When asked to pull up a lyric from his new album, Who We Used to Be, that sums up its ethos, James Blunt’s response is telling. He cites a starry-eyed verse from “Some Kind of Beautiful,” with references to winging through Elysia, shots in the dark and nights that never end. The kicker line: “Heaven’s a place where the lines get crossed.”

“It just feels spontaneous and exciting,” the singer/songwriter we all know for 2004’s “You’re Beautiful,” and its album, Back to Bedlam, tells GRAMMY.com. More than that, it’s reflective of a sea change in his artistry 19 years on — the self-proclaimed past purveyor of “selfish songs about myself” is actively singing outside of himself.

“The questions of life are about not just whether I'll be all right,” says the now-husband and father, ”but whether my children will be all right, the passing of time and how it goes so quickly and that fear that you'll miss out on that time with them.”

Every song on Who We Used to Be is permeated with this empathetic energy; another key line for him comes from “Glow”: "I hope that this night never ends," he wishes aloud. “It's just that thing — life moves pretty fast,” Blunt says. And it certainly did in the Back to Bedlam days — and he feels lucky to still have a fruitful career, with a renewed label deal under his belt.

Read on for an interview with the five-time GRAMMY nominee about how Who We Used to Be came to be, his memories of the mid-2000s music business, and the self-proclaimed irony of putting out a Greatest Hits release. (“I always joke it should be called Greatest Hit and Songs I Wish You Heard,” he cracks.)

This interview has been edited for clarity.

What was the initial creative spark that led to Who We Used to Be?

I think I'm just at a stage of my life where I've got a ton of different things going on, and that was what I was just going to write about is just the things that were inspiring me at the moment.

And once upon a time, I was this young man with a dream to be a musician with so many questions of whether I would achieve that ambition, that dream. Who would I be? Where would I go? Who would I meet? Those kind of things.

I've reached this stage in my life where lots of those questions have been answered. I've met the person I hope to live with for the rest of my life and married her and started a family. And I've been in the music business now for a little while, so I can feel pretty safe about that as a job.

All the questions I had when I was an aspiring musician, many of them have been answered. But at the same time, I've been thrown a ton of new questions. My parents are getting old, and they need looking after. Instead of them looking after me when I was a child, it's my turn to look after them.

My position in the world is changing, because I'm a family man, in charge of a family. Having kids raises these questions. And also there are moments of celebration and moments of sadness along the journey.

I've been in the business now for 20 years. I've lost some friends… obviously, you write about those losses along the way, and lost some battles along the way. But fundamentally, it's also an album of celebration.

If I'm the guy who wrote “You’re Beautiful” about a girl I saw in a subway for one second, then having met the girl who I'm hoping to spend the rest of my days with, the songs better have bigger statements than just saying “You’re beautiful” to her.

So, that's why this album's got great celebratory songs saying "All the love that I ever needed/ I got it from you," as an example. Oh, “I heard there's a song that God only knows and it's keeping me dancing beside you/ Nobody here knows how the melody goes, but it's keeping me dancing beside you.”

That's kind of the idea: just to capture where I'm at now, with its highs and with its lows.

What would you tell that guy who wrote “You’re Beautiful” if you could?

Don't take the blue pill. [Chuckles.] I don't know. I mean, that the same rules apply as now as when you're starting out, which are: follow your instinct. Don't be pushed into following what other people think is best for you, necessarily, particularly when it comes to art and music.

So whilst I have a beautiful relationship with my record label [Atlantic Records, since 2003], and I'm very lucky to be with them, sometimes, when you just go on your own journey, that's what makes things stand out.

How did starting a family change your perspective on art and the world?

Well, I used to write selfish songs about myself — about what was going on in my mind. Now, I write songs with other people in my mind, instead — of people who are more important than me to me.

The questions of life are about not just whether I'll be all right, but whether my children will be all right, the passing of time and how it goes so quickly and that fear that you'll miss out on that time with them.

So, there's a song on this album called “Glow,” and it just says, "I hope that this night never ends." It's just that thing — life moves pretty fast. Yeah so that would be it really, just thinking about other people, songs about other people rather than just about myself.

Build a bridge from that song to another in the tracklisting. Give me another one that takes you out of yourself.

