Cash

October 21, 1999
Web posted at: 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT)

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- Country music legend Johnny Cash, battling a bout of pneumonia, has improved slightly, but still is listed in serious condition, hospital officials said Thursday.

Cash, 67, who has recorded more than 1,500 songs and won 10 Grammy Awards in a career spanning more than 40 years, entered Baptist Hospital in Nashville on Sunday. The hospital would not say whether he was in the intensive care unit.

Cash, one of the few musicians to be inducted into both the country and rock music halls of fame, is known for his smash hits "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line." Cash was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Grammy Awards ceremony.

He suffers from Shy-Drager syndrome, a degenerative nerve disease that attacks the nervous system in much the same way as Parkinson's disease. He has been in and out of the hospital this year.

At one time, Cash played some 200 concerts a year. However, his touring schedule has been cut back in recent years: He called off a scheduled concert lineup and a tour to promote his book, "Cash: The Autobiography," in 1997 after his disease worsened.

But he was able to return to the stage in April at an all-star concert in New York. Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springsteen and others all dressed in black for the occasion, in tribute to the "The Man in Black."

Cash lives in Hendersonville, a town just northeast of Nashville, with his wife, June Carter Cash, also a popular country singer. He has four daughters and a son.

Reuters contributed to this report.