Johnny Nash, the singer best known for his 1972 hit “I Can See Clearly Now,” has died. He was 80 years old.
His son confirmed that his father passed away Tuesday at his home to CBS Los Angeles. According to TMZ, Nash died of natural causes.
“He was a wonderful father and family man,” his son, John Nash III, told TMZ. “He loved people and the world. He will be missed within his community. Family was his everything.”
Nash was born in Houston, Texas, and started singing as a child at Progressive New Hope Baptist Church. His major label debut came in 1957 with the single “A Teenager Sings the Blues.” His first chart hit was a cover of Doris Day’s “A Very Special Love” in 1958 — However, “I Can See Clearly Now” sold over one million copies and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining on the chart for four weeks.
He also became the first non-Jamaican singer to record reggae music in Jamaica. Nash also had several film and TV credits to his name, including a lead role in “Take a Giant Step” in 1959, as well as “Key Witness” in 1960 and a Swedish romance film called “Vill så gärna tro” in 1971.
He released an album in 1986 titled “Here Again.” According to CBS, he was signing at SugarHill Recording Studios and Tierra Studios in Houston in 2006 and was working to transfer analog tapes of his songs to digital recordings.