Well, pretty much all of them, I would think. “Saving a Life” is about someone else and the struggle that they have. As a friend to that person, it seems like the answer is so obvious. The way out of the struggle is so easy, but if that person doesn't want that kind of help, then it's not for you to help them.

It's a frustrating feeling. And everyone has that kind of friend who is either in financial difficulty or is in relationship difficulty or has a problem with addiction. You want to help them. But there's an ocean between you, and you can't.

The obvious other song on this album is a song called “Dark Thought” for Carrie Fisher, which it took me just a number of years to actually dive into — 2016. So it's taken me a while to write.

*James Blunt. Photo: Michael Clement*

How did this translate to the music itself? How did it come to reflect that sense of empathy?

I don't think I necessarily thought that the two had to go hand in hand. Each song has got a different idea, a different subject. And with that, every production has been just in keeping with the song, rather than anything else.

What do you remember about building up these songs, and imbuing each with its own character?

Once upon a time, I would get in a studio for maybe four months with a producer like Tom Rothrock, who did my first albums. And we would just bury ourselves to make a body of work that was all interrelated and connected, recorded at the same time, in the same way, with the same musicians. There was a great beauty to that.

I've spoken to him about, "I missed that. I haven't done that with this album." More recently, what I do is I write a song with the guys that I'm in with. We produce it then and there. And there are pros and cons to doing that.

The con is that you don't craft that song as often and as much as I'd like. Sometimes, we want to go back in and change a lyric and it seems annoying. I have to go and see someone in Copenhagen when I just want to change one lyric, one word.

And then, at the same time, the problem I've had sometimes with albums that I've crafted over a long period of time is they lose their spontaneity. You have demo-itis; people will go, "Oh my God. I love the demo." And then you can just smooth off all the edges.

So, by writing a song and recording a song then and there, it keeps its excitement. It keeps that freshness of a fresh idea.

How did you and your accompanists jointly craft the sound of the record, the way you wanted it to strike the listener?

With everything I do, I just know that the more honest it is, the less considered, the less pretentious, the more genuine, then the more the audience will all connect to it. People can really hear that in me.

So, each song has a different production on it, because each song deserves a different kind of production. I just know to not overthink it, but just to enjoy and feel it.

How would you compare recordmaking and album cycles in 2023 to back when you got started?

It's a faster turnover. It's, sometimes, less considered. It's got this kind of organic spontaneity, which is great fun. If I had my way, I think I'd probably prefer to go and sit in a studio and do it over a decent few months. But sometimes, life moves pretty fast.

Back then, how did your relationships change when you skyrocketed to global fame?

Well, they say fame changes you, but they're wrong. Fame changes everybody else.

You walk down the street, and suddenly, when you get famous, everyone on the street behaves really strangely towards you. They all want a selfie and say "Hello," and they can just respond differently. And so you kind of react to that. In the long term, you have to adapt to that.

But for me, I'm an English guy who was in the Army, who went to a boarding school. Sent away to boarding school when I was 7. I was very, very independent. But when the madness of the music business took hold, that's when I called my parents. I hadn't really seen them since I was 7 years old, not properly. I've just left home at that stage. And then I called them up.

And I've always joked that my parents never saw me again. They put me into boarding school and never saw me again until I was famous. But the real truth is I called them when I got famous saying, "I really need support. I really need my family around me.”

When I've been spoiled — behaved like a trumped up little pop-star — they'd smack me down and tell me to act like a normal human being.

And my friends, of course, from whether it be the army or from school or from university, if I was struggling with the press, I could call someone in the army and they'd say, "You think you're having it hardcore. So-and-so's leg has just been blown off here in Afghanistan." That kind of would put things in perspective.

So, my close friends, and my family, have always been the same throughout that time, and I'm very grateful to them. Because I think they're the ones who've kept me a grounded, normal human being.

I think what I was really lucky about is, I got into this business fairly late. I had a proper job. I was 28 when I got in the business. They always talk about young people who get in the business early. There's always that thing. You never grow older than the age you get famous. So, if Michael Jackson got famous at whatever age, he never grew up beyond that age.

And you can see a lot of young people who go into the music business, they don't have a chance then to mature as adults anymore. And I was just lucky to have got in when I was older.

Now that you’ve broken into this fresh emotional territory, what do you feel is next for you?

My Greatest Hits was released a couple of years ago. That was the end of my record deal. And then, fortunately for me, my record label called up and said, "We'd love to sign you up to a new deal."

