NIN’s songwriter, Trent Reznor responded to Cash’s “Hurt” cover with: “I wasn’t prepared for what I saw, and it really then, wasn’t my song anymore. It is Johnny’s song now.”
And he where so right in sayings that, Johnny Cash’s version are so much better, not often I’ve would say that abound a cover, but Johnny hit it right on the nail whit this one, may he R.I.P 🪦 a true legend
Johnny Cash is one of the few men in history who LIVED life to the fullest, with all the glory and despair such an undertaking provides. It is the epitome of what William Wallace once said “Every man dies, but not every man really lives”
Their is so much more emotional impact in cashes version, I'm not by any means a fan of of cash but this song is on my play list and has been for a while now.
When my dad died I thought of all the knowledge - stories and experiences he had- you try hard to remember but most of it is gone- it seems like such a waste but I guess that's life - cherish the moment
His wife died 3 months after this johnny died 8 months after that , he played it to his daughters and they said it sounds like your saying goodbye , he said i am
The woman in the picture by the stairs is his Mother n Law treated him better than his mother. The figure of tge woman watching him was his wife before she died.
I've argued this.. not 'one of'. This the the single greatest cover ever performed. Event Trent Reznor said when he hear this cover "It's not my song anymore."
Dude, this song is Johnny Cash's gift to all young people. NO DAY is promised. All moments are precious...don't waste it on hate, anger, and regret. You can be very young and still feel like him. Don't do it. Don't fall into that trap. Lead with love, y'all.
It's alright to cry. To cry while listening to this means you actually listened to him. You got the assignment. He's trying to touch you, and make you realize the empire of dirt we all covet won't mean anything in the end. Keep yourself. Find a way.
An old man's advice to any youngsters watching this. Life is millions of decisions. 99% of them insignificant. Only 1% of them will set your course so really think before you act. Good luck and have a great life.
We just had our 40th anniversary, and to this day I would crawl through Hell on my knees to ease the times I disappointed her. The times I wasn't pulling my share of the load. I'm old enough to feel this song in my bones. Like Johhny, I was a wild assed cuss, always fighting and going to jail. I chased the drugs till they started chasing me. Drank liquor till my liver rolled over and played dead for a while. I deserve the aches and pains, I sure invested in them. When you get close enough to almost see the finish line, your worries aren't for yourself. You worry about the one person you want to shield from any pain. And the pain of who will go, and who will stay looms larger in your thoughts with each passing of another old friend. Getting old is about finding strengths you never knew you had. The strength to put your feet on the floor every morning, and face another day. It's facing another doctor young enough to be a grandson. The tenacity to see another bedtime. Each day a victory against the parting glass.
I cry every time I watch this video. I made my father watch it and he fought back tears. It's all good man...everyone cries by the end of this powerful video.
So many look at "old people" & just see an old person, they think nothing of the life they've lived, as people age they are left with their memories of when they were younger. When you are young you live for the moment & don't think about getting old but one day you find yourself there. We are all young, we all get old, you can't escape it so live life to the fullest while you can. Everybody has a life story, don't waste it. There is loads of Johnny Cash to explore. Another song that affects me like this is Merle Haggard - 'Sing Me Back Home' 👍
Johnny Cash was one of the original "rockstars" when it came to "living that lifestyle" of sex, drugs n rock n roll. You can watch the movie 'Walk the line' with Joaquin Phoenix to get an idea of how insane it was
@@neilholland3415 At 63 years old, I had a blast getting old, it's only when you let the feeling of being old get you down that sucks. I got older but I refuse grow up.
A rare example of a cover being even better than the original. With everything Johnny had gone through in his life, his drug problems, and the family members he'd lost, the song suited him so well but took on a slightly new meaning. It's still about regret and mourning the effects of choices he'd taken, but it's also an old man looking back on his life as its end draws near, dwelling on the pain he'd both felt and caused. It's a goodbye and an apology for being flawed. But...we all are, so it resonates. It could be a song sung by any of us.
I remember when Johnny Cash died. I was in a record store ironically when the news broke over our phones. I looked up to another shopper and said, "Johnny Cash died." He said, "I know." We embraced in silent tears. And spoke no words.
I'm 70 years old, and I remember being about 3-years-old and singing Johnny Cash songs with my dad, as he played guitar. Johnny Cash had a long, long career. You could probably listen to 25 of his songs and just scratch the surface. "Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire," "Jackson" with his wife, June Carter Cash (who was in this video), "Cocaine Blues," "Folsom Prison Blues," "A Boy named Sue"... so many good songs. The biopic "Walk the Line" is a good movie that tells part of the Johnny Cash story. Enjoy the Journey.
Johnny was a true pioneer of real Rock & Roll music starting out at the same time as Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis. Even though he is primarily associated with country music, he has been influential to countless performers from every genre of music. He had his demons with drugs and substance abuse which almost killed him on more a few occasions. But because of help from his second wife, June Carter Cash, and faith in God he got clean, but still struggled the rest of his life. So this song was perfect for him to cover, making it his own.
