music isn't as simple as a songwriter
getting one message across to the
listener of a song people bring their
own backgrounds their own viewpoints
their own opinions to form their own
interpretation of a piece of music Born
in the USA can be a patriotic American
Anthem to some and it could be an
anti-war song to others but rarely does
it become so obvious where two versions
of the same song can have entire
different
meanings 1994 Trent resar produced a
deeply dark and disturbing piece of
music that reflected his mindset at that
time it was a bleak look into the psyche
of a young man desperately struggling
with identity drug addiction and
depression a few years later came a
cover of the song but it wasn't another
young upand cominging rock band with her
own version it was a man near the end of
his life a man who had largely faded
from being the country music icon he
once was what was unexpected was the new
meaning this man brought to the Trent
original lyrics and even more so how
much extra weight and emotion this man
added the man was Johnny Cash and it
became his own interpretation of the
song
[Music]
Hurt by the early 90s Johnny Cash had
fallen from Grace he spent much of the
1980s increasingly marginalized chasing
Trends instead of setting them and
ultimately Columbia his record l Lael of
25 years dropped him at the same time he
was recovering from a drug addiction
relapse and health problems started
creeping in Johnny's future in the music
business was looking Bleak it was after
a show in 1992 where Johnny was
approached by a young and hot record
producer with an idea to help Revitalize
his career de Jam records co-founder
Rick ruin was at that show and saw a
still vital artist who didn't deserve an
early Sunset Reuben offered to sign him
but Johnny is cynical at this point why
would Johnny sign with this rap rock
producer well Rick had an idea and he
said what I would do is let you sit down
before a microphone with your guitar and
sing every song you want to record and I
said you're talking about a dream I had
a long time ago what came in the
relationship was the spark that led to a
set of four albums throughout the 9s and
early 2000s known as the American
recordings they were all critically
acclaimed and gave Johnny relevance to a
new younger generation Johnny's wish to
record any song he wanted meant that he
did a lot of covers and by the early
2000s him and Rick had developed a
method in which they decided together
which ones they would end up recording
it said of like CD had 20 songs or 25
songs I had hurt on one of the ones that
I sent him and he didn't respond and
usually if he didn't
respond we didn't go back to it you know
and that one I remember I sent it again
and I put it first on the next
on the next CD when he listened to CD
again he didn't respond I said check out
that first song and I really feel like
that one could be good that song Rick
was so insistent on was from 9in Nails
it was their hit from 1994 hurt in the
early '90s Trent resner rented out of
Los Angeles house to write and record a
new album it was the famous house where
Sharon Tate and her friends were
murdered by the Manson family in the'
60s resner was not in a good spot
emotionally he was struggling with his
new found Fame and a sense of identity
to cope with his depression he wrote a
brutal depiction of self-loathing and
emotional numbness that begins hurt
myself
[Music]
today to
see resner later called the song A
Valentine to the sufferer he sings the
verses quiet and intimately followed by
the chorus where it feels like Trent's
releasing all the pain he feels inside
of
The Bleak chorus was a reflection of how
Trent valued his selfworth at the time
and his deep loneliness I've always had
a sadness and a sense of Abandonment I
think haunting me and never feeling like
a fit in anywhere and always feeling
like an outsider it's not rational it
just happens often when Trent was later
approached with the idea of Johnny Cash
covering the song he was understandably
unsure Not only was hurt an extremely
vulnerable Peak into his in Securities
but having an old country music singer
doing it might feel gimmicky ultimately
Trent was still flattered a man of
Johnny stature would do it so he gave
the go-ahead Johnny's version was more
Bare Bones acoustic guitar with tasteful
touches of orgon and piano allowed
Johnny's aged and weathered voice to cut
through but it's clear that age didn't
take anything away from Johnny's
greatness his weakened voice allowed him
to convey emotion in a deeper way and
you believe the wizard he's espousing
when you're 20 years old talking about
regret it's heartbreaking but it's
heartbreaking in a different way because
you have your whole life to figure it
out when you're looking back over your
life at the end of your life with regret
it's Brutal by the end Johnny's vocal
becomes distorted as you feel him get
louder and more passionate about regret
his weakened voice becomes shaky if I
could start again
A Million Miles
Away what changed the meaning of hurt
and what would lift it to a whole other
level was the music video directed by
Mark romanic it enfolded like a mini
biography blending archival footage home
movies and a performance as strong as
the song itself aware that he had little
time to shoot the video Mark flew to
Tennessee to meet Johnny and found the
perfect location a decaying Museum built
in Johnny's honor the house of Cash
Museum
in it Mark uncovered stacks of old
footage a light bulb went off when one
of the first reals he watched showed a
young Johnny riding a train there was
something about the footage of Johnny as
a young vibrant man cut to him near the
end of his life in a weathered old
Museum that was powerful it really upset
me and it really affected me and I
thought it was beautiful but it was so
unlike any video I'd seen before and so
extreme that it really um took my breath
away and
not in a good way it I I didn't know how
to handle
it 3 months after the video shoot
Johnny's wife June Carter Cash died
Johnny himself died months later just
under a year after the release of that
album with hurt on it it would end up
being Johnny's first album to achieve
gold status in the US in more than 30
years but it's hurt that is continued to
stun listeners to this day hurt is a
prime example of how powerful music can
be what was originally intended to be
morose insecure and intimate was a song
juxtaposed with a country legend that
was beautiful emotional and
introspective even though an industrial
rock band like 9in nails pen this dark
song that read like a suicide note it
transcended genre to prove that
ultimately the song Only deals in one
currency genuine heartfelt
motion at the end of the video cash
silhouetted by a harsh yellow light
closes the lid of the piano and rests
his wrinkled hands on top of it at that
point Trent Valentine to the sufferer
became Johnny's swan song what I wasn't
prepared for was what I saw and it
really then wasn't my song anymore you
know I would
find a way