HURT - THE SONG AND THE VIDEO

Trent Reznor had written the song Hurt and recorded it with his band Nine Inch Nails and it was Rick Rubin who suggested that Cash should record the song for his next album. In this article, originally published in issue #53 of The Man in Black, we look back at the recording of the song, the critically acclaimed video and the awards bestowed on both the song and video in the months following its release.

Throughout 2001-2002 Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin were working on songs for his next album. Like their previous collaborations several cover versions were attempted including Bridge Over Troubled Water, In My Life, Desperado and Personal Jesus. However the standout track on what would become American IV: The Man Comes Around would be his cover of the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt.

Cash’s version became one of the most talked about songs of 2003 and there is no doubt that it stands as one of the greatest cover versions of his entire career. However, it was nearly never recorded.

As had happened with Rusty Cage a few years earlier Cash was unsure about the song. When he first heard it, and especially the tune itself, he told Rubin, “I can’t do that song, it’s not my style.” Rubin suggested trying it a different way and laid down a track which Cash felt would work.

It is interesting to note that, at first, Rubin did not want to suggest the song to Cash due to the the original lyrics in one line – ‘I wear my crown of shit.’ On Cash’s version they substituted the word ‘thorns’ instead.

The song was recorded at the Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville and Akademie Mathematique of Philosophical Sound Research in Los Angeles. Mike Campbell and Smokey Hormel played acoustic guitar while the piano, organ and mellotron parts were handled by Benmont Tench.

On it’s release American IV: The Man Comes Around became Cash’s most successful album in over three decades while Hurt would also be successful, as we shall see later.

The songs composer had his doubts about Cash’s version but after seeing the video his opinion changed, “I heard it and I didn’t quite get it. It felt invasive a little bit, felt like it was my song – y’know that was a real personal song of mine – it felt funny hearing his big voice on it. And then shortly thereafter I got the video in the mail, and that’s when it really hit home, that knocked me over. I couldn’t believe how powerful that track had become juxtaposed into his life.”

The praise that the song Hurt received was nothing compared to what happened next – the music video.

Chicago born Mark Romanek had directed music videos for a diverse range of artists including David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna, Nine Inch Nails and many more. His videos have resulted in over twenty MTV awards along with three Grammys, a CMA award and three Billboard awards.
Romanek was also a massive Cash fan and for years had begged Rubin to let him make a video of his hero.

Rubin had played him some tracks before the albums release and Romanek said, “Look, I’m making a video for Hurt ok? Let’s just make this work. I’ll do it for free, I’ll do it for a real reasonable budget.”

The original concept for the video was to film Cash on a Los Angeles soundstage surrounded by memorabilia covering the singer’s career. Items would slowly disappear until, at the end of the song, Cash would appear alone.

Unfortunately Cash’s health prevented him from making the trip to Los Angeles so Romanek brought his crew to his Hendersonville home instead. He was not sure what he would find but one stroke of luck was finding the closed and shuttered House of Cash, now in a state of disrepair, and just a few minutes drive from Cash’s lakeside home.

He told Mark Binelli of Rolling Stone magazine, “It had been closed for a long time, the place was in such a state of dereliction. That’s when I got the idea that maybe we could be extremely candid about the state of Johnny’s health – as candid as Johnny has always been in his songs.”

Part of the new concept, filmed at Cash’s home, was to have a piano silhouetted against the window and the dining room with a banquet spread out before him.

The video was shot over three days and after the video was completed Romanek spoke about the video shoot, and he had an interesting story about one particular moment. “I said to John, ‘This is the last take. So if you want to get angry or smash something up, this is your last chance.’” Cash misinterpreted what he had said and thought he meant this would be the final shot in his life, so he had better make it good. Cash was not one to surrender to defeatism. “I hope it’s not the last take,” he said in that familiar baritone growl.

Filming was followed by two weeks of archival search. Romanek recalled in an interview, “We spent two weeks looking at literally hundreds of hours of film, we were just kind of looking for very graphic close-ups and things that would read in the fast cutting of a music video and just had some sort of poignancy or connection to the music in some way.”

June Carter makes a brief appearance in the video and Romanek told Entertainment Weekly how her part came about, “As we were shooting the first set-up of John, June stood on the stairs and looked at her husband with such a complex expression of pride, love, sadness, and nervousness, that I asked her son, John Carter, if she might like to appear in the video. I wanted to capture that look on film. I think June was very flattered to be asked.”

In between filming Cash’s sense of humour showed through. Not more so than when Romanek had asked June if she would appear in the video to which Cash joked, “Yeah, honey, why don’t you dance naked on the piano here while I’m playing?”

Cash was also extremely generous and after filming was completed he autographed over thirty vinyl copies of his latest album and handed them out to the crew as a parting gift.

