This Hurts... Johnny Cash - Hurt | Singer Reacts & Musician Analysis

Trent Reznor, the author, said that hearing Johnny sing this felt like he was losing a girlfriend and that it wasn't his song anymore, he just carried it for Johnny a while. Rosanne Cash, Johnny's daughter said, "It sounds like you are saying goodbye." Johnny just replied, "I am."

I have never listened to this performance by Johnny Cash without tears. It has that kind of effect on me. Every time.

The closing moment where he shuts the piano cover and just slides his old hands across it in silent contemplation gets me every time. The end of a career, sadness, goodbye, that one gesture says so much with no words.

Beautifully heartfelt reaction, Millie. I’m an old bloke myself (72yrs) and grew up with Johnny Cash as one of my singing idols. When I first heard this version, it broke my heart. It still brings tears to my eyes. It was his farewell masterpiece. Thank you for sharing this, young woman. 🙏🫶🏻😳⭐️💥🌹🤠😘🇦🇺

One of the best covers of all time, yes Johnny was a legend and he passed shortly after this song. It hits really deep for those of us who grew up with johnnys songs.

If this song touches you while you're young, wait until you're old...it will make enourmous sense...

Johnny didn't want to cover Hurt after listening to the NIN version, but producer Rick Rubin showed Johnny his idea for the song and Johnny gave it a try and the rest is history. ✌️

This is actually a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song. Johnny kills it. It's amazing and your reaction is how it makes most everyone feel. I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes too.

I remember being in college when this song came out. I had rugby training one evening and afterwards, 4 or 5 friends came back to my apartment for a beer. This song was on MTV when I turned the TV on. It reduced a group of big ass, late teen w4nkers to weeping messes. We sat there in silence and tears for about ten minutes. It's still devastating 20 years later.

For me, it's a song about regret - about what life has done to you, and the things you've done - the screw-ups, how you've hurt people, the bad things you've done which simply can't be repaired. I'm pretty old, and that's the way I feel - that's the way I relate to the song.

Johnny grew up in poverty as a sharecropper's son in Arkansas during the Great Depression. He was writing songs at the age of 12. His music teacher told him, after three singing lessons, to stop taking the lessons and just sing naturally. In the 1950s he was signed to Sun Records alongside Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins. He was very much a rebel in the music industry much to the chagrin of music producers and record companies. He wanted to do songs his way, not the way they wanted him to do them. He butted heads quite a bit. He always identified himself as The Man In Black and always work black clothing. It symbolized his relating to the common man, the oppressed, the prisoner, and especially the plight of the Native Americans and Blacks in the 1960s. He often performed in prisons and several live albums were recorded. He suffered from depression most of his adult life and became addicted to alcohol, amphetamines and barbituates. He did several stints in rehab throughout his life. His wife, June Carter Cash and his faith eventually helped him beat his addictions. Cash is the only person to be inducted into The Country Music Hall Of Fame, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. By the time the video was made, Johnny was too ill to shoot a video so they shot the video in his home. June passed shortly after the video was made in May 2003. He passed not long after she did in September 2003.

Trent Reznor has said that this became Johnny's song after this! It was no longer Trent's! They both sang this song from 2 different view points! Trent did it from someone in thier 20's going through some shit but Johnny sang it from the point of a guy who is close to death and looking back on life! This was the last song Johnny ever did and it is so powerful!

This is Johnny's jisei. (Death poem) The power Johnny had, and the wisdom he gathered is incomprehensible. He is a music icon. A country legend. He had it all, yet, it did not matter when death comes knocking. He was wise enough to know that and it's potrayed through his voice.. a warning and lesson for us all.

He battled drug and alcohol addiction a large part of his life. He put his wife June Carter (in the video) through a lot and he had lots of regrets. June died a few months after this song and video and Johnny followed a few months later.

Millie Backstory of this video, it was recorded in February of 2003 with Johnny and his wife, June Carter Cash. Sad part is that after this video, June died in May of same year. As you have seen here, Johnny looked frail. He was too suffering health issues too. Johnny died from heartbroken losing June and health issues in September of same year. One of his children, I think that Roseanne Carter Cash, singer herself, asked her father, "are you saying goodbye in this song?" Johnny replied back, "yes"

I think the reason this cover hits much harder than the original is the fact that Mr. Cash is at the end of his life here. A time of reconciliation, but instead he feels pain. So the hope we have that things will work out for us seems to disappear with each line he sings.

This performance is a masterpiece. Crafted from a life time of musical and personal experience. The crown of performance is to stir emotions in the listener, this did it big time.

This one is difficult to watch, every single time. While Johnny Cash certainly had a life worth celebrating, he also had his fair share of regrets as, I suspect, we all do. Thank you for your touching and thoughtful reaction Millie 🙌

The part that absolutely tears me up every time is it the very very end when he closes the lid to his coffin, I mean, his piano with such a regretful finality. Saying goodbye to his life with nothing but regret.

A stark reminder to focus on what really matters in life from someone who lived a full, but painful life