gravitas

• Eddie Dean

  Wall Street Journal Europe

  Mr Hilburn got as close to the Cash inner circle as any journalist could. He was the only reporter present at the historic Folsom Prison show in 1968, and he interviewed Cash over the years up to his final days. The result is the most authoritative and revealing portrait to date of the most chronicled figure in country-music history ... [a] finely wrought biography

• Charles Shaar Murray

  Literary Review

  A great story requires great storytelling, and that's exactly what it receives here. Ultimately, Robert Hilburn's biography uncannily resembles its subject: massive and stolid, but with a dangerous glint in its eye

• Rod Liddle

  Sunday Times

  There is madness aplenty in this excellent life of the turbulent Johnny Cash

• Will Hodgkinson

  The Times

  A warts-and-all biography follows Johnny Cash, a rebel and outsider, from one drama to the next. It's a must-read

• Bono

  Johnny Cash was a man both extraordinary and ordinary. Every man could relate to him, no man could be him, and only one man could get inside his head: Robert Hilburn

• Alan Taylor

  Sunday Herald

  A moving, respectful and sympathetic biography

• Rob Fitzpatrick

  Sunday Times

  Hilburn's biography has the sort of immense scope and tremendous insight that comes from years of interviewing such a truthful, troubling subject

• The Economist

  How do you write an interesting biography of such a beloved figure? First, hire Robert Hilburn. He is a prodigious researcher, but keeps a steady hand on the tiller, and never allows his research to swamp his narrative. He knows his music and music history, but unlike far too many music critics, he avoids the temptation to show off

• Patti Smith

  Robert Hilburn displays a deeply felt affinity with his subject, illuminating Johnny Cash as the moral compass of country music

• Kris Kristofferson

  Johnny Cash and Robert Hilburn are two of the true blessings of my life. Both the best at what they do and each a gifted artist. It's a killer combination

• Charles R. Cross, author of <i>Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain</i>

  With straightforward prose, and through years of meticulous research, Robert Hilburn unravels the sometimes dark and magical life of one of music's greatest legends. Oftentimes this is a chronicle of pain, whether Hilburn is detailing Cash's early loss of his beloved brother, or the anguish he talked to Rick Rubin about feeling upon the death of wife June, but Hilburn gives much insight into what drove Cash's work. This is a harrowing story of addiction, musical genius, and enduring faith that goes far deeper than any film biopic ever will. In the end, Hilburn has achieved what is most certainly the definitive Johnny Cash biography

• Andy Fyfe

  Mojo

  Hilburn has pulled off the rare feat of making the dispassionate truth more extraordinary than the myth

• David Alan

  Country Music People

  Hilburn displays a quite remarkable empathy with his subject and his writing style is highly readable and totally gripping. The book has just been published in the UK and is surely a must for any serious country music buff

• BBC Radio 4 Front Row

  Robert Hilburn has written a magnificent biography

• Will Hodgkinson

  The Times

  Superb