31 Years Ago, Johnny Cash Released The Most Important Album Of His Career

At the outset of the 1990s, Johnny Cash's decades-long career as a country icon seemed to be on the decline. The 1980s hadn't been kind to the Man in Black, who had released several albums that were commercial and critical failures. His longstanding relationship with Columbia Records, who he'd signed with way back in 1958, had fizzled, and it seemed that all that lay ahead of him was a legacy of box sets and compilation albums.