Johnny let a wild and rough life. He is so loved,so very beloved. When the video was filmed in February 2003, Cash was 71 years old and had serious health problems. His frailty is clearly evident in the video. He died seven months later, on September 12. His wife, June Carter Cash, who is shown gazing at her husband in two sequences of the video, had died on May 15 of the same year. This was the last song and video he recorded.
watch how he closes the piano at the end and puts his hands on it (strokes it) - remind you of someone putting their hands on a coffin of a loved one???? - it does me
The thing about Johnny was that he wasn't ever bullshitting or mailing it in. Authenticity was his hallmark. Also wrote the coldest line ever: "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."
Yeah, the coldest line ever, but then followed immediately by, "When I hear that whistle blowin', I hang my head and cry" so a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.
The fact that Johnny covered a NIN song floored me when I heard this. I cried. I hurt the entire time. He knew what he was doing. A true legend. There will never be anyone else like him
This is the essence of Johnny Cash. He will make you FEEL things. Things you may not want to feel, but you should. His genius is not as a musician, but how he can speak to your soul through the music. There are better players, better singers, but there are no better performers that can make you understand
When you're young, you race forward to the next new thing, the next experience, never realizing that every choice you make counts one way or the other. It's only when you look back that you see the tapestry you wove, the design you lived whether you planned it or not. What I find sweeter is that the trivial falls away and only those things you find really soul-satisfying remain. "Empire of dirt" Good description. The older I get, the more I get rid of stuff.
As we get old we do become a collector of memories, our successes and our mistakes, our pride and our losses. We slowly start to reminisce more than make plans. The difficult part is accepting that we cannot change the past, we cannot start over again, and just have to make our peace with what has been and hope it is enough.
There's a great move about Johnny Cash called "Walk The Line". Watch it and it'll give you the background you need. There's also a great performance Johnny did at Glastonbury a few years ago before he passed. He was overwhelmed because he thought he was forgotten about. But thousands of people turned up to see him and knew all of his songs - it blew him away.
I can't watch this without crying either. A man reflecting on the mistakes he has made during his lifetime when he knows he's at the end of his life. Closing that piano lid breaks my heart.
Fun Fact: San Quentin is where Johnny Cash played his first-ever prison concert on January 1, 1958-a concert that helped set Merle Haggard, then a 20-year-old San Quentin inmate, on the path toward becoming a country music legend.
Nobody wants to get old but like the falling leaves, we must make room for the next generation of growth and life. Remember, growing old is a blessing that some people never get to experience.
Im 59 years old and his version of Hurt breaks me up every time... His voice carries so much pain and regret... It is his song now... He earned it... Even Trent Reznor said so. This song is permanently on my playlist... But I have to be careful about when I play it because it tears me up. Thanx for sharing! ✌️😎👍
Johnny Cash had a career that expanded over 60 years. He is a rabbit hole that would take you at least a year. This was the last song Johnny sang before? He died a few months later just after his wife of 60+ years June Carter, who was filmed at the staircase, had died. Johnny had been to prison, at one time was an addict, he is singing from the perspective of an old man, looking back upon his life from his real museum, his birth home that was taken away in a flood, those of us who have followed Johnny Cash and his career. I’m 80 years old, cried so deeply after he performed the song. Watching his elderly hands at the end/the piano lid reminded us of how we would touch, a loved ones casket. This was Johnny Cash saying goodbye.
You want to get old. Think of the alternative. His wife in the video passed away shortly after the video was made, and he passed away not long after her. He was a wild man in his youth.
Everyone understands regret. Seeing a man’s entire life flash across the screen in 3 minutes as he sings about wishing he could have another try… it hits us all in a place we don’t like to visit. This is a man who lost himself somewhere along the way, and despite all his fame and fortune, reaches the end of his journey with regret, painful memories of mistakes that will continue to haunt him until his final day. What do you regret? What WILL you regret? When your journey reaches its conclusion, will you have lived the life you wanted, or betrayed yourself in pursuit of an empire of dirt?
Very well put, my friend. Dust to dust hits harder when you realize, it's all dirt. No one gets out alive. No one. Sooo, do you want to make some mud pies? I'm trying to learn to love it for what it is - mine. My dirt. Empires will rise and fall on top of my dust. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll make a mfker sneeze. Heh. ❤
What "failings" did he have? Isn't it just his journey? Surely it is us that considered his behaviour as a failing when in reality it is just him doing his best in life. I'm not having a go at you for your remark. There are many who would agree wit the word itself.
Cash is a rabbit hole worth going down. Although he is most known as a country artist (my mom was a huge fan), when I started researching Johnny Cash I was stunned to find out that he was [art of the early stable of singer/songwriters that came out of Sun Studios (Cash/Carl Perkins/Roy Orbison/Jerry Lee Lewis and most famously Elvis Presley). Johnny Cash's music and life are a primer on the history and development of the early days of rock and roll. An incredible story.
