Rosanne Cash To Have Brain Surgery

11/9/2007 Stephen L. Betts Rosanne Cash is facing brain surgery for a rare but benign condition and must cancel the last four dates on her Black Cadillac tour. According to the Associated Press, the announcement was made Tuesday by Manhattan Records. Rosanne, 52, is expected to make a full recovery and resume recording and touring next spring. "She does want everyone to know that it's a benign condition, and it's not life-threatening," says her manager, Danny Kahn. "It's nothing like a tumor or hemorrhage or anything. It's elective surgery." Rosanne has been diagnosed with chiari I malformation. According to the American Syringomyelia Alliance Project, a nonprofit clearinghouse for information about chiari and related disorders, the disorder is a congenital malformation of the skull that affects the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms, which include severe head and neck pain worsened by coughing, sneezing or straining, often don't show up until adulthood, the organization said. "She's somehow accepted many of them through the course of her own life, the sort of discomforts that you learn to live with," says her manager. "She's noticed them more over the course of this last year." Rosanne, who lives in New York City, will have the surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital. The daughter of the late Johnny Cash, Rosanne’s country music career includes the 1981 crossover hit “Seven Year Ache,” the first of her 11 No. 1 country singles. She signed with Manhattan Records earlier this year, and has been touring in support of her latest album, Black Cadillac. Her career was interrupted for more than two years by vocal cord polyps, but she recovered and resumed recording. She has also written a book of short stories and collaborated on a children's book.