Now, as you can imagine, the greatest hits, presumably, has all your best songs on it. So all these next songs that I'm releasing now or releasing in the future, none of them are going to be on my greatest hits. It already exists. So these songs are all just gravy. These are all bonus tracks in my life. So I'm just having great fun. I'm kind of liberated by the experience.

Train's Pat Monahan Revisits Every Song On Drops Of Jupiter 20 Years Later: "I'm A Lot Happier Than I Was Back Then"

Music's Biggest Night, the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards, will air live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

In the weeks leading up to the telecast, we will take a stroll through some of the golden moments in GRAMMY history with the GRAMMY Rewind, highlighting the "big four" categories — Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist — from past awards shows. In the process, we'll discuss the winners and the nominees who just missed taking home the GRAMMY, while also shining a light on the artists' careers and the eras in which the recordings were born.

Join us as we take an abbreviated journey through the trajectory of pop music from the 1st Annual GRAMMY Awards in 1959 to this year's 53rd telecast. Today, the GRAMMY Awards remember the year the Dixie Chicks were flying high.

49th Annual GRAMMY Awards
Feb. 11, 2007

Album Of The Year
Winner: Dixie Chicks, Taking The Long Way
Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
John Mayer, Continuum
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium
Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds

This Album Of The Year win was just the tip of a huge year for the Dixie Chicks, all of which was welcome vindication for the group after a politically charged comment made by singer Natalie Maines at a concert in 2003 had cost the group some fan and radio support. GRAMMY voters rose above the controversy to reward the album's merits. The group would win four GRAMMYs this year, and have won 12 to date. Gnarls Barkley (producer Danger Mouse and singer Cee Lo Green) teamed for a galvanizing album that drew from pop as much as the collaborators' roots in hip-hop. Mayer's Continuum won the Best Pop Vocal Album trophy, and marked his conscious awareness of the social issues of his generation, evidenced by his GRAMMY-winning "Waiting On The World To Change." The Red Hot Chili Peppers earned a nomination with the sprawling Stadium Arcadium, a 28-song double album released in a CD/digital-download age in which double albums rarely exist. Timberlake, the former 'N Sync star, rounded out the nominees with a modern-day, blue-eyed soul record, which ambitiously reached the top of the Billboard 200 in 2006. 

Record Of The Year
Winner: Dixie Chicks, "Not Ready To Make Nice"
Mary J. Blige, "Be Without You"
James Blunt, "You're Beautiful"
Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy"
Corinne Bailey Rae, "Put Your Records On"

The Dixie Chicks took Record Of The Year on the strength of "Not Ready To Make Nice," a fiercely defiant song that contained lines that spoke volumes about their trials, including death threats: "How in the world can the words that I said/Send somebody so over the edge/That they'd write me a letter/Sayin' that I better shut up and sing or my life will be over." "Be Without You" was equally heartfelt, with Blige pouring her soul into every word in her typical no-holds-barred approach, withholding no emotion. "You're Beautiful" was the ballad of the year, a soft ode to the perfection of a woman from the past, just out of the singer's reach. Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" captivated listeners with its combination of retro-soul, inescapable hooks and cutting-edge production. Brit newcomer Rae brought a jazzy feel to the neo-soul of "Put Your Records On," though she started out inspired by all-female punk groups such as L7.

node: video: Dixie Chicks Win Record Of The Year

Song Of The Year
Winner: Dixie Chicks, "Not Ready To Make Nice"
Mary J. Blige, "Be Without You"
James Blunt, "You're Beautiful"
Corinne Bailey Rae, "Put Your Records On"
Carrie Underwood, "Jesus, Take The Wheel"

The Dixie Chicks completed their sweep of the "big four" categories for which they're eligible with a Song Of The Year win for "Not Ready To Make Nice," which the group wrote with Dan Wilson, whose band Semisonic scored a Best Rock Song GRAMMY nomination for "Closing Time" in 1998. Blige co-wrote "Be Without You" with hot R&B writers Johnta Austin, Bryan-Michael Cox and Jason Perry. Blunt wrote "You're Beautiful" with Amanda Ghost and Sacha Skarbek. Ghost, former president of Epic Records, also received a nomination for her production work on Beyoncé's GRAMMY-nominated Album Of The Year, I Am…Sasha Fierce, at the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards. Rae teamed with John Beck and Steve Chrisanthou for "Put Your Records On." Beck's credits include Tasmin Archer's "Sleeping Satellite," a Top 40 hit in 1993. Finally, Underwood scored a No. 1 Country Singles hit with "Jesus, Take The Wheel," a tune written by country songwriting stalwarts Brett James, Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson. The track also picked up Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance honors.