The NIN version is about a young music artist dealing with addiction feeling he has no future, the JC version is about an old music legend reflecting on his past in spite of his addiction, and both of them saying even though it was hell to live they would do it all over again for both good and bad reasons. It really comes full circle because Trent can identify with Johnny and Johnny recognized some of himself in Trent. Truly a bitter sweet moment in music history.
“If I could start again, a million miles away, I will keep myself, I will find a way” I don’t agree that this lyric means “they’d do it all over again”. I think it pretty clearly means, “I want a second try, to get it right this time”.
Johnny Cash's cover of this song breaks me. Partly because I know some of the history of his life, and it feels like he's singing about his past battles with addiction even though Trent Reznor wrote it. Heart wrenching
The cool thing about getting old is that by the time you get there, you're not concerned. I'm going to be 58 in November, and it's just another birthday. My mother always said that "old people are just young people in old bodies." I thought I would be bothered by it, but I'm not. I love your passion for music. And I love the emotions that you can't hide ❤
Johnny Cash suffered through addiction, and this was recorded just a few months before his death. Johnny Cash made EVERY song his own. There was no original after Johnnys version.
This one hits all of us in the gut. Johnny Cash was one of the first cross-over country artists who stayed humble. He struggled with pills early in his career. You are seeing flashes of his career over decades in this video. He played with artists of all colors, which was not done back in his younger days. Each artist sort of stayed in their own lanes but Johnny broke the rules. You should find his 'why I wear the black' that he played before a college crowd. Powerful. Excellent reaction.
It was a pleasure to see a young man like yourself have such an honest reaction to Johnny Cash. To understand who Johnny cash was and what he stood for you should seriously listen to his song, "Man in Black".
He was well aware that this was it. The song is about regrets and life, but the event of watching and listening to this song is saying, "Goodbye". Being able to say goodbye is a gift. You never know the last time you may see a friend, family, a woman you love. Knowing one is saying goodbye is one of the worst heartaches there is. Losing someone and not being able to IS the worst. In the last seconds of this song, as he closes the piano, I feel he is closing it for the last time, knowing he will never open it again. As a old musician and someone to whom there is no life without music, it rips my heart out every time. Tears? Are you kidding me? Every. Single. Effing. Time. "...not all tears are an evil.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien,
Cash is one of the few that's in the Rock Hall of Fame, the Country Hall, and the Songwriter's Hall. He wasn't really a country singer... he was a genre all unto himself.
We all have our interpretations of the lyrics, and when he sings "If I could start again... " It makes me think that it's not necessarily a desire to avoid age and death, so much as a wish to redo life, without f*cking it all up. Just my perspective as an old bloke myself.
When Trent Reznor wrote this song, he was singing it from a different place. It was dark and brooding. And then comes JR Cash. Similar reasons, but it was as though he was singing his eulogy. He knew his time was short, and this was the song to be remembered for all time. The end of this video always hits me pretty hard. When he closes the lid on the piano and wipes it down, it's as if to say "Goodbye". There will never be another Johnny Cash. The love and hurt that June Carter had in her eyes is a love we all want. She tragically passed shortly after the video was made, and he passed not too much later. "When Reznor was asked if Cash could record a rendition of the NIN song, the rock frontman noted he was flattered but wondered if the song might come across as too “gimmicky.” But the music video and Cash’s recording assuaged his worries. Said Reznor, “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.”
I am 61 years old as I write this. Trust me, I didn't want to get old. I honestly didn't think I would make it to this age. I've beaten the reaper 10 times so far, but eventually, he'll win. Just the way it is. However, I don't care what happens when I die, all I want do is rock, so you keep doing what you're doing.
A Heart-wrenching song from an artist that has been in many lives for 50yrs. This version of “Hurt”, Produced by Rick Rubin, is truly final cap on his career. A heart breaking swan song.
Don't wish your life away, it's far too short anyway - especially when, like me, you've become an old man. My life is, like others, full of regrets, pain and sorrow but every day I'm thankful to be alive, to discover new things, to be loved and to be able to love in return. Life can be great whatever your age but, as with everything that's worth having, you have to work hard to make it happen.
This turns out to be an ode to his long and amazing life. Johnny passed away soon after his wife June. He loved her dearly, and his loneliness after her passing was too much for him. They say he died of a broken heart. This man lived one hell of a life.
One of the greatest covers ever. Johnny Cash had addiction and arrest issues. He never served hard time, but did record a live album while performing in front of an audience of prison inmates and guards. He was an activist for prison reform, testifying before Congress and 6 US presidents. He was a champion for redemption.