The video begins significantly enough with a close-up shot of a baroque ornament from the singer’s own collection, but it’s the next frame as the camera fixes on Cash’s face, that the story really begins. The intensely moving scenes of the frail 71-year-old are juxtaposed with archive shots of a younger Cash. At the moment in the video where Cash sings “Everyone I know goes away in the end”, the camera cuts to a framed photo of his mother on the wall.

Cash said that Hurt was the best anti-drug song he’d ever heard and the rage you see when he pours the wine on the table or starts to weep is a direct result of having lost people to addictions.

The final scene repeats an image from the opening seconds with Cash gently closing the lid of the piano, his thick fingers gently following the contours.

There can be no doubt that Romanek’s direction played a major part in the videos success but credit must also go to others involved in the project – Aris McGarry (producer), Sheira Rees-Davies (executive producer), Jamie Amos (production manager), Jean Yves Escoffier (director of photography), Ruby Guidara (art direction) and Robert Duffy (editor).

Of all the videos that Romanek had made over an eleven year period Hurt got the most reaction and attention of any of them.

Rosanne Cash had been told by her sister that the video may be hard to watch and, despite having a copy, had avoided watching it. During a visit to her father in Tennessee he asked if she had seen it. Rosanne Cash recalled this in an interview, “I watched it with him and June and I was weeping and weeping through the whole thing, my dad was completely clear-eyed and focused on the merits of the video, which is so much like him. He’s able to focus on the most awful truths with an artist’s eye.”

Although Cash was clear-eyed when he watched the video with Rosanne he was at first taken aback and it was only when his family encouraged him that he agreed to its release. In an interview Kathy Cash said, “He wasn’t sure he liked it at first, then he kept watching it and he said, ‘You know, that is a good video.’”

Talking about the video Rick Rubin said, “It made me cry. It feels so personal, exposed, and pure, and real, in a way I haven’t seen a music video before. If you could get that much emotion into a two-hour movie you’ve accomplished something. Mark did it in four minutes. It resonates so strongly with people because it’s a reality we all face. This is about all of our lives.”

The Hurt video was nominated for six awards – Video Of The Year, Best Male Video, Best Direction In A Video, Best Art Direction In A Video, Best Editing In A Video and Best Cinematography In A Video.

When the nominations were announced, Cash said, “I am overwhelmed by this great honor. I thank you all for thinking of me.’’

Cash was hoping to attend the MTV Video Music Awards in New York but health problems prevented him from attending.

On hearing that the video had been nominated Romanek said, “We never expected anyone to play this video, we really didn’t, and now it has six nominations.”

Although the video was up against some tough competition it was hard to believe that it only managed to win the Best Cinematography award!

This was something that Justin Timberlake, who was also up for several awards, would not let go without making a comment. Timberlake took the honours for Best Male Video and during his acceptance speech paid tribute to Cash – “This is a travesty! I demand a recount. My grandfather raised me on Johnny Cash, and I think he deserves this more than any of us in here tonight.”

The video may have been overlooked at the MTV Awards but both video and song walked away with the honours at several other ceremonies during 2003. At the Country Music Association Awards Hurt took the honours for Single Of The Year and Music Video Of The Year and John Carter-Cash accepted the awards.

Talking about Hurt he said, “My father could take any song it seemed, and he could look at it and he could know if it would work for him or not. When he recorded that in the studio, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. He would be grateful.”

At the Americana Music Awards it took the award for Song Of The Year and at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards it won the Best Short Form Music Video category. Hurt also topped Country Music Television’s Top 20 Countdown.

The success of the single also helped American IV: The Man Comes Around become Cash’s first gold record in thirty-two years with sales of over 500,000 copies and it eventually went on to qualify for a platinum award for sales in excess of 1,000,000.

Success wasn’t confined to just America as the single reached the top forty in the UK Chart and the album also charted.

MOJO, the UK music magazine, held several polls in which Cash appeared. In their 2003 Readers Poll he featured in eight out of the twelve categories including Song Of The Year with Hurt. The song was also listed in the 100 Most Miserable Songs Of All Time at number seventeen in the Lonesome Country category! ‘Q’ magazine gave the video the recognition it deserved when they voted it number one in its 50 Best Videos Ever poll.

What started out as a morbid junkies lament composed by Trent Reznor and recorded by Nine Inch Nails, had been turned into a bold and sympathetic interpretation that embraces the universal themes of loss and human frailty by Cash. The song, and the video, stand as milestones in Cash’s long career.

"I enjoyed doing the Hurt video because I felt we were doing something worthwhile, that it was something kind of special. I was there right in the middle of the thing. So after it was put together, I watched with a critical eye to see what I could find wrong with it. And I didn’t find much wrong with it." — Johnny Cash