No matter how many times I hear this, I cry.😪 Johnny Cash was active from 1954 until his death in 2003. This was an original song by Nine Inch Nails. Despite being “flattered” when told that Cash was covering his song, Trent Reznor had his reservations when they first sent him the track. “I listened to it and it was very strange,” he said. “It was this other person inhabiting my most personal song. I’d known where I was when I wrote it. I know what I was thinking about. I know how I felt. Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend. It felt invasive.” What changed his opinion, and what ultimately lifted Hurt to an entirely different level, was the video for it. Directed by Mark Romanek, it unfolded like a four-minute mini-biography, blending archival footage, home movies, and a performance as stark as the song itself. “When we dropped in the first clip of Johnny riding the train, we got chills,” recalled Romanek, who won both a Grammy and Country Music Association award for the video. “There was something about the juxtaposition of Johnny as a young, vibrant man and Johnny towards the end of his life that was really powerful.” “It really upset me, and it really affected me,” Rubin told National Public Radio. “I thought it was beautiful, but it was unlike any video I’d ever seen before. It was so extreme that it really took my breath away - and not in a good way. I didn’t know how to handle it. It was just overwhelming.” “I wasn’t prepared for what I saw,” Reznor said. “What I had written in my diary was now superimposed on the life of this icon and sung so beautifully and emotionally. It was a reminder of what an important medium music is. Goosebumps up the spine. It really made sense. I thought: ‘What a powerful piece of art.’ I never got to meet Johnny, but I’m happy I contributed in the way I did. It wasn’t my song any more.”
Thank you for that. It filled in some details of which I was unaware. I agree, every time I hear this it touches my soul, and I feel the pain of a man looking back on his life and wondering if he should have made other choices. As I venture into the golden years of my life, I understand that need to do a retrospective of one's past. "What if...?" is a very powerful question.
@@handlesaresupergheyouch. But, am inclined to agree. The original version of this song was lost in a sea of stereotypical 1990s "angsty white boy" music for me. The narrator comes across as an unsympathetic, whiny, drugged up 20-something who chased his girlfriend away and now has to be all dramatic about it for no reason. Johnny Cash gave it a whole new meaning. Suddenly, you hear real, not imagined, regret and sense that there really is no recovery, no future. It's a man at the end of his life, looking back. It's not just another kid being overly dramatic about a break up.
Do you reply Platinum Rapper? Or are we just the lakeys for you channel. Most people at least acknowledge when we give you facts? This is why I don't listen to your "creations", NO humility. At least put a" like" near our contributions, or are you too "famous" ?
Amen to that. It's 70 years old the things that I've done in my past is what made me who I am. 🤔 BUT the good Lord knows there are some things I wish I could go back and change , like there are some people that I hurt and didn't mean to hurt. People in the past that I wished I had been able to spend more time with and didn't. 😢 💔 Just basically after a full life lived there is always some regrets. Sending much love to everybody out there . Take care of you and yours.
I've been listening to this version since it came out and I can't even listen to it around people anymore when before it was just a solid cover from a legend
Seen this countless times but just now his wife reminds me of the woman I could have been better for. Trying to make up for it, time has no feelings. Ouch.
Jeesh. He looks so old. I'm older than he was. Maybe I'd better take another look in the mirror. My brother died recently. Everyone goes away in the end. 😢😭
I choke up every time I hear this song. Especially in the end when the keyboard cover is lowered. This is TRUTH~ This song, especially the way Johnny portrays it, really brings home how fleeting this life is. Make the most of it! There is One who makes it all worthwhile in the end...Jesus Christ!
This is the very last song he recorded. It was a Nine Inch Nails song. In the end of the song he closes the piano - it was never opened again while he was alive.
This was Johnny's apology and goodbye to June. She was terminal and died not long after this was recorded. Through his 50+ year career he had struggled with addiction, jail and infidelity. And this was his way of telling June and the family that he was sorry for all he put her and the kids through.
Nine inch nails, Trent reznor wrote the song. From what I read, it was done after his dog died in an accident jumping from an upper balcony in some arena.
That last moment where he closes the piano, is him literally closing the lid on his career and his life. He passed shortly after this song and video released. A true legend. This song kills me every single time. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend "Walk the Line" starring Jaoquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. It's an excellent look at his life.
Johnny Cash was born in 1932. His career as a professional musician began in 1954 and continued until his passing at the age of 71 in 2003. Though Trent Reznor wrote this about his own addiction Cash had been an addict as well but was able to go cold turkey with the help of fellow musician June Carter who he was in love with at the time and who he then married. She passed away a few months after she appears in this video and he followed her a few months after that. They were both in poor health when it was made and didn't shy away from it. RIP.
Brother, if you want this channel to blow tf up you should allow your tears to flow. The VAST majority of people watching reaction videos are empaths. We watch these to see your emotions to these wonderful songs. We weep along with you when the music hits you in the feels.
This song was made and written by Nine Inch Nails. The leader singer (Trent Reznor) made this song about a middle aged mans life spiraling out of control and losing the ones around him due to death and drugs/ overdoses'. Johnny Cash took the song changed one word and made it about and old man looking back on his life losing those around him due to age and what year to year can do to a friendship. Nine Inch Nails lead singer wasn't happy about this because the song was soooo personal to him. Once he heard the song he said, "this is now cash's song". Cash is one of only like 2 or 3 people in the Country Hall of Fame, Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame, AND the Songwriters Hall of Fame. You could literally write a Harry Potter 10 book story about this man's life and still have chapters left out... During this song his wife passed away. His daughter told him that this song sounds like he is saying goodbye... Johnny replied, "I am saying goodbye; I miss my June (wife June Carter)". Johnny passed away like 4 months after releasing this song.... RIP Legend. Lastly, I'll say as a man. What makes me cry everytime I watch this video is the way Johnny closes the piano at the end... He knows he is never touching the piano again and is saying goodbye to an old friend...
The one word change: "crown of shit" to "crown of thorns." Being a man of faith, that kinda fits Johnny anyways. "Crown of thorns" is biblical allusion at its finest.
I'm not sure Reznor was exactly happy about Cash taking the song. He did acknowledge it a few years later and begrudingly admit it was Johnny's song now.
Every. Damn. Time. Every time I cry. It's just, it's from the soul. And a 19 y/o wrote it I think rick Rubin heard it and went "This is Cash. This has to he his." Genius. Damn I need a tissue.
The pic on the wall is his mother. The woman on the steps is his wife June. Best to watch the movie Walk The Line to best explain Johnny's life. He had his demons and lived a very rebellious life of drug and alcohol use. This song belonged originally to the rock group 9 Inch Nails and Johnny's manager talked him into redoing it. It's amazing to say the least. His wife stood firmly beside him for many yrs and they truly loved each other. She past away not too long after this song and he died less than 6 months later. It's like he is saying goodbye in this song. When he closed the piano, it was like he closed a coffin. RIP to Johnny and June Cash.
I told my wife I wanted this at my funeral But she’s gone before me now all I have is the tears left when this song comes on. Loving your show !!!! Seen them all so far. This one got me. Thanks. I need to feel some times.
