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A Bee Gee buys Cash home for songwriter vibe
Gibb says he, wife will honor Johnny and June's memory
By RYAN UNDERWOOD
Staff Writer
After six months on the market, Johnny and June Carter Cash's lakefront home in Hendersonville sold for close to its $2.5 million asking price in a deal announced by the estate's trustees yesterday afternoon.
But this was hardly a typical sale. For starters, it was purchased by Barry Gibb, of the 1970s pop group the Bee Gees, and his wife, Linda, who plan to use it as a summer home. And the Gibbs got interested in the house in early December only after Bee Gees manager Dick Ashby saw Tommy Cash appear on the program Entertainment Tonight and contacted him about it.
All this after the house, built in 1968, sat empty for two years after the deaths of both Cashes in 2003. The house originally listed for
$2.9 million this past June, but the price was later reduced to $2.5 million.
Tommy Cash, Johnny's brother and the Crye-Leike listing agent for the property, said he thought the famous couple would be thankful to know that someone of Gibb's musical "caliber" had purchased the house.
"I think the whole family is as happy as can be," Cash said yesterday. "(The Gibbs) said they plan to renovate the house to bring it back to its former glory and I hope they stick to that."
In a press release, Robert Sullivan, an attorney who serves as a trustee for the Cash estate, said Gibb, who lives in the Miami area, and the singer's wife plan to write songs in the house.
"This place will always be the spiritual home for the Cashes. My wife, Linda and I are determined to preserve it, to honor their memory," Gibb said in the release. "We fell in love with it, it's an incredible honor for us. We plan to use the home to write songs because of the musical inspiration."
Tommy Cash said he was unsure whether his brother was personally acquainted with Gibb, though he said Johnny certainly "respected (the Bee Gees') music."
Other members of the family — including Johnny's daughter Kathy Cash and Johnny and June's son, John Carter Cash — declined to comment on the sale.
Tommy Cash said his nephew, John Carter Cash, owns a cabin that doubles as a recording studio across the street from the main house at 200 Caudill Drive, which sits on 4.6 acres.
Friends of the Cashes said they were generally pleased with yesterday's developments.
Singer-songwriter Cowboy Jack Clement, who knew Johnny Cash since their Sun Records days in 1956, said he had no problem with the sale of the home to someone whose music was far different from Cash's.
"Well, I think it's a good thing. It sounds like the guy's got good motives and the proper respect to help keep it alive. He's talking about having people come out and write songs.
"I went to a lot of dinners out there. I spent a lot of time out there and I recorded a lot out there, playing guitar and Dobro.
"Do I think there's a ghost there? Probably, if we're lucky. Maybe a few.
"You'd probably find Mother Maybelle (Carter) walking around the place sometime.
"I don't think (Johnny Cash) would mind, but he did write a song one time called Die Disco Die. I don't think he was talking about the Bee Gees, though."
Jeff Hanna, guitarist with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, was complimentary.
"I obviously can't speak for John and June, but I don't think that they'd be displeased.
"It's a beautiful property, and Barry's statement (about using it as a safe haven for songwriting) indicates that it's in good hands," Hanna said.
Anna Culbreath, whose family has lived down the street from the Cashes for the past 20 years, said she still feels an emptiness when she passes the house.
"They were lovely people and their passing was a great loss to the neighborhood," Culbreath said. "They were very private people. But they have certainly been missed."
The real estate listing for the house had been removed from Crye-Leike's Web site by yesterday afternoon.
It described the property as having 18 rooms, including a signature round living room and bedroom overlooking Old Hickory Lake, five bathrooms and an outdoor pool.
Also as of yesterday, the Sumner Country Register of Deeds had not received paperwork for the property transfer, which would list the sale price of the home. •
In 1969, Johnny Cash stands in front of the lakefront house he and and his wife, June Carter Cash, had bought in 1968. (FILE)
Barry Gibb
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Locator map of Cash home
Staff writer Peter Cooper and senior writer Tim Ghianni contributed to this report.
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BARRY acquista la casa di JOHNNY CASH
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Gibb Inspired By Cash On Country Album
December 18, 2006, 10:15 AM ET
If the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb was looking for some inspiration for the country album he plans to record in Nashville, he couldn't have picked a more hallowed piece of ground to put down stakes. Gibb bought and is restoring the lakefront house belonging to the late Johnny and June Carter Cash.
"It's going to be nice," Gibb said last week during a reception in his honor by the performance rights organization BMI. "We'd like to use it as our second home. I would like to come here and write songs. I am planning on making a country album. That is really who I am."
Gibb said he and his two sons have about three completed songs and several others in the works. "I am a country artist, always have been a country artist, and this is my chance to get some self-expression out because the group is no longer the group," he said. The Bee Gees disbanded after the 2003 death of his brother, Maurice.
And if Cash's old property doesn't stir his creativity, maybe Roy Orbison's will. Orbison, who died in 1988, lived right next door.
"Do you realize how many hit songs have been written in that 4- or 5-acre area, including Roy Orbison next door?," he said. "The inspiration, being surrounded by the musical atmosphere that has been there for 35 years -- we just had to do it."
Sometimes, Gibb says, he can sense Cash's spirit in the house. "You feel like someone is watching," he said. "You feel like there is a presence in the house of both Johnny and June. I still haven't seen a tall man wearing black clothes yet, but I am very much into it and hope that I do."
Gibb Inspired By Cash On Country Album
December 18, 2006, 10:15 AM ET
If the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb was looking for some inspiration for the country album he plans to record in Nashville, he couldn't have picked a more hallowed piece of ground to put down stakes. Gibb bought and is restoring the lakefront house belonging to the late Johnny and June Carter Cash.
"It's going to be nice," Gibb said last week during a reception in his honor by the performance rights organization BMI. "We'd like to use it as our second home. I would like to come here and write songs. I am planning on making a country album. That is really who I am."
Gibb said he and his two sons have about three completed songs and several others in the works. "I am a country artist, always have been a country artist, and this is my chance to get some self-expression out because the group is no longer the group," he said. The Bee Gees disbanded after the 2003 death of his brother, Maurice.
And if Cash's old property doesn't stir his creativity, maybe Roy Orbison's will. Orbison, who died in 1988, lived right next door.
"Do you realize how many hit songs have been written in that 4- or 5-acre area, including Roy Orbison next door?," he said. "The inspiration, being surrounded by the musical atmosphere that has been there for 35 years -- we just had to do it."
Sometimes, Gibb says, he can sense Cash's spirit in the house. "You feel like someone is watching," he said. "You feel like there is a presence in the house of both Johnny and June. I still haven't seen a tall man wearing black clothes yet, but I am very much into it and hope that I do."