Money needs to be made on music legends whether they’re dead or alive, a cursory look toward the dozen or so Jimi Hendrix previously released material put into new configurations that have come out in the last six years. Then there’s the ridiculousness of Tupac Shakur, who has had such a staggering amount of new music drop since his death in 1996 – seven full length albums worth – that there’s a large subset of fans convinced he is still alive.
We’re pretty sure that Johnny Cash isn’t chilling out in Africa with Jim Morrison or keeping it “4 Real” with Richey Edwards in some unknown locale, but according to recent interviews with the Guardian, both his son and most recent producer have revealed there is a wealth of material in the vaults just waiting to be put together for profit.
Discussing the just released so-called “lost album” Out Among the Stars that came out yesterday through the Legacy Recordings arm of Sony Music, John Carter Cash told the Guardian, “There are a few things that are in the works right now – probably four or five albums if we wanted to release everything. There may be three or four albums worth of American Recordings stuff, but some of it may never see the light of day.”
Rick Rubin, who produced the Cash’s career reviving American Recordings series beginning in the mid-90s, told the Guardian, “We released the work we had been planning to release along with John [Carter Cash] and the idea of the Unearthed boxset of outtakes was his idea. We will probably put out additional Unearthed material recorded since the last Unearthed box, in keeping with John’s wishes.”
Two of the six American Recordings, A Hundred Highways and Ain’t No Grave came out after Cash’s death in September 2003, as did the five disc Unearthed set. There’s also been multiple sets packaged by Legacy including the Bootleg series, a massive 63-disc Complete Columbia Album Collection and a spate of reissues, among them legendary late-60s prison shows from San Quentin and Folsom Prison.