Johnny Cash - Man In Black

In 1971, Cash wrote the song "Man in Black" to help explain his dress code: "I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, / Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, / I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, / But is there because he's a victim of the times."

He and his band had initially worn black shirts because that was the only matching color they had among their various outfits. He wore other colors onstage early in his career, but he claimed to like wearing black both on and off stage. In his 1997 autobiography he stated that, political reasons aside, he simply liked black as his on-stage color....