This song is crushing. Regret, and pain, and that emptiness of knowing anything you achieved is pretty meaningless. I'm turning 50 next year. I remember hitting 30 and thinking everything was over. I was right. I've been sick a long time. Tried to tap out in 2015, hospitalised 5 days. The song's right. Everyone you know now, they're all gone one way or another 5 years, 10 years, whatever... The whole time I've been ill nobody has visited. My parents and grandparents are dead already and I don't have friends. Stay young, man. And, more importantly, if there's anything you want to do, then do it now. Otherwise you'll be living dead like me with my garbage and stupid music I delude myself with... that nobody listens to... Waste of time. Life is a disappointment. So don't grow up. Listen to more Mr Cash. It's some of the only country I listen to. He had swag. And on the subject of not growing up, after that pointless drivel I just wrote, check out "I don't wanna grow up" by Tom Waits. Man's a certificate genius.
You should really listen to his song A Boy Named Sue! It shows a whole different side of Johnny, one you’ll enjoy and maybe you’ll see why he was so loved. In his younger days he spent a night or two in jail so sort of as payback, he did a concert at Folsom Prison, which was pretty incredible. In the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, it was common for performers to take uppers then downers, just to keep up with all the travelling, performing and such and he did become addicted as well as drinking. His wife helped him through it all, took him to rehab and such, so he had lots of experience with that but overcame it. He had a tough life but loved music, his friends, his fans and most of all wife and kids. He is missed…our man in black. ❤
NIN’s songwriter, Trent Reznor responded to Cash’s “Hurt” cover with: “I wasn’t prepared for what I saw, and it really then, wasn’t my song anymore. It is Johnny’s song now.”
Aye Jeff! ☘️🇺🇲
And he where so right in sayings that, Johnny Cash’s version are so much better, not often I’ve would say that abound a cover, but Johnny hit it right on the nail whit this one, may he R.I.P 🪦 a true legend
Johnny Cash is one of the few men in history who LIVED life to the fullest, with all the glory and despair such an undertaking provides. It is the epitome of what William Wallace once said “Every man dies, but not every man really lives”
Trent didn't like the cover very much.....until he saw the video. Then he said Johnny owned it. Or so I've seen in an interwiew.
Their is so much more emotional impact in cashes version, I'm not by any means a fan of of cash but this song is on my play list and has been for a while now.
"Everytime an old person dies, a library burns down."
Wow. That hit me in the feels.
When my dad died I thought of all the knowledge - stories and experiences he had- you try hard to remember but most of it is gone- it seems like such a waste but I guess that's life - cherish the moment
How profound
His wife died 3 months after this johnny died 8 months after that , he played it to his daughters and they said it sounds like your saying goodbye , he said i am
Johnny knew exactly what he was doing.
😞
The woman in the picture by the stairs is his Mother n Law treated him better than his mother. The figure of tge woman watching him was his wife before she died.
RIP The Man in Black
@@taylorsimmons4280Mother Mabel Carter.
Don’t feel bad. This song gets to everyone. Now you know why Johnny Cash is considered a legend.
This version is just devastating. One of the greatest covers ever performed.
Disturbed "Sound of Silence" live from Conan too!
Outstanding!!
It's relentless, isn't it? No escaping the devastation from the first note to the last.
I've argued this.. not 'one of'. This the the single greatest cover ever performed. Event Trent Reznor said when he hear this cover "It's not my song anymore."
Dude, this song is Johnny Cash's gift to all young people. NO DAY is promised. All moments are precious...don't waste it on hate, anger, and regret. You can be very young and still feel like him. Don't do it. Don't fall into that trap. Lead with love, y'all.
nice one dude beautiful words
It's alright to cry. To cry while listening to this means you actually listened to him. You got the assignment. He's trying to touch you, and make you realize the empire of dirt we all covet won't mean anything in the end. Keep yourself. Find a way.
The older I get, the more I feel this. You will be surprised at how quickly 30-40 years happens
HA!! You will be surprised how 66 sneaks up. Life experiences makes us what we are today, but I'm so bummed, there is no going back. Just rewind me!
You got that right!!
An old man's advice to any youngsters watching this. Life is millions of decisions. 99% of them insignificant. Only 1% of them will set your course so really think before you act. Good luck and have a great life.
so true
You gotta do his younger stuff. Outlaw.
Thank you. 😢 I truly understand this now being 40.
I’m an old school certified metalhead, and Johnny Cash was and always will be The Goat!
Same here. Old country was great. The stuff these days. Not so much.
Same, and true.
Yep. Same here, full metalhead, but I love Johnny Cash.
@@JBAKER97Same. Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Willie Nelson all the way for me!❤
He was absolutely saying goodbye with this song
Yes. All of us can hear it, how young or old you are when you hear it is the only thing that offers any deny ability.
Johnny truly knew about addiction and pain. He walked the line. That's why he could take this song and make it his own
His wife stood by him through thick and thin. She walked with him through hell and back.
where could i find myself one like that
@@erroristmusicdepends on the level of violence you can tolerate
We just had our 40th anniversary, and to this day I would crawl through Hell on my knees to ease the times I disappointed her. The times I wasn't pulling my share of the load.
