Trent Reznor - Hearing Johnny Cash Sing "Hurt" Felt Invasive, Biggest Honor Of Career
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Nine Inch Nails mastermind, Trent Reznor, recently discussed what an honour it was to be covered by the late GREAT Johnny Cash. The song Cash covered, "Hurt," was originally released on Downward Spiral in 1994, then covered by Cash in 2002. Reznor revealed it was more important to him than any industry standard and that Cash gave him the best compliment ever. Reznor told the Sun, "He said afterwards it was a song that sounds like one he would have written in the 60s and that's wonderful." The interview with The Sun for the Something For The Weekend edition included all kinds of intimate details about how it went down, from the first request to the first listen 2 weeks later:
"I'd been friends with Rick Rubin (producer) for several years. He called me to ask how I'd feel if Johnny Cash covered Hurt. I said I'd be very flattered but was given no indication it would actually be recorded.
"Two weeks went by. Then I got a CD in the post. I listened to it and it was very strange. It was this other person inhabiting my most personal song. I'd known where I was when I wrote it. I know what I was thinking about. I know how I felt. Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend. It felt invasive."
According to the Sun, this was a transcendent moment in Reznor's life, one that helped him make the improtant transition into a sober, more aware state:
Today, Reznor, 43, remembers the Cash cover as a pivotal part of his rehabilitation, giving him confidence to strike out on the next chapter of this most uncompromising of careers . . . four rapid-fire albums including the new and dazzling The Slip.
And here's the video for Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt":
I think the first time I ever heard Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails, was just this past weekend. Despite the song being out and about since 2002, I simply hadn't crossed paths with it until I was in the most unlikely place. I was in a cool boutique on the Queen Mary - a luxury liner/turned military ship/then restored to original splendor tourist attraction that's permanently docked in Long Beach. It's an amazing ship and I was staying overnight after the big reggae festival in Queen Mary Park last Sunday. I popped into a cool boutique on board that I'd seen the day before and Cash was crooning "Hurt." I immediately recognized the song, but I didn't know why. The fella tending the store told me what the song was, which led to further, more gruesome, tales. Cash brings a certain darkness to the song. It's melancholy and spooky. I feel really lucky that my first exposure to it was aboard a haunted ship with its own darkness and lore.
Comments (9)
Wow. Cool that you posted this cause I was listening to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go today, and i saw that it was a cover of a trent reznor song.
I love Johnny Cash and especially that cover. What an honor for Trent! I lived in New Orleans at the time and I remember hearing the cover upstairs in our breakroom when I worked at Tower Records. Our graphic artist/merch guy was a huge Johnny Cash fan. I remember the room being quiet with awe as Cash covered "Hurt."
I never saw the video until just now...brought a tear to my eye...for real. Incredible stuff...RIP Mr. Cash
I've never made it through that video without crying ...
I still haven't That is one intense video ... that is one incredible man!
That has to be one of the greatest videos of all time!
indeed. Cash was an amazing human being. i have to agree, that when Johnny Cash sings "Hurt" it really does sound like something he wrote. amazing.
i'm so pleased about the outpuring of support here. glad you like this post!
Brutal and great cover by a giant in the pantheon - enhanced by Reznor's insights.
That's wonderful to read what Trent thought - especially in a paper that's a shallow, superficial, appalling rag. (No surprise that it's a Murdoch flagship paper.) As earthman said, the video is one of the best ever made. You don't need effects and vapid girls, just real emotion. The shots where June is watching is just heart-rending. Apparently caught on the fly - she came into the room while they were shooting Johnny and the director just grabbed it.
Very moving video, shot in Cash's amazing house - of course that's all burnt down now and Johnny and June were the only two to have ever lived there soo no risk of it being turned into some sort of a museum.
This video moves me to tears if I'm caught off guard.
It works.