node: video: "Not Ready To Make Nice" Wins Song Of The Year

Best New Artist
Winner: Carrie Underwood
James Blunt
Chris Brown
Imogen Heap
Corinne Bailey Rae

Underwood became the first, and so far only, "American Idol" alumnus to win the Best New Artist award. It was a solid choice, as the singer has gone on to win five GRAMMY Awards in her still growing career. Blunt's five nominations this year didn't result in any wins, but were a testament to the impact this newcomer made. Brown has earned four more nominations since his Best New Artist nod as he continues to develop an impressive career. Heap may not have won here, but she became the first female to win the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, GRAMMY in 2009 for Ellipse. Rae also missed the cut, but would win the next year in the Album Of The Year category as part of the ensemble cast assembled by Herbie Hancock for his River: The Joni Letters album.

node: video: Carrie Underwood Wins Best New Artist

Come back to GRAMMY.com tomorrow as we revisit the milestone 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards. Tune in to the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

Follow GRAMMY.com for our inside look at GRAMMY news, blogs, photos, videos, and of course nominees. Stay up to the minute with GRAMMY Live. Check out the GRAMMY legacy with GRAMMY Rewind. Keep track of this year's GRAMMY Week events, and explore this year's GRAMMY Fields. Or check out the collaborations at Re:Generation, presented by Hyundai Veloster. And join the conversation at Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

IPod Named Decade's Top Music Moment
Apple's introduction of the iPod in 2001 was named Billboard's top music moment of the decade. Other moments making the top 10 included the death of Michael Jackson in 2009, the launch of "American Idol" in 2002, the introduction of YouTube in 2005, and Led Zeppelin's reunion concert in 2007. (12/29)

James Blunt Tops UK Decade Album Chart
James Blunt's Back To Bedlam (2004) was the decade's top-selling album in the UK with sales of 3.1 million copies as of 2008, besting Dido's No Angel (1999), according to the Official Charts Company. Amy Winehouse's Back To Black (2006) was No. 3, followed by Leona Lewis' Spirit (2007) and David Gray's White Ladder (1998). (12/29)

Music Video Games Sales Decline In 2009
Sales of music video games will total $700 million in 2009, down 50 percent from sales of $1.4 million in 2008, according to a Wedbush Morgan Securities report based on data from NPD Group. The projected decline is due to sales of new high-profile releases not meeting forecasted sales expectations. "The Beatles: Rock Band," which has sold 800,000 units, failed to meet first-month sales forecasts of 1 million units; "Guitar Hero 5" sold 500,000 units in its first month compared to "Guitar Hero III," which sold 1.4 million units in its first month in 2007; and "DJ Hero"'s sales of 123,000 units in its first days of release led analysts to cut their yearly sales forecast from 1.6 million units to 600,000 units. (12/29)
 

Since Mike Piacentini’s switch from computer science to audio engineering in college, his family has been his biggest champions. So, when he received his nomination for Best Immersive Album for Madison Beer's pop album Silence Between Songs, at the 2024 GRAMMYs, it was a no-brainer to invite his parents and wife.

“He’s always been into music. He had his own band, so [the shift] wasn’t surprising at all,” Piacentini’s mother says in the newest episode of Family Matters. “He’s very talented. I knew one day he would be here. It’s great to see it actually happen.”

In homage to his parents’ support, Piacentini offered to let his father write a short but simple acceptance in case he won: “Thank you, Mom and Dad,” he jokes.

Alongside his blood relatives, Piacentini also had support from his colleague Sean Brennan. "It's a tremendous honor, especially to be here with [Piacentini]. We work day in and day out in the studio," Brennan explains. "He's someone who's always there."

Press play on the video above to learn more about Mike Piacentini's support system, and remember to check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of Family Matters.

How Madison Beer Broke Free From Pressures Of Internet Fame & Created Her New Album 'Silence Between Songs'

It's fair to say that the 1980s hadn't been particularly kind to country legend Johnny Cash. Once considered the Don of the Nashville scene, the singer/songwriter suddenly found himself dropped by Columbia Records, recording terrible parody songs (remember "The Chicken in Black"?), and addicted to painkillers after a bizarre accident in which he was kicked by an ostrich.