I'm old enough to feel this song in my bones. Like Johhny, I was a wild assed cuss, always fighting and going to jail. I chased the drugs till they started chasing me. Drank liquor till my liver rolled over and played dead for a while. I deserve the aches and pains, I sure invested in them.
When you get close enough to almost see the finish line, your worries aren't for yourself. You worry about the one person you want to shield from any pain. And the pain of who will go, and who will stay looms larger in your thoughts with each passing of another old friend.
Getting old is about finding strengths you never knew you had. The strength to put your feet on the floor every morning, and face another day. It's facing another doctor young enough to be a grandson. The tenacity to see another bedtime. Each day a victory against the parting glass.
We love romantic stories.
He had a first marriage that was probably to some not as romantic 😢
If Johnny Cash's "Hurt" doesn't make you cry then you didn't really hear it at all and you're doing something wrong. R.I.P. Johnny!
I cry every time I watch this video. I made my father watch it and he fought back tears. It's all good man...everyone cries by the end of this powerful video.
☝️
So it is.
So many look at "old people" & just see an old person, they think nothing of the life they've lived, as people age they are left with their memories of when they were younger. When you are young you live for the moment & don't think about getting old but one day you find yourself there. We are all young, we all get old, you can't escape it so live life to the fullest while you can. Everybody has a life story, don't waste it. There is loads of Johnny Cash to explore. Another song that affects me like this is Merle Haggard - 'Sing Me Back Home' 👍
Inside every old person is a 10 year old screaming, "What happened?"
😂
isn’t that the truth?!
So true
Johnny Cash was one of the original "rockstars" when it came to "living that lifestyle" of sex, drugs n rock n roll.
You can watch the movie 'Walk the line' with Joaquin Phoenix to get an idea of how insane it was
"Walk the line" is the best music movie I ever watched and Joaquin Phoenix did a great acting job. Highly recommendable!
One sign of a good man is acknowledging and respecting elders. Always good, man.
Cosign
Getting old aint for the weak! Respect to all those who ran the race of life to its end!
Getting old definitely isn't for sissies! You gotta be tough to get through with an old, broken body from working and playing hard.
@@neilholland3415 At 63 years old, I had a blast getting old, it's only when you let the feeling of being old get you down that sucks. I got older but I refuse grow up.
My Mum used to say
This getting old is rubbish
I'd tell her
It beats the alternative.
Anyone who doesn't cry when they hear this song should seek counselling
Johnny was a country music legend and badass. He passed not too long after this. Trent Reznor said, “it’s his song now”.
He was a musical legend.
The Man in Black is a legend.... " A Boy Named Sue," Ring of Fire" "I've Been Everywhere " "I Walk the Line"
A rare example of a cover being even better than the original. With everything Johnny had gone through in his life, his drug problems, and the family members he'd lost, the song suited him so well but took on a slightly new meaning. It's still about regret and mourning the effects of choices he'd taken, but it's also an old man looking back on his life as its end draws near, dwelling on the pain he'd both felt and caused. It's a goodbye and an apology for being flawed.
But...we all are, so it resonates. It could be a song sung by any of us.
If this song doesn't bring tears to your eyes, you have no heart ❤️✌️
Johnny Cash lived a rough life and put his wife through hell, but she worshiped him, and he loved her in his way
Thank god Rick Rubin got him in the studio to make these songs
That is exactly what I was thinking!!!❤ Rubin really revitalized John's career, and in doing so brought his legacy to new generations of listeners.
Apparently he did a Tears for Fears song without getting permission. Their reaction was " it's Johnny Cash, he can do it if he wants! ( paraphrasing)"
Getting "older" is not something you become, it's something you wake up to every day of your life.
Every day.
Never be embarrassed to cry. Showing deep emotion builds empathy with your audience and relationships. I cry every time I hear this song.
I remember when Johnny Cash died. I was in a record store ironically when the news broke over our phones. I looked up to another shopper and said, "Johnny Cash died." He said, "I know." We embraced in silent tears. And spoke no words.
Rest in peace Jonny, no more pain.
I'm 70 years old, and I remember being about 3-years-old and singing Johnny Cash songs with my dad, as he played guitar. Johnny Cash had a long, long career. You could probably listen to 25 of his songs and just scratch the surface. "Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire," "Jackson" with his wife, June Carter Cash (who was in this video), "Cocaine Blues," "Folsom Prison Blues," "A Boy named Sue"... so many good songs. The biopic "Walk the Line" is a good movie that tells part of the Johnny Cash story. Enjoy the Journey.
Johnny had drug issues. Amphetamines and Barbiturates. His wife June Carter struggled as well. You should watch the movie Walk the Line.
Johnny was a true pioneer of real Rock & Roll music starting out at the same time as Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis. Even though he is primarily associated with country music, he has been influential to countless performers from every genre of music. He had his demons with drugs and substance abuse which almost killed him on more a few occasions. But because of help from his second wife, June Carter Cash, and faith in God he got clean, but still struggled the rest of his life. So this song was perfect for him to cover, making it his own.
