New Johnny Cash album could extend posthumous success

A complete Johnny Cash album of recently discovered tracks is debuting this spring, with hopes for posthumous celebrity success in the vein of Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe.

Music's famed Man in Black died in 2003, but Out Among the Stars set for release March 25 will be the fourth posthumous album since his death.

The album will feature a dozen tracks Cash recorded in a studio during the early 1980s, including duets with Waylon Jennings and his wife, June Carter Cash, but never released or made public.

John Carter Cash said he found hundreds of live and studio recordings while cataloging his father's private archives in 2012.

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The younger Cash announced the upcoming release in December. "We were so excited when we discovered this," he said at the time.

"We were like, my goodness this is a beautiful record that nobody has ever heard. Johnny Cash is in the very prime of his voice for his lifetime. He's pitch perfect. It's seldom where theres more than one vocal take. They're a live take and theyre perfect."

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If it becomes a bestseller, the release could put Cash into the esteemed company of other lucrative deceased celebrities such as Jackson, Presley, Monroe and cartoonist Charles Schulz all of whom typically figure prominently on Forbes magazine's annual list of of top-earning dead celebrities.

John Northcott reports on the phenomenon in the attached video.