In 1968, Johnny Cash had hit rock bottom. Substance abuse had shattered his life, and he decided to end it all in Nickajack Cave. Crawling as far as he could into the recesses of the cave until his flashlight gave out, Cash curled up and waited to die.

As he put it: "The absolute lack of light was appropriate, for at that moment I was as far from God as I have ever been. My separation from Him, the deepest and most ravaging of the various kinds of loneliness I’d felt over the years, seemed finally complete.”

Then something changed for Cash. “I felt something very powerful start to happen to me, a sensation of utter peace, clarity and sobriety... There in Nickajack Cave I became conscious of a very clear, simple idea: I was not in charge of my own destiny... I was going to die at God’s time, not mine.”

Today, Nickajack Cave is a protected wildlife refuge for the endangered gray bat. There is an observation deck to view the bats leaving to feed at dusk.

view full location details...

For 35 years, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash lived in a home on Old Hickory Lake at this address. The home was a mixture of wood, stone, and marble, and was built without a blueprint. The Cashes entertained everybody from Bob Dylan to Rev. Billy Graham to Al Gore in their home.

Contrary to the 2005 film Walk the Line, Johnny did not stumble onto the property while rambling hungover. He did, however, drive a tractor into the lake at one point.

Four years after Johnny Cash passed, former Bee Gees star Barry Gibb purchased the home for $2.6 million. His intent was to restore the property with everything intact, but some flammable wood preserver caught fire and the home was completely destroyed.

The forests around Hendersonville are apparently not kind to wood structures. Roy Orbison's original house, which was next door, also succumbed to fire in 1965. Luther Perkins (Johnny Cash's long-time guitarist) died in a house fire nearby in 1968.

view full location details...

On Monday, September 15, 2003, Johnny Cash was laid to rest next to his wife, June Carter Cash, at Hendersonville Memory Gardens in Hendersonville, TN. He was 71 years old.

June Carter Cash had passed away six months earlier on May 15, 2003, at the age of 73.

The Cash family had lived in a home outside Hendersonville for many years, and the Johnny Cash Museum is also in Hendersonville.

Luther Perkins, the long-time guitarist for Johnny Cash, was also interred at Hendersonville Memory Gardens in 1968 (after dying in a house fire).

The Biblical verse Psalm 19:14 is inscribed on Johnny Cash's grave.

view full location details...

The Village Studio has recorded several artists, bands, soundtracks and voiceovers (partial list here) since its founding in 1968.

Originally built as a Masonic Temple in 1922, the building was converted into a center for Transcendental Meditation by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the mid 60's. In 1968, the building was reinvented as The Village Studio by Geordie Hormel.

Some of the albums recorded here include Aja by Steely Dan, Joe's Garage by Frank Zappa, and Planet Waves by Bob Dylan.

On Jim Morrison's birthday on December 8, 1970, he rented this studio for several hours to record his poetry. Portions of this session were used in the 1979 release, An American Prayer.

view full location details...

Currently a car stereo store called Al & Ed's Autsound, this building was a strip club back in the late 60's called The Extension.

Since The Doors Workshop and his preferred motels (the Alta Cienega Motel and the Tropicana Motelwere in the area, Jim Morrison spent some time here.

view full location details...