Country music legend Johnny Cash has been admitted to hospital in Nashville, Tennessee suffering from bronchitis.

Cash, 69, was said to be in a stable condition by a hospital spokeswoman after being admitted on Sunday.

The singer suffers from a condition called autonomic neuropathy, which makes him vulnerable to pneumonia.

He was last in hospital in January this year, which was the fourth time since 1998.

Known as the Man in Black - due to his favoured colour of dress - Cash is considered the inspiration for a generation of country music singers.

His hits include A Boy Named Sue and A Thing Called Love. He has sold more than 50 million records during a career spanning five decades. He has also won eight Grammy Awards.

His illness, autonomic neuropathy, is a degenerative disease of the nervous system similar to Parkinson's disease.

Prison

He spent almost two weeks in hospital with pneumonia in February this year. 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.

Born into a poor family in Arkansas in 1932, Cash claims to have only ever had one singing lesson, in which he was given the advice: "Never change your voice."

He has since lent his distinctive bass tones to songs of coal miners, convicts and cowboys.

In a life shadowed by drug and alcohol problems, Cash has also spent time in prison and was once fined $85,000 (�58,000) for starting a forest fire.

He has not toured since 1997 but his last album, American III: Solitary Man was released at the end of last year.

He is the only person to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.