Cash family 'sickened' by 'neo-Nazi' in Cash T-shirt

NEW YORK - The children of music legend Johnny Cash fervently condemned a "self-proclaimed neo-Nazi" filmed wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the name of their father at last week's deadly protest in Charlottesville.

"We were sickened by the association," said country star Rosanne, with her sisters Kathy, Cindy and Tara, and brother John Carter Cash in an open letter on Facebook.

"We ask that the Cash name be kept far away from destructive and hateful ideology."

Their father, whose biggest hits include "Folsom Prison Blues," "I Walk the Line" and "Ring of Fire," died aged 71 in September 2003.

"He would be horrified at even a casual use of his name or image for an idea or a cause founded in persecution and hatred," his children wrote.

"The white supremacists and neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville are poison in our society, and an insult to every American hero who wore a uniform to fight the Nazis in WWII," they added.

A woman was killed and 19 other people injured when a suspected white supremacist drove his car into a group of anti-racism protestors at a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last Saturday.

President Donald Trump has come under blistering attack for saying the anti-racism protestors deserved equal blame for the violence at a rally held to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.