Johnny let a wild and rough life. He is so loved,so very beloved.
When the video was filmed in February 2003, Cash was 71 years old and had serious health problems. His frailty is clearly evident in the video. He died seven months later, on September 12. His wife, June Carter Cash, who is shown gazing at her husband in two sequences of the video, had died on May 15 of the same year.
This was the last song and video he recorded.
watch how he closes the piano at the end and puts his hands on it (strokes it) - remind you of someone putting their hands on a coffin of a loved one???? - it does me
It made me feel like he was almost closing his own coffin, or the coffin of his past failures and successes.
The thing about Johnny was that he wasn't ever bullshitting or mailing it in. Authenticity was his hallmark.
Also wrote the coldest line ever: "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."
Yeah, the coldest line ever, but then followed immediately by, "When I hear that whistle blowin', I hang my head and cry" so a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.
The fact that Johnny covered a NIN song floored me when I heard this. I cried. I hurt the entire time. He knew what he was doing. A true legend. There will never be anyone else like him
This is the essence of Johnny Cash. He will make you FEEL things. Things you may not want to feel, but you should. His genius is not as a musician, but how he can speak to your soul through the music. There are better players, better singers, but there are no better performers that can make you understand
The Man in Black is the definition of a legend...and this song along with the imagery is one of the most heartbreaking experiences
The way Johnny caresses the closed piano at the end of the video, saying goodbye to it 😭😭
According to his daughter, that was the last time that piano was played.
If you are lucky enough to grow old, it’s a gift not granted to everyone. Life becomes much sweeter the shorter it gets to the end.
When you're young, you race forward to the next new thing, the next experience, never realizing that every choice you make counts one way or the other. It's only when you
look back that you see the tapestry you wove, the design you lived whether you planned it or not. What I find sweeter is that the trivial falls away and only those things you
find really soul-satisfying remain. "Empire of dirt" Good description. The older I get, the more I get rid of stuff.
@@janismeyers2909as I been doing for a while now….getting rid of stuff. You own things and become a slave of them.
A prime example of how Johnny Cash can take someone else's song and make it his own.
As we get old we do become a collector of memories, our successes and our mistakes, our pride and our losses. We slowly start to reminisce more than make plans. The difficult part is accepting that we cannot change the past, we cannot start over again, and just have to make our peace with what has been and hope it is enough.
"We slowly start to reminisce more than make plans." Beautifully said and I can testify that it's true.
Your words brought tears to my eyes 😢 TRUE 👍
There's a great move about Johnny Cash called "Walk The Line". Watch it and it'll give you the background you need.
There's also a great performance Johnny did at Glastonbury a few years ago before he passed. He was overwhelmed because he thought he was forgotten about. But thousands of people turned up to see him and knew all of his songs - it blew him away.
I can't watch this without crying either. A man reflecting on the mistakes he has made during his lifetime when he knows he's at the end of his life. Closing that piano lid breaks my heart.
Fun Fact: San Quentin is where Johnny Cash played his first-ever prison concert on January 1, 1958-a concert that helped set Merle Haggard, then a 20-year-old San Quentin inmate, on the path toward becoming a country music legend.
7:13
Nobody wants to get old but like the falling leaves, we must make room for the next generation of growth and life. Remember, growing old is a blessing that some people never get to experience.
Im 59 years old and his version of Hurt breaks me up every time... His voice carries so much pain and regret... It is his song now... He earned it... Even Trent Reznor said so. This song is permanently on my playlist... But I have to be careful about when I play it because it tears me up. Thanx for sharing! ✌️😎👍
Johnny Cash had a career that expanded over 60 years. He is a rabbit hole that would take you at least a year. This was the last song Johnny sang before? He died a few months later just after his wife of 60+ years June Carter, who was filmed at the staircase, had died. Johnny had been to prison, at one time was an addict, he is singing from the perspective of an old man, looking back upon his life from his real museum, his birth home that was taken away in a flood, those of us who have followed Johnny Cash and his career. I’m 80 years old, cried so deeply after he performed the song. Watching his elderly hands at the end/the piano lid reminded us of how we would touch, a loved ones casket. This was Johnny Cash saying goodbye.
My understanding is that producer Rick Rubin had to talk Cash into doing this song. He refused multiple times and finally gave in. Thank god he did.
You want to get old. Think of the alternative. His wife in the video passed away shortly after the video was made, and he passed away not long after her. He was a wild man in his youth.
Everyone understands regret.
Seeing a man’s entire life flash across the screen in 3 minutes as he sings about wishing he could have another try… it hits us all in a place we don’t like to visit.
This is a man who lost himself somewhere along the way, and despite all his fame and fortune, reaches the end of his journey with regret, painful memories of mistakes that will continue to haunt him until his final day.
What do you regret? What WILL you regret? When your journey reaches its conclusion, will you have lived the life you wanted, or betrayed yourself in pursuit of an empire of dirt?
