"Barry Gibb restores Cash house and plans to make country album"

 (By BEVERLY KEEL, Tennessean, December 14, 2006)

Barry Gibb, who is about two-thirds done with his renovation of the Johnny Cash estate in Hendersonville, plans on recording a country record here.

Barry, his wife, Linda, and their songwriting sons, Stephen and Ashley, attended a BMI reception held in their honor Wednesday. Among the 170 RSVPs to welcome the former Bee Gee and his family were Big & Rich, LeAnn Rimes, John Carter Cash, Steve Cropper, Duane Eddy, Phil Everly and Bill Anderson.

Last year, Barry and Linda, who live in Miami and have five children, bought the iconic Hendersonville lakefront home built in 1968 and vow to preserve it and honor the Cashes' memory. His plan is "to bring it back to its original pristine condition," he said. "Johnny and June were there for 35 years, and a lot of things needed to be done. All the wood has been brought back to its original condition."

The Gibbs first saw the house in Cash's "Hurt" video — "we have always loved the house"— so when Linda saw its sale featured on Entertainment Tonight, she yelled at Barry to turn on the TV. "We both on the spot said, 'We've got to go after this house,' " he said. "It became the inspiration for everything. Do you realize how many hit songs have been written in that 4- or 5-acre area, including Roy Orbison next door? The inspiration, being surrounded by the musical atmosphere that has been there for 35 years, we just had to do it."

He never met Johnny but fell in love with him in the 1950s, and Johnny's song "I Still Miss Someone" remains among his favorites today. "If you listen to some of our records, you can hear the influence of Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison."

He can also sense the Cashes' 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."

Braxton Dixon, who built the house, has helped the Gibbs with renovations. "It's taken some time to get the work moving, to start, because when we first came into the house what needed to be done was pretty overwhelming." They are keeping what few pieces of Cash furniture that were left behind.

"It's going to be nice. 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.

"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." (The Bee Gees disbanded after the 2003 death of his brother, Maurice.) "So life is a little different, and I would like to do that.

"When you are in a group all of your life, you are glued together and everything you do has to be something you all agree with or it doesn't happen. So there was always a little bit of concession between the three of us. At this point, I don't have to ask someone else whether or not I can put this song on the album. It's the first time in my life that I get to do this, so what the (heck.)"

He and his sons have about 10 song pieces and about three completed country songs. "But you know what was necessary? It was necessary to come here and meet the people that I'm meeting tonight and find out how much enthusiasm there is for me doing a country album. You have to hear it yourself. If people want it, then I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it anyway, but I would like to know that there are people here who will help me do it."