Johnny Cash leaves hospital

Johnny Cash: On the mend

Country music legend Johnny Cash has been released from hospital where he was being treated for pneumonia.

Cash, who who turns 69 on 26 February, will spend a few days recuperating at his home in Hendersonville, near Nashville, Tennessee, before returning the recording studio, said a hospital statement.

He won a Grammy award for best male country vocal performance on Wednesday night.

Cash, already an eight-time Grammy winner, said he planned to watch the awards show from home.

He thanked fans for all "their prayers and thoughts," and said they helped his recovery.

The singer was taken to hospital in Nashville last week suffering from autonomic neuropathy, a disease of the nervous system that makes him susceptible to pneumonia.

He was treated for the illness during a two-week hospital stay in 1999. In 1998, he was hospitalised twice for the illness and said later he nearly died.

Cash, whose hits include A Boy Named Sue and A Thing Called Love, has sold more than 50 million records during a career spanning five decades.