In a twist of fate not out of place in a country ballad, a developer is hoping to turn the property at least partially paid for by “Cocaine Blues” into a rehab facility. The 4.5-acre property on Old Hickory Lake near Hendersonville, Tennessee was once the home of Johnny and June Carter Cash, who would entertain their celebrity friends at what The Tennesseean refers to as “the Graceland of country music.” After the Cashes died in 2003, their son sold the property to former Bee Gee Barry Gibb, who intended to renovate the lake house as a tribute to Cash. But that was not to be, and the house burned down in 2007.
Now it’s owned by Texas investor James Gresham, who bought the property from Gibb for $2 million in March. Gresham’s company filed paperwork earlier this week asking the city to re-zone the property into an “employment center;” Hendersonville officials say Gresham and his associates plan to turn Cash’s former home into a residential medical facility, similar to another rehab clinic Gresham owns in Illinois. That’s if they can get past the protests of local residents, who are really only okay with living next door to famous pill-poppers.