Johnny Cash's lakeside home in Nashville, Tennessee has been razed by a fire, less than four years after the legendary country musician and his wife spent their last days there.

The fire that burned the home in the suburb of Hendersonville to the ground was probably fuelled by materials used in the property's renovation.

New owner Barry Gibb, of the Bee Gees, was renovating the 18-room, mostly wooden building, according to the Hendersonville Star News.

Johnny and June Carter Cash had lived in the home from the late '60s until they died within months of each other in 2003.

"So many prominent things and prominent people in American history took place in that house — everyone from Billy Graham to Bob Dylan went into that house," said Marty Stuart, a neighbour who was married to Cash's daughter Cindy during the '80s.

Gibb bought the home, which Carter Cash used to call their "Camelot", last year for some $2.5-million. He had hoped to remodel the building on Old Hickory Lake as a holiday house for use during hurricane season in Miami, his adopted home town, and write songs there with his wife.

"That house had a really strong scent of Johnny and June. It was built on rock. It had to be a strong house to have survived right there at the lake," said another neighbour, Barbara Orbison, widow of singer Roy Orbison.

The home with a round bedroom reportedly played host to jams with Cash, Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, and younger country singers like Larry Gatlin.

When Kristofferson was still an aspirant songwriter he once landed on Cash's lawn in a helicopter to offer him a song.

"If you thought about Johnny and June, you thought about that house. I guess it will be forever their house," said Orbison.

"Maybe it's the good Lord's way to make sure that it was only Johnny's house," said the Oak Ridge Boys' Richard Sterban, who lives down the road from the home.

"It was a sanctuary and a fortress for him," said Stuart. "There was a lot of writing that took place there."

"Johnny and June lived there the entire time they were married," said the country star's younger brother, Tommy Cash.

"It was the only house they lived in together until they both passed on."

The couple also had a second Tennessee home and a house in Jamaica, but they considered the lakehouse, featured in the video for Cash's song 'Hurt', as their home, said the younger Cash.

Many holidays and family gatherings were held there and the 'Walk The Line' singer's daughter Rosanne Cash wrote the recent song 'House on the Lake' about the home.

According to Jamie Steele, the Fire Chief of Hendersonville, the fire started at 1.40pm on Tuesday afternoon. Although fire engines arrived five minutes later, the house was engulfed in flames and a few hours later little but stone chimneys was left.

One fireman was injured in the blaze.

Although the cause of the fire is unknown, the recently applied flammable wood preservative on the home's exterior caused the flames to spread rapidly.

Gibbs' restoration of the home was nearing completion and he had been planning to move in during the American summer. At the time of his purchase he said he was honoured and would preserve it to honour the memories of Johnny and June Carter Cash.