Rosanne Cash

Rosanne Cash is an American country singer, songwriter, and author whose four-decade music career has produced 11 number-one Billboard Hot Country Songs singles, four Grammy Awards, and continuous influence on subsequent American country, folk, and Americana songwriters. She was born Rosanne Cash on May 24, 1955, in Memphis, Tennessee. Her father was American country singer Johnny Cash, and her mother was American country singer Vivian Liberto Cash (Johnny Cash's first wife). The 1966 separation of her parents and her father's 1968 second marriage to American country singer June Carter Cash shaped her subsequent autobiographical songwriting.

Her education at Vanderbilt University (1973–1975; without earning a degree) and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute (1976) launched her early-career path. Her 1978 first album Rosanne Cash — released by the German Ariola Records in Europe only — preceded her 1979 Columbia Records signing.

Her 1979 first American album Right or Wrong launched her early-career commercial breakthrough. Her 1981 second American album Seven Year Ache — produced by her then-husband Rodney Crowell — sold over one million copies in the United States and produced her first three Billboard Hot Country Songs number-one singles "Seven Year Ache," "My Baby Thinks He's a Train," and "Blue Moon with Heartache."

Her 1980s commercial peak across the four albums Somewhere in the Stars (1982), Rhythm & Romance (1985), King's Record Shop (1987), and Hits 1979–1989 (1989) produced her remaining eight Billboard Hot Country Songs number-one singles across the 1985–1988 period — making her the only American country artist to have produced four number-one Billboard Hot Country Songs singles from a single album (across King's Record Shop). Her 2014 album The River and the Thread won three Grammy Awards (Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Performance, and Best American Roots Song). She married Rodney Crowell in 1979 (divorced 1992); she married producer John Leventhal in 1995. She has five children, including singer-songwriter Chelsea Crowell.

Her name Rosanne began as a personally-modified spelling of Rosanna (a combination of Rose and Anna, from the Latin and Hebrew). Rosanne has been a popular American girls' name through the mid-20th century.