@jasonpearl1533, I'm so sorry about the passing of your wife. That's so sad. I have my husband of 50 years on Hospice now. It's heartbreaking. That is so very true about what you said about needing to feel sometimes.
Trust me man, I drive trucks for a living, do road racing and drifting, I cry every time I hear this song. Every time I listen to a reactor do it, still gets me. This song was originally done by nine inch nails, Trent wrote it about his addiction , and it was very personal to him which was why he initially was pissed that the label allowed a cover for the song, and immediately after his first listen, he approved it and even said later on, he may have wrote it, but that's Johnny's song now. This was a song for Johnny to June who passed away shortly after and a few months before he did. He had struggled with addiction and infidelity as well, which is why he says he will make you hurt. After this, he never opened the piano again. This song and performance has everything in it that would give you a reason to cry. And the order I get, the more it hits home.
He was 71 years old when he passed. You can tell by looking at him that his hard lifestyle of partying and drugs and shit took a big toll on him. He looks like he's in his late '80s or mid '90s but he was only 71.
Yeah, my dad is 76 and still going strong as if age wasn't a big deal. Drives a truck, takes care of his house, parties at times, just living life. It's crazy how some people can age so much faster than others.
Closing the piano at the end always reminds me of closing the lid to a coffin. Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) wrote the song but he said it was Johnnys song in the end. I told my exhubs at the time that this was Johnnys 'swan song', his last goodbye to his soul mate June, goodbye to the music industry and a final performance and goodbye to his fans. - Johnny died 7 months after filming this video. 🥺❤
It’s honestly one of the most powerful songs I’ve heard and every time I watch this video it hits me. The visuals are powerful, his empire of dirt, the feast at his table with no one to share it with. His last video and it symbolically is the ribbon on his long life of music.
1st of all I really enjoyed your reaction. Do not ever be ashamed of getting emotional especially in this song. Something about Johnny's voice and the video and everything about iT still chokes me up and brings me to tears like I can't Listen to the Listen to this song regularly without crying.. This was an original song by nine Inch nails Trent reznor. I believe Trent has been quoted to say that While he wrote the song he believes it's now Johnny's song. When he originally wrote the song he was coming from a really dark place having dealing with drugs and as a young disillusioned youth. Then Johnny comes in with the other end of the spectrum As an old man having Lived life and his feeling and version of this song just hit the correct cord!
Johnny Cash was so real. He passed just months after his beloved wife June. I believe that Hurt was his final recording. It gives me chills and brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it. Johnny was devoutly Christian later in life too.
Johnny Cash was, is and will always be his own genre and this cover of Trent Reznor's song is absolute proof of that. You can find dozens of reactions to this song where the reactor is reduced to tears.
So, when Trent Reznor wrote this song in Nine Inch Nails, originally it was referring to drug addiction and it isolating you from loved ones. When Johnny Cash covered it he was speaking about getting old and being alone and the pain that comes with age. It was so deep and relatable in both situations. Cash wrote this very near his passing, I believe it was within a year. Amazing lyrics, wonderful reaction, Krizz!
@@neilfox4626 oh, I wasn't trying to say it was one dimensional. Apologies, man. I just saw more than one meaning. I understand he could have been referring to that as well. You make a good point.
@@patriciahughes7516I would like to look at it as Trent's version is a young man dealing with addiction and Johnny's version is the same man but decades older and at the end of his life. Same song but from a different point of view.
YES !!!! This song by the group nine inch nails spoke to Johnny in more than one way. Is spoke to Johnny because Johnny Cash also had a drug and alcohol problem in his younger days. But it also spoke to Johnny from the things that he did that hurt people ~ though he wasn't deliberately trying to hurt somebody. Is spoke to him also on the other regrets of things that he didn't get to do or didn't accomplish and also on a lot of bad choices that he made in his life. But it's also the sad true fact the longer you live the more people that you love that you lose. All the friends and loved ones that you lose that die. That's why this song also spoke to Johnny. No matter how good a life you might have there will always be times that you look back and wish you had done this or you hadn't done that. People that you wish that you could go back and spend more time with and miss so terribly much. THIS IS A STORY ABOUT LIFE !!!!!
I remember when he passed, he was the original Man in Black. Every Metalhead and Goth mourned his passing. Because we all recognize the kindred soul, he was one of the greatest
Trent Reznor stated that this song is no longer his and that it now belongs to Johnny Cash. The pix in the back is either his mom or June's. He passed away 4 mths after June. He was 71 yrs old.
The woman in the wall portrait is his mother. The woman with the long auburn hair throughout the video is his wife June. You even see their children. 😊
I've read many comments about this song and singer and it's a common thing that many people say they cry when hearing this song. Maybe for different reasons. For me it's being alone and expecting to be even more alone as time goes on. "Everyone I know goes away in the end". I've lost everyone I knew in the earlier part of my life. "What have I become?" Even though I am secure in Christ, I have not become what I hoped for in life. Other people may get other things out of this song, but the song touches a raw nerve for many people in different ways.
The original version but NiN never really hit me, but this, hearing it from the soul of The Man in Black, it reaches into you, is a very real, tangible thing, the retrospective feeling. It stops me every time. I'm very glad Reznor wrote this (I feel for the man because the pain that brought the words to us) and I'm glad he allowed this legend to cover such a personal song, it takes strength to allow someone else to do song so close to you, just the slightest change moved it from a young man looking forward at the need his life was, to am old man looking back across his life and tribulations.
This was his good bye song. The dinner scene reminded me of Great Expectation. This song originally was about drug addiction but Johnny made it about life's regrets. Thank Rick Rubin for getting Johnny to record a final album
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails wrote and sung this song originally in the early 90s and even Trent said the when johnny covers your song it's no longer yours..it's johnnys !! Johnny also did a cover of Tom Pettys wont back down and this song was done about 4 months before his passing in 03...rip to the man in black !! I'm an ex amateur mma guy and love hardcore rap and nu metal,and hard rock...but this song breaks me and only like 10 other songs get me like this !! Lol sorry KK for the long post..but you did ask a lot of questions that i feel like i wanted to say about !!
I was born in 1954 and one of the first songs I sang as a very young girl was a Johnny Cash Song. He was around a long, long time. My dad and Johnny Cash were born a few months apart. It blows my mind to think I am almost the same age as Johnny Cash when he passed. RIP Man In Black.
Trent Rezner was initially furious when he found out that his label had started talks for Johnny Cash to cover 'Hurt' as the song was deeply personal for Rezner who had written about and, IIRC, during his own battles with addiction. When the initial recording was played for Rezner prior to release, he immediately approved.
This was the perfect cap for his career. Rip johnny. Such soul. This was one of the most emotionally charged music videos ever made. The kind that makes old grissled men choke up.
Music is meant to be felt the way each person feels it. Never be ashamed of how a certain song makes you feel. His wife June Carter Cash (on the stairs) passed away shortly after this video was filmed. Johhny followed her several months later. I know Johnny Cash and Elvis both started out at Sun Records around the same time in the mid-50's.
If this song doesn't make you cry, you are a soulless shell of a human being. Trent Reznor wrote and sung Hurt.Once he heard Johnny's version, he said it was no longer his song. It's Johnny's song now.
