The house was sold after Cash died in 2003

It burned down on Tuesday while renovations were being carried out for its new owner, Bee Gee Barry Gibb.

The interior of the house, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, was used in the video for Cash's final hit, his 2002 cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt.

Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, lived in the house from 1968 until their deaths, months apart, in 2003.

'Sanctuary and fortress'

The cause of the fire has not yet been identified. According to the Associated Press news agency, one firefighter was hurt tackling the blaze.

Johnny Cash lived in the house from 1968 until his death

The agency said the fire spread quickly because construction workers had recently applied a flammable wood preservative to the exterior of the house during renovations.

After a few hours, little remained of the house except its stone chimneys.

"So many prominent things and prominent people in American history took place in that house - everyone from Billy Graham to Bob Dylan went into that house," country singer Marty Stuart, a neighbour, was quoted as saying by AP.

"It was a sanctuary and a fortress for him," Stuart said. "There was a lot of writing that took place there. The Folsom Prison prison record came from there, the San Quentin record, The Holy Land, the Man in Black book came from there."

Another neighbour, Richard Sterban of country and gospel band, the Oak Ridge Boys, is quoted by the AP news agency as saying the fire may be "the good Lord's way to make sure that it was only Johnny's house".