I suppose we all saw the imminent death of Johnny Cash coming, so I can't say I'm surprised to hear about it today. I'm just grateful the man ever existed in the first place and survived as far as he did into his life, staying creative and vital up until he died. Now, just as with so many other popular icons, we'll have an assault of tributes to Johnny in our various small and large media and interest in his amazing body of work will soar sky-high for awhile. With some icons, that might seem like cheap fanfare. But Johnny Cash . . . he really was on a higher level of humanity than so many other fallen rock stars. More sincere than those British Invasion rockers. More relevant than the entire history of punk rock. More populist than most world leaders ever will be. Johnny Cash's presence in this world felt like love.