But as the new decade approached, Cash's reputation gradually started to recover. A 1988 tribute album, 'Til Things Are Brighter, alerted a much younger indie generation of his catalog of classics. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. And then arguably the biggest band in the world at the time, U2, invited him to take lead vocals on Zooropa's post-apocalyptic closer "The Wanderer." The scene was set for a triumphant comeback, and on 1994's American Recordings, the Man in Black duly obliged.

The Rick Rubin-produced album was far from a one-off. Cash delivered three American follow-ups in his lifetime (1996's Unchained, 2000's Solitary Man, and 2002's The Man Comes Around). And two posthumous volumes (2006's A Hundred Highways, 2010's Ain't No Grave)  further bridged the gap between his statuses as country outlaw and elder statesman — and helped further his legacy as one of country's all-time greats.

As the first American Recordings installment celebrates its 30th anniversary, here's a look at how the series deservedly rejuvenated the career of an American recording legend.

It United Him With A New Muse 

Best known for his pioneering work with Run-D.M.C., Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy, Rick Rubin seemed an unusual fit for a sixty-something country singer whose glory days were considered decades behind him. But left spellbound by Cash's performance at a Bob Dylan anniversary gig in 1992, the superproducer offered to make the Nashville legend a superstar once more.

Cash took some persuading, but eventually agreed to join forces on the assurance he'd be in the creative driving seat, and a new unlikely dream team was born. Rubin lent his talents to all six volumes of American Recordings — co-producing the middle two with Cash's son John Carter Cash – and won the first GRAMMY of his career for his efforts. The Def Jam co-founder would also later work his magic with several other '60s heroes including Neil Diamond, Yusuf and Neil Young.

It Saw Cash Lean Into Contemporary Music More Than Ever

Cash had never been averse to tackling contemporary material. He covered Bruce Springsteen's "Highway Patrolman" in 1983, just a year after it appeared on The Boss' Nebraska. But the American Recordings series saw the Man in Black embrace the sounds du jour like never before, whether the grunge of Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage," electro-blues of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," or most famously, industrial rock of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt."

On paper, this could have been nothing short of a disaster, the sign of an aging artist desperately latching onto a much younger musical generation in a transparent bid for relevancy. But instead, Cash elevates the Gen X classics into modern hymns, his sonorous voice injecting a sense of gravitas and Rubin's production stripping things back to their bare but compelling essentials. Far from an embarrassing grandad act, this was the sound of a man respectfully making the source material his own.

It Returned Cash To The Charts 

Cash had reached the lower end of the Billboard 200 in the '80s as part of supergroups The Highwaymen and Class of '55. But you had to go all the way back to 1976's One Piece at a Time to find his last entry as a solo artist. The American Recordings series, however, slowly but surely restored the Man in Black to his former chart glories.

Indeed, while its first two volumes charted at numbers 110 and 170 respectively, the third peaked at a slightly more impressive 88 and the fourth at 22, his highest position since 1970's Hello, I'm Johnny Cash. The posthumous fifth entry, meanwhile, went all the way to No. 1, remarkably the first time ever the country legend had achieved such a feat with a studio effort (live album At San Quentin had previously topped the charts in 1971).

"Hurt" also became Cash's first solo US country hit in 14 years in 2003. And while it only landed at No. 56 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, it remains Cash's most-streamed song to date with over 600 million streams on Spotify alone.

It Included Masterful Collaborators 

As well as handing over the producer reins to Rubin, Cash also surrounded himself with some of the rock world's finest musicians. Tom Petty, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood all lent their considerable talents to Unchained. Sheryl Crow and Will Oldham did the same on Solitary Man, while Nick Cave, Fiona Apple and Don Henley joined him in the studio on The Man Comes Around.

But Cash also kept things more traditional by recruiting fellow country legend Merle Haggard, 'fifth Beatle'Billy Preston, and "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" songwriter Jack Clement, while the presence of wifeJune Carter Cash and son John made the third American Recordings something of a family affair.

It Went Back To Basics 

While American Recordings was, in many respects, Cash's most forward-thinking album, it wasn't afraid to keep one foot in the past, either. For one, the star recorded most of its first volume in his Tennessee cabin armed with only a guitar, a throwback to his 1950s beginnings with first producer Sam Phillips.

