What Did Johnny Cash Suffer From?

Johnny Cash was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Shy-Drager syndrome, a form of multiple system atrophy.

According to biographer Robert Hilburn, the disease was originally misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease and Cash even announced to his audience that he had Parkinson’s after nearly collapsing on stage in Flint, Michigan.

Soon afterwards, his diagnosis was changed to Shy-Drager, and Cash was told he had about 18 months to live. The illness forced Cash to curtail his touring. He was hospitalised in 1998 with severe pneumonia, which damaged his lungs.

While being hospitalised at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Cash died of complications from diabetes at around 2:00 am Central Time on September 12, 2003, aged 71, less than four months after his wife.