Very well put, my friend. Dust to dust hits harder when you realize, it's all dirt. No one gets out alive. No one.
Sooo, do you want to make some mud pies? I'm trying to learn to love it for what it is - mine. My dirt. Empires will rise and fall on top of my dust. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll make a mfker sneeze. Heh. ❤
Johnny Cash and Tom Petty made masterpiece albums together in the 90s…and both are the greatest American musicians/rock stars, songwriters of ALL time
My Daddy loved Johnny Cash. So we did too. Despite all his failings, he was a good man who loved good music. Thats why he recorded this. Respect.
What "failings" did he have? Isn't it just his journey? Surely it is us that considered his behaviour as a failing when in reality it is just him doing his best in life. I'm not having a go at you for your remark. There are many who would agree wit the word itself.
Cash is a rabbit hole worth going down. Although he is most known as a country artist (my mom was a huge fan), when I started researching Johnny Cash I was stunned to find out that he was [art of the early stable of singer/songwriters that came out of Sun Studios (Cash/Carl Perkins/Roy Orbison/Jerry Lee Lewis and most famously Elvis Presley). Johnny Cash's music and life are a primer on the history and development of the early days of rock and roll. An incredible story.
Johnny lived every single word of that song himself.
You recognize the sincerity in his singing and the words. Its beautiful.
Your emotions mirror most people's emotions when hearing this.
"Wow" is the exact right reaction. Crying is okay bruv....he died missing all the people he lost. We can only pray that they're all together in heaven
if you knew Johnny Cash's life , you'd cry even more . RIP .
The NIN version is about a young music artist dealing with addiction feeling he has no future, the JC version is about an old music legend reflecting on his past in spite of his addiction, and both of them saying even though it was hell to live they would do it all over again for both good and bad reasons. It really comes full circle because Trent can identify with Johnny and Johnny recognized some of himself in Trent. Truly a bitter sweet moment in music history.
“If I could start again, a million miles away, I will keep myself, I will find a way”
I don’t agree that this lyric means “they’d do it all over again”. I think it pretty clearly means, “I want a second try, to get it right this time”.
Last recorded music video for dear departed Jonny Cash, The Original Man in Black. Beautiful
Johnny Cash's cover of this song breaks me. Partly because I know some of the history of his life, and it feels like he's singing about his past battles with addiction even though Trent Reznor wrote it. Heart wrenching
I have listened to this song hundreds of times and have cried every single time. It resonates.
You don’t wanna be listening to his version of “you are my sunshine” any time soon 😭😭😭
"Everyone I know goes away in the end" hits different coming from a 70yr old (Cash) than a 30yr old (Reznor).
The cool thing about getting old is that by the time you get there, you're not concerned. I'm going to be 58 in November, and it's just another birthday. My mother always said that "old people are just young people in old bodies." I thought I would be bothered by it, but I'm not. I love your passion for music. And I love the emotions that you can't hide ❤
Feel the feels, don't stop them, you don't have to turn away, we all cry to this together ❤
Don't worry about getting old. Just don't live with regrets. Live life to the fullest.
NIN"s version of this song touches your heart, Johnny's version touches your soul.
Johnny Cash suffered through addiction, and this was recorded just a few months before his death. Johnny Cash made EVERY song his own. There was no original after Johnnys version.
😢💔🔥 RIP JOHNNY CASH 😇❤️🩹🌹 BEAUTIFUL REACTION MOLLYBOY 💙.
Imagine if those old people didn't exist no stories no lessons learned.
His voice never failed him. He sounds just as good and brings out all the emotions as always.
The raw pain and beauty of this cover cuts.
This one hits all of us in the gut. Johnny Cash was one of the first cross-over country artists who stayed humble. He struggled with pills early in his career. You are seeing flashes of his career over decades in this video. He played with artists of all colors, which was not done back in his younger days. Each artist sort of stayed in their own lanes but Johnny broke the rules. You should find his 'why I wear the black' that he played before a college crowd. Powerful. Excellent reaction.
Cash's long-time wife helped him get off of alcohol/heroin. When she passed, he joined her a few months later.
He said in interviews he was basically just waiting to die and thought he would soon. Love is stronger than death.
It was a pleasure to see a young man like yourself have such an honest reaction to Johnny Cash. To understand who Johnny cash was and what he stood for you should seriously listen to his song, "Man in Black".
Being a metalhead, I’m proud to say: ”This song is beauty incarnate.”
He was well aware that this was it.
The song is about regrets and life, but the event of watching and listening to this song is
saying, "Goodbye".
Being able to say goodbye is a gift.
You never know the last time you may see a friend, family, a woman you love.
Knowing one is saying goodbye is one of the worst heartaches there is.
Losing someone and not being able to IS the worst.
In the last seconds of this song, as he closes the piano, I feel he is closing it for the last time, knowing he will never open it again.
