Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson Producer Bob Johnston Dies

Bob Johnston, who served as a producer for Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, among many other legendary musicians, died on Friday (Aug. 14). He was 83.

Johnston was born on May 14, 1932, in Hillsboro, Texas, and songwriting was in his genes: His grandmother was a songwriter, as was his mother, Diane Johnston. The latter wrote songs for Gene Autry and the tune "Miles and Miles of Texas," which Asleep at the Wheel brought to fame. Bob Johnston wrote songs under the name Don Johnston from 1956 to 1961 before moving into production work, and then becoming a staff producer at Columbia Records.

While at Columbia, Johnston had a hand in six of Bob Dylan's records, including Blonde on Blonde; seven of Cash's works, including At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin; Simon & Garfunkel's Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme; Leonard Cohen's Songs From a Room and Songs of Love and Hate; Nelson's IRS records and several Flatt and Scruggs records, among many others. The producer had a very specific perspective on his job.

"My job wasn’t to be a hero and to tell Paul Simon or Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson what the f--k to do!” Johnston said. “I thought, if you want to be a hero, or if you want to take credit, get some other people to work with. Don’t work with these people.

"I wasn’t like some other people who were looking to be the next Phil Spector," he added. "I had three sons; all I cared about was seeing that it was gonna be a better world. And I think these people made a better world for us.”

According to the Austin Chronicle, Johnston was in a Nashville-area memory facility and had been in hospice care for much of the week before he passed away.

"He was on morphine to help any pain he was experiencing,” a friend of Johnston’s tells the paper. “Bob’s wife told me he pass[ed] away peacefully. The grand master waved his magical wand for the last time, then disappeared off into the night."

Country Stars Who Have Died in 2015