‘Hurt’ is a song by Trent Reznor, of the Nine Inch Nails, released in 1994 and nominated for a grammy that year. Almost a decade later in 2002, legendary country singer and guitarist Johnny Cash released his final album, American IV. When Cash originally petitioned Reznor to perform a cover of the song, Reznor replied that the idea seemed a bit gimmicky. He swallowed his words, however, when he heard Cash’s rendition of his song, even saying that listening his cover felt like he “had stolen his girlfriend from him.” By this, Reznor meant that Cash had managed to something so intensely personal and yet perform it with an originality, sincerity, and purity which the original author could not have imagined. Since then, Cash’s rendition has held the fascination and attention of popular culture; not only because of its intrinsic qualities, but also because of the tumultuous personal happenings in Cash’s life that surrounded the production of this cover and its accompanying music video.
The lyrics of ‘Hurt’ deal with themes of intense isolation, loss of familiarity with loved ones, a sense of alienation from one’s sense of self. The song was written while Reznor was dealing with intense issues of self-harm and heroin addiction, referenced early in the song as the ‘needle tearing a hole, the old familiar sting.’ Reznor wrote this song for himself, as a means of self-preservation, while also contemplating and lamenting the self-destructive state he allowed himself to slip into through addiction and despair.
While Johnny Cash has had a decent amount of substance abuse throughout his life, by the time he was recording American IV, he was already in his 70’s. His later albums dealt more with contemplation, reflecting off of religious themes Cash held personally dear as a Christian. The music video for Cash’s Hurt was shot in the ‘House of Cash’ museum, which prior to filming, was in a decrepit state. Instead of renovating the set, the House of Cash was left derelict, to reflect the decayed tone with which Cash performed Hurt.
In addition to the quality of Cash’s performance, personal events in his life surrounding the production of this song and its video led to its near-legendary status. June Carter Cash, Johnny’s wife, died a couple months after the recording of the video, which led to its release around the same time as that news breaking. Innumerable awards and superlatives were offered to the video and its originating album; however, these would be largely posthumous, as Johnny Cash passed over not soon after his wife. The iconic status this cover holds is largely in part because the lyrical content reflected the circumstances surrounding its recording perfectly.
Trent Reznor’s original rendition of Hurt (1994):
Johnny Cash’s cover (2002):