As a old musician and someone to whom there is no life without music, it rips my heart out every time.
Tears? Are you kidding me?
Every. Single. Effing. Time.
"...not all tears are an evil.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien,
NIN was singing about addiction. Johnny was singing about regrets at the end of life. Tragically beautiful.
Cash is one of the few that's in the Rock Hall of Fame, the Country Hall, and the Songwriter's Hall. He wasn't really a country singer... he was a genre all unto himself.
We all have our interpretations of the lyrics, and when he sings "If I could start again... " It makes me think that it's not necessarily a desire to avoid age and death, so much as a wish to redo life, without f*cking it all up.
Just my perspective as an old bloke myself.
When Trent Reznor wrote this song, he was singing it from a different place. It was dark and brooding.
And then comes JR Cash. Similar reasons, but it was as though he was singing his eulogy. He knew his time was short, and this was the song to be remembered for all time.
The end of this video always hits me pretty hard. When he closes the lid on the piano and wipes it down, it's as if to say "Goodbye". There will never be another Johnny Cash.
The love and hurt that June Carter had in her eyes is a love we all want. She tragically passed shortly after the video was made, and he passed not too much later.
"When Reznor was asked if Cash could record a rendition of the NIN song, the rock frontman noted he was flattered but wondered if the song might come across as too “gimmicky.” But the music video and Cash’s recording assuaged his worries.
Said Reznor, “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.”
I am 61 years old as I write this. Trust me, I didn't want to get old. I honestly didn't think I would make it to this age. I've beaten the reaper 10 times so far, but eventually, he'll win. Just the way it is. However, I don't care what happens when I die, all I want do is rock, so you keep doing what you're doing.
He leaves me speechless,and full of thoughts
It's not about getting old or being old. It's about the reflection of your own life and what you did with it.
A Heart-wrenching song from an artist that has been in many lives for 50yrs.
This version of “Hurt”, Produced by Rick Rubin, is truly final cap on his career. A heart breaking swan song.
Don't wish your life away, it's far too short anyway - especially when, like me, you've become an old man. My life is, like others, full of regrets, pain and sorrow but every day I'm thankful to be alive, to discover new things, to be loved and to be able to love in return. Life can be great whatever your age but, as with everything that's worth having, you have to work hard to make it happen.
This turns out to be an ode to his long and amazing life. Johnny passed away soon after his wife June. He loved her dearly, and his loneliness after her passing was too much for him. They say he died of a broken heart. This man lived one hell of a life.
Johnny Cash made the best farewell somebody can possibly make
He has no idea whats coming with this song. hit me like a two-ton heavy thing.
No matter how I prepare, I can never get through this video without crying. No matter how many times I see it.
Nice Empire reference 👍
@@markhagerman1837 Ding ...someone got it!!!
@@musickf same
@@markhagerman1837 Wow someone got it!!
I’ve been told this was the last song he ever recorded. RIP Johnny and June.
One of the greatest covers ever. Johnny Cash had addiction and arrest issues. He never served hard time, but did record a live album while performing in front of an audience of prison inmates and guards. He was an activist for prison reform, testifying before Congress and 6 US presidents. He was a champion for redemption.
He gave this a whole new meaning to it and makes your heart hurt for his pain.
This song always make me cry and it doesn't matter how many times I hear. This song reminds me of my grandparents.
THIS cemented Johnny Cash as a legend forever
This song is crushing. Regret, and pain, and that emptiness of knowing anything you achieved is pretty meaningless.
I'm turning 50 next year. I remember hitting 30 and thinking everything was over.
I was right.
I've been sick a long time. Tried to tap out in 2015, hospitalised 5 days.
The song's right.
Everyone you know now, they're all gone one way or another 5 years, 10 years, whatever...
The whole time I've been ill nobody has visited. My parents and grandparents are dead already and I don't have friends.
Stay young, man.
And, more importantly, if there's anything you want to do, then do it now. Otherwise you'll be living dead like me with my garbage and stupid music I delude myself with... that nobody listens to... Waste of time.
Life is a disappointment.
So don't grow up.
Listen to more Mr Cash. It's some of the only country I listen to. He had swag.
And on the subject of not growing up, after that pointless drivel I just wrote, check out "I don't wanna grow up" by Tom Waits. Man's a certificate genius.
This version of this song will never NOT tear me up.
You should really listen to his song A Boy Named Sue!
It shows a whole different side of Johnny, one you’ll
enjoy and maybe you’ll see why he was so loved. In his
younger days he spent a night or two in jail so sort of as
payback, he did a concert at Folsom Prison, which was
pretty incredible. In the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, it was common
for performers to take uppers then downers, just to keep
up with all the travelling, performing and such and he
did become addicted as well as drinking. His wife helped
him through it all, took him to rehab and such, so he had
lots of experience with that but overcame it. He had a
tough life but loved music, his friends, his fans and most
of all wife and kids. He is missed…our man in black. ❤
Hard not to cry to this video