Bee Gee to build house near Cash home

Barry Gibb, the former Bee Gee who purchased the former home of Johnny Cash, said tonight he plans to build a new house near the original in Tennessee that burned down last week.

“Linda (Gibb’s wife) and I have decided to build our own home on the higher ground surrounding the Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash home and the original foundations shall be kept in tact and preserved for the people of Hendersonville and the people of Nashville,” Gibb said in a statement.

Cash’s long-time lakeside home in Hendersonville, where he wrote much of his famous music and entertained US presidents, music royalty and visiting fans, was destroyed by fire last week.

Cash and his wife June lived in the 13,880-square-foot home from the late 1960s until their deaths in 2003. Gibb purchased the home in 2006 and had hoped to remodel it and eventually write songs there with his wife.

Gibb said the land where the Cash house once stood is “sacred” and “must be protected forever.”

“To the Cash Carter families we owe the highest respect and the deepest regret that our dream could not be realised. Now there is a new dream for us and a new beginning,” he said.

Fire investigators have not yet released the cause of the fire.