BARRY GIBB
BUYS JOHNNY CASH'S HOME IN TENNESSEE
(CMT, January 2006)
Singer-songwriter Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees has purchased Johnny and June Carter Cash's former home in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tenn., a spokesman for the Cash estate confirmed Wednesday (Jan. 4).
The 13,880-square-foot home was officially purchased by Balinda LLC, a Florida company wholly owned by Gibb and his wife, Linda. The couple plans to restore the home to its original condition.
"This place will always be the spiritual home for the Cashes," Gibb said in a written statement. "My wife, Linda, and I are determined to preserve it, to honor their memory. 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."
The house on Old Hickory Lake served as the Cashes' home for 35 years. The primary residence throughout the couple's marriage, the house itself plays a major role in Walk the Line, the film biography starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. June Carter Cash died May 15, 2003, and Johnny Cash died Sept. 12, 2003.
The property, which includes a 4.6-acre lakefront lot, was placed on the market in June 2005 with an asking price of $2.9 million but reportedly sold for $2.3 million. The home was sold by Robert L. and Catherine C. Sullivan, the estate trustees, as part of the directives left by the Cashes.
When the property was listed, real estate agent Tommy Cash, the singer's brother, said it would be sold "as is" and would include seven pieces of antique furniture, including the couple's bed. Built in 1968, the house includes seven bedrooms, five full baths and an outdoor swimming pool.
The Bee Gees scored their first hit in the U.S. in 1967 with "New York Mining Disaster 1941" and followed it up with a series of pop favorites, including "To Love Somebody," "I Started a Joke" and "Massachusetts." The trio, which included Gibb's younger brothers Robin and Maurice, became even more popular in the '70s with disco-driven songs from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, including "Stayin' Alive."
Barry Gibb produced Kenny Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark, that contained Rogers' duet with Dolly Parton on "Islands in the Stream," a song written by the Gibb brothers. The Bee Gees charted one country single, "Rest Your Love on Me," that peaked at No. 39 in 1978.
BeeGee buys Cash's old digs
Singer Barry Gibb has just bought the longtime home of the late singer Johnny Cash. But the famous Bee Gee, a local fixture, will still live part time in Miami Beach.
(By Luisa Yanez, Miami Herald)
Legendary BeeGees singer Barry Gibb, who called South Florida home long before the likes of Madonna and Stallone, has found a new heaven on earth.
Blame it on Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
Gibb, who turns 60 Monday , and his wife, Linda, residents of Miami Beach's posh North Bay Road since 1977, have purchased the rustic Tennessee home where the late singer Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter lived for 35 years.
More significantly, Gibb has also just sold his Middle Ear studio at the foot of the Venetian Causeway, the locale where he produced Barbra Streisand's Guilty album.
Is the oldest Bee Gee brother taking flight?
According to his publicist and a close friend, the answer is no.
''Barry loves South Florida,'' spokesman Paul Bloch said. ``He is just going to split his time between both places, but we don't know what the time split will be.''
The close friend, who did not want to be identified, said Gibb had a ''rough hurricane season'' and was looking for another place to hang his hat -- if only during the threat of storms.
''We were watching television one day, and he saw that the Cash home was for sale and he called a number and it all went on from there,'' the friend said.
Cash fans and those who saw the recent hit movie I Walk the Line know the Old Hickory Lake home outside Nashville is where the Cash-Carter clan went to write and mend broken hearts.
The 13,880-square-foot home on the 4.6-acre property was sold for an undisclosed amount, a lawyer for the Cash family said. The house had been on the market for $2.9 million.The price was reduced to $2.5 million.
Cash and Carter died within months of each other in 2003, the same year 53-year-old Maurice Gibb, Barry's brother, died of a heart attack at a Miami Beach hospital after emergency surgery for a blocked intestine.
All three brothers had moved their families to Miami Beach in the late 1970s and lived within doors of each other on North Bay Road.
Now, Gibb appears intrigued by the idea that another prolific songwriter practiced his craft within the walls of his new home.
''This place will always be the spiritual home for the Cashes,'' Gibb said in a statement. ``My wife, Linda, and I are determined to preserve it, to honor their memory. 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.''
With Hendersonville just 15 miles outside Nashville, Gibb plans to ''connect with the country music scene, which he has always loved,'' his friend said. For now, the Gibbs will keep their Miami Beach home, but the Middle Ear studio sale will be finalized in March. Retail shops are scheduled to go up on the corner lot at 1801 Bay Rd., which sold for an undisclosed figure.
''Nowadays, artists don't need a studio, they can record with equipment in their home, and that's what Barry is going to do,'' the friend said.
'I don't think any of us could be any happier'
(Tennessean.com January 6, 2006)
Johnny Cash's kids are thrilled that Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees bought Johnny and June's place in Hendersonville, Johnny's daughter Kathy told me yesterday.Many fans were hoping there'd be a Cash museum built there, and many Hendersonville area developers wanted to knock down the Cashes' house and put up three or four new houses there.
But Kathy said her father wanted neither of those things to happen.
She said Johnny wanted it to remain a private residence where another family could love the lake view afforded by the large windows.
Kathy said Barry and his wife, who might use the property as a summer house, will appreciate more than the windows.
"They appreciate the history and sentimental value and historical value," Kathy said. "Dad wanted it to remain a private residence. I don't think any of us (kids) could be any happier."