Johnny Cash is something different. I don't like his genre but I like his songs. GREAT music transcends genre preferences. My favorite song of his though is "God's gonna cut you down
You should really check out his live version of "The Man in Black". He performed it for the first time in front of an audience of college students. It will really show you who he was. This song, "Hurt", is a Nine Inch Nails original. When Trent Reznor was told Johnny wanted to release it, he was upset because it was such a personal song for him. When he heard Johnny's version, though, he not only allowed it, he said it was no longer his song, it was Johnny's alone.
Originally written by Trent Reznor and released by Nine Inch Nails on the 1994 album Downward Spiral, the song was brilliantly reimagined by Johnny Cash and producer Rick Rubin (Def Jam records, etc.) in 2002 and received the Country Music Association award for "Single of the Year" in 2003. In 1954, Cash and his first wife Vivian moved to Memphis, Tennessee. He sold appliances while studying to be a radio announcer. At night, he played with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant. Perkins and Grant were known as the Tennessee Two. Cash worked up the courage to visit the Sun Records studio, hoping to get a recording contract.[41] He auditioned for Sam Phillips by singing mostly gospel songs, only to learn from the producer that he no longer recorded gospel music. Phillips was rumored to have told Cash to "go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell". In a 2002 interview, Cash denied that Phillips made any such comment.[42] Cash eventually won over the producer with new songs delivered in his early rockabilly style. In 1955, Cash made his first recordings at Sun, "Hey Porter" and "Cry! Cry! Cry!", which were released in late June and met with success on the country hit parade. Passed in 2003
You hit this out of the park.. Nine Inch Nails said that after Jonny did this song it belonged to him. If this song doesn't hit you hard.. you need to look deep into yourself. This is true power in music.
Listening to this, starting to cry. As usual when I listen to this song. My dog-a beautiful German Shepherd, tries to comfort me. Goofy girl. Beautiful reaction ❤
This is especially hard for those of us who have dealt with trauma and loss over and over again but have no ability to forget. Then that’s when drugs come in.. to kill everything and help forget if only for a little while. It’s eventually untenable and leads to more trauma and loss. Just a vicious cycle repeatedly playing out over and over again.
I am 61, and he was part of my life from childhood until he passed. This was his final somg, This is a song about addiction, and I am 21 years sober, but this suns up the struggle of making amends of the shit you caused. I am glad he made this cover his own music. It is a cautionary tale and a healing one for us who have fallen getting back up hurts but it is the only foght worth having
such a great song spun into his perspective. It chokes me up everytime... A true class act. Glad you're keeping it real as well you gained my follow. Yea tho its a shame that nothing last's forever but that's what makes these captured moments so amazing and emotional. Id recommend checking out "Lazarus" by David Bowie next. These artist in their final years tend to create the most beautiful art.
It's alright to show your emotions on here..as not all classic rock n country songs are fun or funny !! I believe i was brought here to help people through the toughest times..as they call my kind an empath !! But your kind are also great..as your kind are very multifaceted and bring different perspectives and great things to the world..either through music or this !! We all have a purpose..but it maybe awhile until you find it,but when you do it'll come to be very easy for you as long as you except it and embrace it !!
He was forced to retire when his record label refused to re-up his contract. He stayed with the same label for most of his 50yr career & they kicked him to the curb. It broke his heart.
The end "if i could start again, a million miles away. i would keep myself. i would find a way." That line gets me all the time. He would still fuck everything up (as he perceives he did). He would still lose everyone. He'd find a way to be himself, no matter space or time.
I believe the lead singer of Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor, wrote and originally sang this but when he heard Johnny Cash’s version he said it was now Johnny’s song (paraphrase). Johnny sang this less than a year before he died, preceded just months before by his wife June Carter Cash who’s also in this video.
Hey Krizz, we all pass on but what we leave behind, what truly lasts, are the art we create and the lives we touch. Every interaction we have with another person is a touch of our lives with theirs. We will never truly know the impact we have on another person’s life, what they will remember, or what will influence them in the future. You are out here sharing yourself and touching lives with kindness and love man.
You don't have to be a longtime fan of Johnny Cash to be moved to tears. Yes, we are born to die: "it is the fate man was born for" as a poet said. Each life is worth some tears at the end. People aren't disposable. It is a tribute to humanity.
i have always said for me, this song shows that Johnny was a real artist. The fact that he even heard the original song by Nine Inch Nails, still kind of breaks my brain. I was born in 91, so Johnny was still around, but i knew him as a "Classic country" Artist if that makes sense. This was on his final album before he passed. So on his final album he was willing to take someone elses song, a song that is from an entirely different genre, that you would think is so far separated from country, and he made it his own. He didnt see a metal song and brush it off, he heard what it had to say, he really listened to what is an industrial metal band, and he really heard them. Much like strange Music. In a previous comment i said i hadnt listned to much of your stuff Krizz but i heard you say a line from a song in one of the previous videos, and was like OH SHIT i do know this man! Appreciate you doing these videos man, just saw youve got one with BP reacting to Rammstein, Thats where im headed next, Im here 100% for your Metal journey man!
The song was written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. It's originally a lo-fi industrial song about heroin addiction and wanting to kill himself because of it. That's why there's the line "The needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting." Johnny Cash didn't want to do the song originally afterr hearing it but upon going over the lyrics and song more he decided to cover it. He made the song his own thing. Instead of being about addiction, it becomes watching everything you had in your life dying and disappearing from your life. This song was released shortly before he died.
What would make a man’s man cry more than realizing everything he’s built will ultimately be shared without anyone around? No matter how much he loves? It hurts. It’s life and death.
Johnny was known as the man in Black. He always wore black because it was a tribute to all the downtrodden and people of poverty and neglect. He was a deeply religious man yet he was a deeply flawed man. His career sped over 50 years and he was a very first singer to be able to go into Folsom prison and put on a concert for the inmates. he acted in a few movies that were pretty good. He started his career I believe in 1953 or four, he was married to his beautiful wife June and they had a daughter Roseanne who became famous singer herself. June and Johnny sang together, toured the country. Back in my day I am 80 years old Was part of country that was rejectable. He wasn’t accepted, especially by “good“ church going people. He had runs with the law, in his youth he was a drug addict and was arrested and jailed. He was a man of the people. I have lived a long life and have had privilege of seeing all genres of music throughout the decades, I’m not partial to country music with the exception of the great storytellers and he is a great storyteller, Chris Stapleton great storyteller, Alison Krauss, great storyteller and musician, Kenny Rogers, it doesn’t really matter to me what genre of music you come from as long as the story is solid and beautiful whether it’s sad or touches parts of your spirit you haven’t seen in a while. I played it in professional orchestra for 30 years, I am my first generation World War II survivor and I’ve lived in many nations and many states in the US. I love the beautiful Dirty South with their Cajun ways. I love the Midwestern guitar pickers, love the Appalachian mountains, singers and musicians, I love the Motown of the 50s through 70s, I was introduced to rap music by my children. Some of it I enjoyed very much and most of it. I did not because of the subject matter and the damage I could see it doing to the youth of that generation and the mentality that it did not allow to flourish grow. I wasn’t much of an, but I liked a few of his songs. Johnny is very salt of the Earth. I’ve been through the grunge age of music, punk era, disco era. Each genre has their stars the ones that can still tell a story music has to move your soul or it’s not worth listening to i’m grateful to meet you young man and I’m glad to have subscribed to your channel. The great will always live on forever from generation to generation as long as there are men and women like yourself who open the dusty pages of old books known as your elders and respectfully, turn each stain timed page to find the story. We each elder dies their book in the life of library turns to dust if no one takes time to read their pages and move them forward one lesson at a time.