Cash also trawled through his own back catalog for inspiration, re-recording several tracks he believed had unfairly gone under the radar including 1955 single "Mean Eyed Cat," murder ballad "Delia's Gone" from 1962's The Sound of Johnny Cash, and "I'm Leaving Now" from 1985's Rainbow.

It Proved He Was Still A Masterful Songwriter…

Although Cash's unlikely covers grabbed most of the attention, the American Recordings series showed that his stellar songwriting skills remained intact throughout his later years, too. "Meet Me in Heaven," for example, is a beautifully poignant tribute to the older brother who died at just 15, while the folksy "Let the Train Blow the Whistle" added to Cash's arsenal of railroad anthems.

"Drive On," meanwhile, is worthy of gracing any Best Of compilation, a powerful lament to those who came back from the Vietnam War with both emotional and physical scars ("And even now, every time I dream/ I hear the men and the monkeys in the jungle scream").

…And Still A Master Interpreter 

As well as putting new spins on his own songs and various contemporary rock favorites, Cash further displayed both his interpretive and curatorial skills by covering a variety of spirituals, standards and pop hits first released during his commercial heyday.

The likes of early 19th century gospel "Wayfaring Stranger," wartime favorite "We'll Meet Again," and Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" may have been firmly in Cash's wheelhouse. But more leftfield choices such as Loudon Wainwright III's offbeat morality tale "The Man Who Couldn't Cry" proved that even when outside his comfort zone, he could stamp his own identity with aplomb.

It Made Him An Unlikely MTV Star 

Cash was 62 years old when American Recordings hit the shelves — not exactly a prime age for MTV play. Yet thanks to some inspired creative decisions, the career-reviving series spawned two videos that received regular rotation on the network. Firstly, "Delia's Gone" caught attention for two major reasons: it was directed by Anton Corbijn, the man renowned for his long-running creative partnership with Depeche Mode, and it starred Kate Moss, the world's biggest supermodel at the time, as the titular victim.  

Then nine years later, Cash picked up six nominations — winning Best Cinematography — at the MTV Video Music Awards thanks to Mark Romanek's emotionally devastating treatment for "Hurt." Interspersing clips of the clearly fragile country singer at the rundown Museum of Cash with footage from his earlier days and artistic shots of decaying fruits and flowers, the promo perfectly embodied the transient nature of life. And it had the capacity to reduce even the hardest of hearts to tears.

It Added To His GRAMMY Haul 

Cash won almost as many GRAMMYs with his American Recordings series as he had during the previous 40 years of his career. The Man in Black first added to his trophy collection in 1995 when the first volume won Best Contemporary Folk Album. This was the first time he'd been recognized at the ceremony for his musical talents since the June Carter Cash duet "If I Were A Carpenter" won Best Country Performance for a Duo or Group with Vocal back in 1971  

Three years later, Unchained was crowned Best Country Album. And after picking up a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999, Cash won 2001's Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "Solitary Man," then again in the same Category for "Give My Love to Rose"in 2003. He posthumously won two more GRAMMYs for Best Short Form Video, in 2004 for "Hurt" and in 2008 for "God's Gonna Cut You Down." In total, the American Recordings series won Cash six more GRAMMYs, bringing his overall count to 13. 

It Was A Powerful Epitaph

In 1997, Cash was told he'd just 18 months to live after being misdiagnosed with neurodegenerative condition Shy-Drager syndrome (later changed to autonomic neuropathy). He ended up outliving this prognosis by a good four years, but during this period, he lost the love of his life and was forced to record his swansong in-between lengthy stints in the hospital.  

Little wonder, therefore, that the American Recordings series is defined by the theme of mortality: see "The Man Comes Around," a biblical ode to the Grim Reaper ("And I looked, and behold a pale horse/ And his name that sat on him was death, and hell followed with him"), Death Row anthem "The Mercy Seat," and funeral favorite "Danny Boy." As with David Bowie's Blackstar, Cash was able to reflect on his impermanence in his own terms in a sobering, yet compelling manner that continues to resonate decades on. 

8 Artists Bringing Traditional Country Music Back: Zach Top, Randall King, Emily Nenni & More On Why "What's Old Becomes Beloved Again"