Johnny Cash » Tracks

Hurt (3:36)

3,237,360 plays (437,993 listeners)

1,241 shouts

Buy at Amazon MP3 (Search) More options
Add to my Library Share More
“Hurt” was written by Trent Reznor and first released on Nine Inch Nails’ 1994 album The Downward Spiral. 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’s, 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. 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.”

Johnny Cash’s version was awarded the Country Music Award for “Single of the Year” in 2003. It ranked as CMT’s top video for 2003, #1 on CMT’s 100 Greatest Country Music Videos the following year, and #1 on the Top 40 Most Memorable Music Videos on MuchMoreMusic’s Listed in October 2007.
Read more… Edit
Play Johnny Cash Radio

Video

Added by jbay77

Music: Johnny Cash, Hurt
Video: German History 1950-1990 (popular scenes), DDR and BRD

Share Video

Flag as incorrect

See 11 more

Related Tracks

See more

Albums featuring this track

See all 14 albums

Shouts

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up (it’s free).
See all 1,241 shouts

Johnny Cash

Hurt

full track

Listeners

See more

Recent Activity

Related Journals

See more