Johnny toured from 1954 and literally gave a three song set at the Carter Family Fold venue a month before he died. He wrote 60 songs in the 3 months before his death. The albums he made with Rick Rubin are absolute works of art and will be astonishing people long after we're dust!
It's old school now, but in my opinion you have a great voice for radio. Great respect for your honest reaction. This song cuts deep as a a sign off to a musical legend. RIP JC.
This songs always stood out to me as a cover that really elevates the meaning of the lyrics. Another one that I really love is Tyler Childers cover of Time by Pink Floyd. Something about these stripped back country covers really let the meaning of the song shine.
Everybody goes away, in the end. We once offered to take my mother in law on a trip up into the mountains to her home village. We had just returned to the country and had a new honeymoon about 2 hours drive from in. She had already come 4 hours by train from where she lived with my brother in law to our new home for a two week visit. Organising a leisure drive, several nights up there and a leisurely return would be simple. But she declined, as the only people she knew there were all in the cemetery. Just seeing the village abd her childhood home (now owned by her brothers children who use it as a holiday home) was of no interest.
Johnny Cash was the classic study of the war between the spirit and the flesh. A deeply devoted Christian who was trapped in addiction the majority of his career. In the end, everything he accumulated in his life he attributed to an "empire of dirt", the understanding that the only treasure that lasts is what is stored up in heaven. Most people will miss this tension in his performance of this song.
When you know about his life, the pain he suffered and inflicted, and the point in his life he was at when he did this song it hits so much harder. I cry nearly every time, especially with the film clip.
He did two records the last few years before he died and they were all covers of other music. This song was originally done by NIN, but Johnny changed the meaning of it when he did it. Now it’s a song about a tired man reflecting on his life and asking some hard questions.
I cry every time I hear this song. I believe it was his goodbye song. The singer if Nine Inch Nails said once he heard him sing this song " its Johnny's song now" . Great reaction ❤❤❤
That overloaded table is part of 'my empire of dirt'. The riches, the awards, the fame. They all mean nothing when life is ending. Everyone with whom you shared memories is gone. You're right in one way. There's no one there to share in the feast. Actually, his wife was still living, but the symbolism fits the song and the feeling of emptiness as life draws to a close. Johnny worshipped his brother Jack who was two years older than him. When Jack was fourteen he was killed in a woodshop accident. One day when the dad was drinking he said it was too bad it was Jack and not Johnny. The death of the closest and most beloved member of his family was hard enough, but those words of his father's just heaped more misery on top. He blamed himself for not going with Jack to the shop and felt his dad blamed him as well. Most of his life was a reflection of that incident and the aftermath.
Brother you nailed it . The industry separated itself from this style of music in every genre. It is missed and that is exactly how outlaw country and southern rock was born . The industry truly despises this .
I will never not cry to this song. I love the original by Trent Reznor, but this rendition just hits differently. I've never been a huge fan of Cash, but can appreciate his unique musicianship and how much of himself he put into entertaining us all. Hearing this song I get flooded with the thoughts that he's no longer with us, knew at the time he wouldn't be here much longer, and then my own mortality too. Seeing a man so thoroughly humbled by his own reality and the coming of the end of his career, his family, and his life is just so incredibly moving. It all ends, but will you regret it? Or would you do it all the same way?
I'm 44 years old...this song makes me feel like the 10 year old me looking at the 80 year old me. Whenever I let the insignificant things in life get the best of me, I listen to this song, and there's no better reset button. I just see my wife and kids and remember, "they are the ones that are important, nothing else".
This is an amazing song, I always interpreted the empty table as the family and friends he lost from the mistakes he's made in life, those he hurt. I've always found it very relatable and I think the same for many people that have had different mental struggles and have used substances to cope.
This a Nine Inch Nails written song. Cash sang this just before he died at 71. Nine Inch Nails just said this is now Johnnie’s song. It’s about his addiction that he quit cold with the help of his with June Carter Cash.
I think Johnny Cash started gaining popularity in the 50s. I don't remember him ever covering any song before this one. The NIN version must have touched him in a powerful way for him to not only remake the song, but to release it and make a video. Legendary.
No matter how many times I hear this, I cry.😪 Johnny Cash was active from 1954 until his death in 2003. This was an original song by Nine Inch Nails. Despite being “flattered” when told that Cash was covering his song, Trent Reznor had his reservations when they first sent him the track.
“I listened to it and it was very strange,” he said. “It was this other person inhabiting my most personal song. I’d known where I was when I wrote it. I know what I was thinking about. I know how I felt. Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend. It felt invasive.”
What changed his opinion, and what ultimately lifted Hurt to an entirely different level, was the video for it. Directed by Mark Romanek, it unfolded like a four-minute mini-biography, blending archival footage, home movies, and a performance as stark as the song itself.
“When we dropped in the first clip of Johnny riding the train, we got chills,” recalled Romanek, who won both a Grammy and Country Music Association award for the video. “There was something about the juxtaposition of Johnny as a young, vibrant man and Johnny towards the end of his life that was really powerful.”
“It really upset me, and it really affected me,” Rubin told National Public Radio. “I thought it was beautiful, but it was unlike any video I’d ever seen before. It was so extreme that it really took my breath away - and not in a good way. I didn’t know how to handle it. It was just overwhelming.”
“I wasn’t prepared for what I saw,” Reznor said. “What I had written in my diary was now superimposed on the life of this icon and sung so beautifully and emotionally. It was a reminder of what an important medium music is. Goosebumps up the spine. It really made sense. I thought: ‘What a powerful piece of art.’ I never got to meet Johnny, but I’m happy I contributed in the way I did. It wasn’t my song any more.”
Thank you for that. It filled in some details of which I was unaware. I agree, every time I hear this it touches my soul, and I feel the pain of a man looking back on his life and wondering if he should have made other choices. As I venture into the golden years of my life, I understand that need to do a retrospective of one's past. "What if...?" is a very powerful question.
@@carladewitt1947, you're welcome. Yes, I agree.....I say "what if" alot.
After Cash recorded it he then referred to it as a Johnny Cash song forever.
Which is a classy gesture in my opinion.
Cool 😎😎👍✌️
Nine inch nails did it originally, Trent Reznor wrote this but after hearing Johnny sing it….he said “this is Johnny’s song”
💯
So true! React to Trent Reznor! Suggest Hurt, Closer, & Head Like A Hole! N9NE INCH NA9LS!
and nin was so shit at their own music they let people cover it so that it can be at least heard.
@@handlesaresupergheyouch. But, am inclined to agree. The original version of this song was lost in a sea of stereotypical 1990s "angsty white boy" music for me. The narrator comes across as an unsympathetic, whiny, drugged up 20-something who chased his girlfriend away and now has to be all dramatic about it for no reason. Johnny Cash gave it a whole new meaning. Suddenly, you hear real, not imagined, regret and sense that there really is no recovery, no future. It's a man at the end of his life, looking back. It's not just another kid being overly dramatic about a break up.
Do you reply Platinum Rapper? Or are we just the lakeys for you channel. Most people at least acknowledge when we give you facts? This is why I don't listen to your "creations", NO humility. At least put a" like" near our contributions, or are you too "famous" ?
This version seems to get harder to listen too the older you get you realize how much truth is really in it.
💯
Amen to that. It's 70 years old the things that I've done in my past is what made me who I am. 🤔 BUT the good Lord knows there are some things I wish I could go back and change , like there are some people that I hurt and didn't mean to hurt. People in the past that I wished I had been able to spend more time with and didn't. 😢 💔 Just basically after a full life lived there is always some regrets. Sending much love to everybody out there . Take care of you and yours.
I've been listening to this version since it came out and I can't even listen to it around people anymore when before it was just a solid cover from a legend
Seen this countless times but just now his wife reminds me of the woman I could have been better for. Trying to make up for it, time has no feelings. Ouch.
No doubt about it.
That’s how a legend says goodbye! RIP Man in Black
johnny was 71 in this, he passed away 4 months after his wife passed and 7 months after this video
Jeesh. He looks so old. I'm older than he was. Maybe I'd better take another look in the mirror.
My brother died recently.
Everyone goes away in the end. 😢😭
@@user-ii4zf5iq3t So sorry for your loss, friend - hoping all the good memories of your brother can keep making your heart smile.
He won an award and his wife accepted it on his behalf
@@dbradx Thanks. The pain is fresh. I'll never hear those corny jokes again or his happy voice. He was always there so sweetly. Big Brother is missed.
He loved June and he was ready
I choke up every time I hear this song. Especially in the end when the keyboard cover is lowered. This is TRUTH~
This song, especially the way Johnny portrays it, really brings home how fleeting this life is. Make the most of it!
There is One who makes it all worthwhile in the end...Jesus Christ!
From what I've heard his daughter said to him "dad this sounds like goodbye" and he told her it was his goodbye
He never opened that piano again. Guts me every damn time.
I cry every time I listen to the song and see the video. I don’t know why I put myself through this! But I do because it’s so beautiful.
This is the very last song he recorded. It was a Nine Inch Nails song. In the end of the song he closes the piano - it was never opened again while he was alive.
This was Johnny's apology and goodbye to June. She was terminal and died not long after this was recorded. Through his 50+ year career he had struggled with addiction, jail and infidelity. And this was his way of telling June and the family that he was sorry for all he put her and the kids through.
Nine inch nails, Trent reznor wrote the song. From what I read, it was done after his dog died in an accident jumping from an upper balcony in some arena.
That last moment where he closes the piano, is him literally closing the lid on his career and his life. He passed shortly after this song and video released. A true legend. This song kills me every single time.
If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend "Walk the Line" starring Jaoquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. It's an excellent look at his life.
Johnny Cash was born in 1932. His career as a professional musician began in 1954 and continued until his passing at the age of 71 in 2003. Though Trent Reznor wrote this about his own addiction Cash had been an addict as well but was able to go cold turkey with the help of fellow musician June Carter who he was in love with at the time and who he then married. She passed away a few months after she appears in this video and he followed her a few months after that. They were both in poor health when it was made and didn't shy away from it. RIP.
I'm a 47 year old man who first heard Trent Reznor sing this thirty years ago and I'm crying flowing tears right now.
Brother, if you want this channel to blow tf up you should allow your tears to flow.
The VAST majority of people watching reaction videos are empaths. We watch these to see your emotions to these wonderful songs. We weep along with you when the music hits you in the feels.
This song was made and written by Nine Inch Nails. The leader singer (Trent Reznor) made this song about a middle aged mans life spiraling out of control and losing the ones around him due to death and drugs/ overdoses'. Johnny Cash took the song changed one word and made it about and old man looking back on his life losing those around him due to age and what year to year can do to a friendship. Nine Inch Nails lead singer wasn't happy about this because the song was soooo personal to him. Once he heard the song he said, "this is now cash's song". Cash is one of only like 2 or 3 people in the Country Hall of Fame, Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame, AND the Songwriters Hall of Fame. You could literally write a Harry Potter 10 book story about this man's life and still have chapters left out... During this song his wife passed away. His daughter told him that this song sounds like he is saying goodbye... Johnny replied, "I am saying goodbye; I miss my June (wife June Carter)". Johnny passed away like 4 months after releasing this song.... RIP Legend.
Lastly, I'll say as a man. What makes me cry everytime I watch this video is the way Johnny closes the piano at the end... He knows he is never touching the piano again and is saying goodbye to an old friend...
He is definitely thinking of June.
The one word change: "crown of shit" to "crown of thorns." Being a man of faith, that kinda fits Johnny anyways. "Crown of thorns" is biblical allusion at its finest.
@@copocopocopocopo I believe "crown of thorns" is also what is said on the censored version of the song under Nine Inch Nails.
@@JBEEUD Huh. That'd be kinda neat, if true. Everything I've seen on it just has the word "shit" entirely cut from the lyrics.
She was a Carter, the first superstar music group, The Carter Family.
The band Nine Inch Nails made this song originally but when Johnny cash did it they said it’s his song. ❤❤❤
And Trent said, this is now your song.
Basically, NIN did a remake 25 years ahead of the one that truly MADE the song 😎
I'm not sure Reznor was exactly happy about Cash taking the song. He did acknowledge it a few years later and begrudingly admit it was Johnny's song now.
In the end, Johnny had something to say, and by God he said it.
Every. Damn. Time.
Every time I cry.
It's just, it's from the soul.
And a 19 y/o wrote it I think rick Rubin heard it and went "This is Cash. This has to he his." Genius.
Damn I need a tissue.
The pic on the wall is his mother. The woman on the steps is his wife June. Best to watch the movie Walk The Line to best explain Johnny's life. He had his demons and lived a very rebellious life of drug and alcohol use. This song belonged originally to the rock group 9 Inch Nails and Johnny's manager talked him into redoing it. It's amazing to say the least. His wife stood firmly beside him for many yrs and they truly loved each other. She past away not too long after this song and he died less than 6 months later. It's like he is saying goodbye in this song. When he closed the piano, it was like he closed a coffin. RIP to Johnny and June Cash.
I told my wife I wanted this at my funeral But she’s gone before me now all I have is the tears left when this song comes on.
Loving your show !!!! Seen them all so far. This one got me. Thanks. I need to feel some times.
@jasonpearl1533, I'm so sorry about the passing of your wife. That's so sad. I have my husband of 50 years on Hospice now. It's heartbreaking. That is so very true about what you said about needing to feel sometimes.
@starburstppl and @jasonpearl1533 I wish u both the best and may u find and see your loved one(s) in the afterlife no matter what u believe in.
God Bless you sir. TBFTGOGGI
God gave us tears for a reason, men and women alike💙
Trust me man, I drive trucks for a living, do road racing and drifting, I cry every time I hear this song. Every time I listen to a reactor do it, still gets me.
This song was originally done by nine inch nails, Trent wrote it about his addiction , and it was very personal to him which was why he initially was pissed that the label allowed a cover for the song, and immediately after his first listen, he approved it and even said later on, he may have wrote it, but that's Johnny's song now.
This was a song for Johnny to June who passed away shortly after and a few months before he did. He had struggled with addiction and infidelity as well, which is why he says he will make you hurt. After this, he never opened the piano again. This song and performance has everything in it that would give you a reason to cry. And the order I get, the more it hits home.
That was his last goodbye!! Reaction was beautiful!! Keep shining ❤
He was 71 years old when he passed. You can tell by looking at him that his hard lifestyle of partying and drugs and shit took a big toll on him. He looks like he's in his late '80s or mid '90s but he was only 71.
💯
Sadly his wife June died first
Don't forget he was very ill for years before his passing, and it was that illness that aged him well beyond his years.
Yeah, my dad is 76 and still going strong as if age wasn't a big deal. Drives a truck, takes care of his house, parties at times, just living life. It's crazy how some people can age so much faster than others.
Closing the piano at the end always reminds me of closing the lid to a coffin. Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) wrote the song but he said it was Johnnys song in the end. I told my exhubs at the time that this was Johnnys 'swan song', his last goodbye to his soul mate June, goodbye to the music industry and a final performance and goodbye to his fans.
- Johnny died 7 months after filming this video. 🥺❤
It’s honestly one of the most powerful songs I’ve heard and every time I watch this video it hits me. The visuals are powerful, his empire of dirt, the feast at his table with no one to share it with. His last video and it symbolically is the ribbon on his long life of music.
1st of all I really enjoyed your reaction. Do not ever be ashamed of getting emotional especially in this song. Something about Johnny's voice and the video and everything about iT still chokes me up and brings me to tears like I can't Listen to the Listen to this song regularly without crying..
This was an original song by nine Inch nails Trent reznor. I believe Trent has been quoted to say that While he wrote the song he believes it's now Johnny's song. When he originally wrote the song he was coming from a really dark place having dealing with drugs and as a young disillusioned youth. Then Johnny comes in with the other end of the spectrum As an old man having Lived life and his feeling and version of this song just hit the correct cord!
Johnny Cash was so real. He passed just months after his beloved wife June. I believe that Hurt was his final recording. It gives me chills and brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it. Johnny was devoutly Christian later in life too.
Johnny Cash was, is and will always be his own genre and this cover of Trent Reznor's song is absolute proof of that. You can find dozens of reactions to this song where the reactor is reduced to tears.
He died just after this. One of our greatest!
He filmed this video in Feb 2003 and passed away 7 months later(Sept 2003). His wife who is in the video died in May of that same year. He was 71.
So, when Trent Reznor wrote this song in Nine Inch Nails, originally it was referring to drug addiction and it isolating you from loved ones. When Johnny Cash covered it he was speaking about getting old and being alone and the pain that comes with age. It was so deep and relatable in both situations. Cash wrote this very near his passing, I believe it was within a year. Amazing lyrics, wonderful reaction, Krizz!
He had his own problems wirh addiction, no need to change the meaning.
@@neilfox4626 oh, I wasn't trying to say it was one dimensional. Apologies, man. I just saw more than one meaning. I understand he could have been referring to that as well. You make a good point.
@@patriciahughes7516I would like to look at it as Trent's version is a young man dealing with addiction and Johnny's version is the same man but decades older and at the end of his life.
Same song but from a different point of view.
@@patriciahughes7516you’re both right 🤷🏼♂️
YES !!!! This song by the group nine inch nails spoke to Johnny in more than one way. Is spoke to Johnny because Johnny Cash also had a drug and alcohol problem in his younger days. But it also spoke to Johnny from the things that he did that hurt people ~ though he wasn't deliberately trying to hurt somebody. Is spoke to him also on the other regrets of things that he didn't get to do or didn't accomplish and also on a lot of bad choices that he made in his life. But it's also the sad true fact the longer you live the more people that you love that you lose. All the friends and loved ones that you lose that die. That's why this song also spoke to Johnny. No matter how good a life you might have there will always be times that you look back and wish you had done this or you hadn't done that. People that you wish that you could go back and spend more time with and miss so terribly much. THIS IS A STORY ABOUT LIFE !!!!!
I remember when he passed, he was the original Man in Black. Every Metalhead and Goth mourned his passing. Because we all recognize the kindred soul, he was one of the greatest
Trent Reznor stated that this song is no longer his and that it now belongs to Johnny Cash. The pix in the back is either his mom or June's. He passed away 4 mths after June. He was 71 yrs old.
The woman in the wall portrait is his mother. The woman with the long auburn hair throughout the video is his wife June. You even see their children. 😊
If memory serves, Trent said once that he was born to write the song and Johnny was born to sing it.
I've read many comments about this song and singer and it's a common thing that many people say they cry when hearing this song. Maybe for different reasons. For me it's being alone and expecting to be even more alone as time goes on. "Everyone I know goes away in the end". I've lost everyone I knew in the earlier part of my life. "What have I become?" Even though I am secure in Christ, I have not become what I hoped for in life. Other people may get other things out of this song, but the song touches a raw nerve for many people in different ways.
The original version but NiN never really hit me, but this, hearing it from the soul of The Man in Black, it reaches into you, is a very real, tangible thing, the retrospective feeling. It stops me every time. I'm very glad Reznor wrote this (I feel for the man because the pain that brought the words to us) and I'm glad he allowed this legend to cover such a personal song, it takes strength to allow someone else to do song so close to you, just the slightest change moved it from a young man looking forward at the need his life was, to am old man looking back across his life and tribulations.
This was his good bye song. The dinner scene reminded me of Great Expectation. This song originally was about drug addiction but Johnny made it about life's regrets. Thank Rick Rubin for getting Johnny to record a final album
I see the table of food as representing the tremendous excesses he had during his career.
Yes! That was my impression also.
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails wrote and sung this song originally in the early 90s and even Trent said the when johnny covers your song it's no longer yours..it's johnnys !! Johnny also did a cover of Tom Pettys wont back down and this song was done about 4 months before his passing in 03...rip to the man in black !! I'm an ex amateur mma guy and love hardcore rap and nu metal,and hard rock...but this song breaks me and only like 10 other songs get me like this !! Lol sorry KK for the long post..but you did ask a lot of questions that i feel like i wanted to say about !!
Best cover of all time! This is his song now!
I live near his old stomping grounds.
Johnny Cash is the Man in Black.
It hits us because we all know it's coming. No matter how big or powerful the man the inevitable sunset is coming.
I was born in 1954 and one of the first songs I sang as a very young girl was a Johnny Cash Song. He was around a long, long time. My dad and Johnny Cash were born a few months apart. It blows my mind to think I am almost the same age as Johnny Cash when he passed. RIP Man In Black.
Thank you so much for paying respect to the legend John R. Cash. God bless.
Trent Rezner was initially furious when he found out that his label had started talks for Johnny Cash to cover 'Hurt' as the song was deeply personal for Rezner who had written about and, IIRC, during his own battles with addiction. When the initial recording was played for Rezner prior to release, he immediately approved.
This was the perfect cap for his career. Rip johnny. Such soul. This was one of the most emotionally charged music videos ever made. The kind that makes old grissled men choke up.
Music is meant to be felt the way each person feels it. Never be ashamed of how a certain song makes you feel.
His wife June Carter Cash (on the stairs) passed away shortly after this video was filmed. Johhny followed her several months later.
I know Johnny Cash and Elvis both started out at Sun Records around the same time in the mid-50's.
If this song doesn't make you cry, you are a soulless shell of a human being. Trent Reznor wrote and sung Hurt.Once he heard Johnny's version, he said it was no longer his song. It's Johnny's song now.
Johnny Cash is something different. I don't like his genre but I like his songs. GREAT music transcends genre preferences. My favorite song of his though is "God's gonna cut you down
You should really check out his live version of "The Man in Black". He performed it for the first time in front of an audience of college students. It will really show you who he was. This song, "Hurt", is a Nine Inch Nails original. When Trent Reznor was told Johnny wanted to release it, he was upset because it was such a personal song for him. When he heard Johnny's version, though, he not only allowed it, he said it was no longer his song, it was Johnny's alone.
Originally written by Trent Reznor and released by Nine Inch Nails on the 1994 album Downward Spiral, the song was brilliantly reimagined by Johnny Cash and producer Rick Rubin (Def Jam records, etc.) in 2002 and received the Country Music Association award for "Single of the Year" in 2003.
In 1954, Cash and his first wife Vivian moved to Memphis, Tennessee. He sold appliances while studying to be a radio announcer. At night, he played with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant. Perkins and Grant were known as the Tennessee Two. Cash worked up the courage to visit the Sun Records studio, hoping to get a recording contract.[41] He auditioned for Sam Phillips by singing mostly gospel songs, only to learn from the producer that he no longer recorded gospel music. Phillips was rumored to have told Cash to "go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell". In a 2002 interview, Cash denied that Phillips made any such comment.[42] Cash eventually won over the producer with new songs delivered in his early rockabilly style. In 1955, Cash made his first recordings at Sun, "Hey Porter" and "Cry! Cry! Cry!", which were released in late June and met with success on the country hit parade. Passed in 2003
I've heard the song 300 times am I still tear up when I watch someone react to it.
You hit this out of the park.. Nine Inch Nails said that after Jonny did this song it belonged to him. If this song doesn't hit you hard.. you need to look deep into yourself. This is true power in music.
Definitely one of the best songs ever😢😢
Listening to this, starting to cry. As usual when I listen to this song. My dog-a beautiful German Shepherd, tries to comfort me. Goofy girl. Beautiful reaction ❤
This is especially hard for those of us who have dealt with trauma and loss over and over again but have no ability to forget. Then that’s when drugs come in.. to kill everything and help forget if only for a little while. It’s eventually untenable and leads to more trauma and loss.
Just a vicious cycle repeatedly playing out over and over again.
It hurts everytime I’ve watched it. Tears need wiping.
I am 61, and he was part of my life from childhood until he passed. This was his final somg, This is a song about addiction, and I am 21 years sober, but this suns up the struggle of making amends of the shit you caused. I am glad he made this cover his own music. It is a cautionary tale and a healing one for us who have fallen getting back up hurts but it is the only foght worth having
O
Cash was one of the best at drawing you in, and he never lost that talent🎉 R.I.P to a legend 👏
Word is he and his wife June are the ones that got country music out of mountain folks homes and on the radio.
such a great song spun into his perspective. It chokes me up everytime... A true class act. Glad you're keeping it real as well you gained my follow. Yea tho its a shame that nothing last's forever but that's what makes these captured moments so amazing and emotional. Id recommend checking out "Lazarus" by David Bowie next. These artist in their final years tend to create the most beautiful art.
It's alright to show your emotions on here..as not all classic rock n country songs are fun or funny !! I believe i was brought here to help people through the toughest times..as they call my kind an empath !! But your kind are also great..as your kind are very multifaceted and bring different perspectives and great things to the world..either through music or this !! We all have a purpose..but it maybe awhile until you find it,but when you do it'll come to be very easy for you as long as you except it and embrace it !!
Every time I hear Johnny sing this song I get choked up. So much emotion! Great reaction as always. ✌🏼
Johnny made his first recording in 1955... I don't think he ever retired... he passed in 2003.
He was forced to retire when his record label refused to re-up his contract. He stayed with the same label for most of his 50yr career & they kicked him to the curb. It broke his heart.
That stabbing piano in the chorus outro of this piece is relentless
If I'm correct, this was the last song that Johnny Cash recorded before he passed.
His wife died May 15, 2003, Johnny Cash died September 12, 2003. Johnny died almost 4 months after June. Johnny gave his last concert on July 5, 2003
Then Johnny's stedaughter, 45-year-old Rosey Nix Adams died a month after him in October 2003 from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The end "if i could start again, a million miles away. i would keep myself. i would find a way." That line gets me all the time. He would still fuck everything up (as he perceives he did). He would still lose everyone. He'd find a way to be himself, no matter space or time.
I believe the lead singer of Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor, wrote and originally sang this but when he heard Johnny Cash’s version he said it was now Johnny’s song (paraphrase).
Johnny sang this less than a year before he died, preceded just months before by his wife June Carter Cash who’s also in this video.
Hey Krizz, we all pass on but what we leave behind, what truly lasts, are the art we create and the lives we touch. Every interaction we have with another person is a touch of our lives with theirs. We will never truly know the impact we have on another person’s life, what they will remember, or what will influence them in the future. You are out here sharing yourself and touching lives with kindness and love man.
You don't have to be a longtime fan of Johnny Cash to be moved to tears. Yes, we are born to die: "it is the fate man was born for" as a poet said. Each life is worth some tears at the end. People aren't disposable. It is a tribute to humanity.
i have always said for me, this song shows that Johnny was a real artist. The fact that he even heard the original song by Nine Inch Nails, still kind of breaks my brain. I was born in 91, so Johnny was still around, but i knew him as a "Classic country" Artist if that makes sense. This was on his final album before he passed. So on his final album he was willing to take someone elses song, a song that is from an entirely different genre, that you would think is so far separated from country, and he made it his own. He didnt see a metal song and brush it off, he heard what it had to say, he really listened to what is an industrial metal band, and he really heard them.
Much like strange Music. In a previous comment i said i hadnt listned to much of your stuff Krizz but i heard you say a line from a song in one of the previous videos, and was like OH SHIT i do know this man!
Appreciate you doing these videos man, just saw youve got one with BP reacting to Rammstein, Thats where im headed next, Im here 100% for your Metal journey man!
The song was written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. It's originally a lo-fi industrial song about heroin addiction and wanting to kill himself because of it. That's why there's the line "The needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting."
Johnny Cash didn't want to do the song originally afterr hearing it but upon going over the lyrics and song more he decided to cover it. He made the song his own thing. Instead of being about addiction, it becomes watching everything you had in your life dying and disappearing from your life. This song was released shortly before he died.
What would make a man’s man cry more than realizing everything he’s built will ultimately be shared without anyone around? No matter how much he loves? It hurts. It’s life and death.
Johnny was known as the man in Black. He always wore black because it was a tribute to all the downtrodden and people of poverty and neglect. He was a deeply religious man yet he was a deeply flawed man. His career sped over 50 years and he was a very first singer to be able to go into Folsom prison and put on a concert for the inmates. he acted in a few movies that were pretty good. He started his career I believe in 1953 or four, he was married to his beautiful wife June and they had a daughter Roseanne who became famous singer herself. June and Johnny sang together, toured the country. Back in my day I am 80 years old Was part of country that was rejectable. He wasn’t accepted, especially by “good“ church going people. He had runs with the law, in his youth he was a drug addict and was arrested and jailed. He was a man of the people. I have lived a long life and have had privilege of seeing all genres of music throughout the decades, I’m not partial to country music with the exception of the great storytellers and he is a great storyteller, Chris Stapleton great storyteller, Alison Krauss, great storyteller and musician, Kenny Rogers, it doesn’t really matter to me what genre of music you come from as long as the story is solid and beautiful whether it’s sad or touches parts of your spirit you haven’t seen in a while. I played it in professional orchestra for 30 years, I am my first generation World War II survivor and I’ve lived in many nations and many states in the US. I love the beautiful Dirty South with their Cajun ways. I love the Midwestern guitar pickers, love the Appalachian mountains, singers and musicians, I love the Motown of the 50s through 70s, I was introduced to rap music by my children. Some of it I enjoyed very much and most of it. I did not because of the subject matter and the damage I could see it doing to the youth of that generation and the mentality that it did not allow to flourish grow. I wasn’t much of an, but I liked a few of his songs. Johnny is very salt of the Earth. I’ve been through the grunge age of music, punk era, disco era. Each genre has their stars the ones that can still tell a story music has to move your soul or it’s not worth listening to i’m grateful to meet you young man and I’m glad to have subscribed to your channel. The great will always live on forever from generation to generation as long as there are men and women like yourself who open the dusty pages of old books known as your elders and respectfully, turn each stain timed page to find the story. We each elder dies their book in the life of library turns to dust if no one takes time to read their pages and move them forward one lesson at a time.
Indeed...
Very emotional. This was his unofficial epitaph. His last video. His wife passed a few months after this and him a few months after that.
This was his goodbye.
Johnny toured from 1954 and literally gave a three song set at the Carter Family Fold venue a month before he died. He wrote 60 songs in the 3 months before his death. The albums he made with Rick Rubin are absolute works of art and will be astonishing people long after we're dust!
It's old school now, but in my opinion you have a great voice for radio. Great respect for your honest reaction. This song cuts deep as a a sign off to a musical legend. RIP JC.
Music is an exploration of life in all its aspects. That includes both laughter and tears.
This songs always stood out to me as a cover that really elevates the meaning of the lyrics. Another one that I really love is Tyler Childers cover of Time by Pink Floyd. Something about these stripped back country covers really let the meaning of the song shine.
Everybody goes away, in the end.
We once offered to take my mother in law on a trip up into the mountains to her home village. We had just returned to the country and had a new honeymoon about 2 hours drive from in. She had already come 4 hours by train from where she lived with my brother in law to our new home for a two week visit. Organising a leisure drive, several nights up there and a leisurely return would be simple.
But she declined, as the only people she knew there were all in the cemetery. Just seeing the village abd her childhood home (now owned by her brothers children who use it as a holiday home) was of no interest.
Johnny Cash was the classic study of the war between the spirit and the flesh. A deeply devoted Christian who was trapped in addiction the majority of his career. In the end, everything he accumulated in his life he attributed to an "empire of dirt", the understanding that the only treasure that lasts is what is stored up in heaven. Most people will miss this tension in his performance of this song.
I cry like a baby every time I watch this video.
A legend doing legendary shit. All respect to the "Man In Black."
When you know about his life, the pain he suffered and inflicted, and the point in his life he was at when he did this song it hits so much harder. I cry nearly every time, especially with the film clip.
He did two records the last few years before he died and they were all covers of other music. This song was originally done by NIN, but Johnny changed the meaning of it when he did it. Now it’s a song about a tired man reflecting on his life and asking some hard questions.
I cry every time I hear this song. I believe it was his goodbye song. The singer if Nine Inch Nails said once he heard him sing this song " its Johnny's song now" . Great reaction ❤❤❤
That overloaded table is part of 'my empire of dirt'. The riches, the awards, the fame. They all mean nothing when life is ending. Everyone with whom you shared memories is gone. You're right in one way. There's no one there to share in the feast. Actually, his wife was still living, but the symbolism fits the song and the feeling of emptiness as life draws to a close. Johnny worshipped his brother Jack who was two years older than him. When Jack was fourteen he was killed in a woodshop accident. One day when the dad was drinking he said it was too bad it was Jack and not Johnny. The death of the closest and most beloved member of his family was hard enough, but those words of his father's just heaped more misery on top. He blamed himself for not going with Jack to the shop and felt his dad blamed him as well. Most of his life was a reflection of that incident and the aftermath.
Johnny Cash spent around 50 years in music and this song was basically his goodbye to everyone
Brother you nailed it . The industry separated itself from this style of music in every genre. It is missed and that is exactly how outlaw country and southern rock was born . The industry truly despises this .
I will never not cry to this song. I love the original by Trent Reznor, but this rendition just hits differently. I've never been a huge fan of Cash, but can appreciate his unique musicianship and how much of himself he put into entertaining us all. Hearing this song I get flooded with the thoughts that he's no longer with us, knew at the time he wouldn't be here much longer, and then my own mortality too. Seeing a man so thoroughly humbled by his own reality and the coming of the end of his career, his family, and his life is just so incredibly moving. It all ends, but will you regret it? Or would you do it all the same way?
I'm 44 years old...this song makes me feel like the 10 year old me looking at the 80 year old me. Whenever I let the insignificant things in life get the best of me, I listen to this song, and there's no better reset button. I just see my wife and kids and remember, "they are the ones that are important, nothing else".
This is an amazing song, I always interpreted the empty table as the family and friends he lost from the mistakes he's made in life, those he hurt. I've always found it very relatable and I think the same for many people that have had different mental struggles and have used substances to cope.
This a Nine Inch Nails written song. Cash sang this just before he died at 71. Nine Inch Nails just said this is now Johnnie’s song. It’s about his addiction that he quit cold with the help of his with June Carter Cash.
Not only your voice sticks out but you as a good and kind person sticks waaay out
I am an old country girl that loves this channel and You!
I think Johnny Cash started gaining popularity in the 50s.
I don't remember him ever covering any song before this one.
The NIN version must have touched him in a powerful way for him to not only remake the song, but to release it and make a video.
Legendary.
Krizz I love you man. Real men do cry. Monsters do not.❤️🇦🇺🫡
Johnny Cash is a legend one of the best there ever was and won’t ever be another one like him.
One of the best cover songs ever (along with Gary Jules' version of Mad World). Makes a huge difference when the artist really makes a song their own.