Hurt (5:00)

“Hurt” is a song written by Trent Reznor, first released on Nine Inch Nails’ 1994 album The Downward Spiral. In 2002, Hurt was covered by Johnny Cash to critical acclaim; it was one of Cash’s final hit releases before his death.

Reznor’s comments after seeing the video of the Cash version of his song were:

“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.” Here is a link to the Johnny Cash video cover.