Hurt - Johnny Cash's cover

I came across this just now. Listen to and watch the video. It is Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt", written by frontman Trent Reznor. It brought tears to my eyes, so be forewarned. Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" was released on his 2002 album, American IV: The Man Comes Around. Rick Rubin, producer of Cash's American series and a friend of Reznor, suggested the song to Cash. The line "crown of shit" was changed to "crown of thorns", not only removing profanity from the lyrics, but also more directly referencing Christ. The cover was released on a single with the B-side "Personal Jesus", a cover of the Depeche Mode single.

Reznor said that when Rubin first asked if Cash could cover his song, he was "flattered" but worried that "the idea sounded a bit gimmicky." He became a fan of Cash's version, however, once he saw the music video.

"I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore… It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning — different, but every bit as pure."[1]

[1] From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia