Country legend Johnny Cash [ tickets ], who had been in poor health for a number of years, died early Friday (9/12) morning at Nashville's Baptist Hospital. He was 71.

"Johnny died due to complications from diabetes, which resulted in respiratory failure," Cash's manager, Lou Robin, said in a statement. "I hope that friends and fans of Johnny will pray for the Cash family to find comfort during this very difficult time."

Cash died at at 2 a.m. Central Time, according to the statement.

Just days before his death, Cash was released from the hospital after a three-week stay due to a stomach ailment. The illness forced the singer to scrap plans to attend the Aug. 28 MTV Video Music Awards, for which he was nominated in six categories; the video for his cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt"--which is anchored by footage of a clearly weathered and unhealthy Cash--won the award for Best Cinematography.

Following his release from the hospital on Tuesday (9/9), Robin told The Tennessean that Cash planned to fly to California next week to resume work on an upcoming album, tentatively titled "American V."

Earlier this year, Cash, who was stricken with a nervous-system disease known as autonomic neuropathy, was hospitalized for treatment of pneumonia, a common ailment associated with the disease. Several weeks after his April release from the hospital, his wife of 35 years, June Carter Cash [ tickets ], died at age 73 of complications from heart surgery.

Known as "The Man in Black" because of his predominantly black wardrobe, Cash's unique vocal delivery and dark lyrical slant earned him a reputation as one of country music's most influential and storied figures.

Born and raised in Arkansas, Cash began writing music and singing as a child. He bought his first guitar while serving in the Air Force during the Korean War, and taught himself to play.

Cash went on to land a recording deal on Sam Phillips' Sun Records label--best known for launching Elvis Presley's career--and scored a series of hits with the '50s-era cuts "Cry Cry Cry," "I Walk the Line," "Give My Love to Rose," "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" and "Guess Things Happen That Way."

After splitting with Sun in the late '50s because the label wouldn't allow him to release a gospel album, Cash signed with Columbia, for whom he recorded hits such as "All Over Again" and "Don't Bring Your Guns to Town."

By the early '60s, Cash was abusing drugs and getting in trouble with the law; the singer was arrested in El Paso for attempting to smuggle amphetamines hidden in his guitar case into the U.S.

After divorcing his first wife in 1966, Cash ultimately remarried in 1968 to June Carter, who had co-written his hit "Ring of Fire." Carter converted the singer to fundamentalist Christianity and helped him overcome his addictions.

That same year, Cash released his most-popular album, "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison," recorded during a concert he gave at the correctional facility. It spawned the hit single "Folsom Prison Blues," and inspired a follow-up album, "Johnny Cash at San Quentin," which features the crossover hit "A Boy Named Sue."

Cash's commercial popularity peaked in the early '70s, at which time he had his own television show, and released hits such as "Flesh and Blood" and "Man in Black."

Cash issued his autobiography--also titled "Man in Black"--in 1975, and was inducted into the Country Music Hal of Fame in 1980. His solo career cooled during the '80s, but he teamed with fellow country luminaries Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristoferson to form an act dubbed The Highwaymen; the foursome issued their debut album in 1985, a second set in 1992 and a third and final album in 1995.

Cash gained a new generation of fans beginning in the early '90s, when he signed a solo deal with rap and hard-rock producer Rick Rubin's American Records. With Rubin, he released the albums "American Recordings" (1994); GRAMMY^®-winner "Unchained" (1996), which featured support from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers; and "American III: Solitary Man" (2000). He also released a 1998 album that captured his performance as part of VH1's "Storytellers" series, and a 2000 three-disc retrospective titled "Love, God, Murder."