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Johnny Cash — “Hurt”

A frail Johnny Cash nearing the end of his life covered Trent Reznor’s “Hurt” in 2002. The vocal version alone was enough to make eyes brim with tears, but Mark Romanek’s video for Cash’s stark, quavering interpretation broke the floodgates for most people. The footage was shot at Cash’s home and is intercut with moments from the singer’s younger days. The clip also features the love of Cash’s life, wife June Carter Cash. Both died months after the video was shot. Trent Reznor later shared some candid thoughts about the cover:

“I pop the video in, and wow. Tears welling, silence, goose bumps… Wow. [I felt like] 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.”