It’s unquestionable that the influence of Johnny Cash has not only had a profound effect on country artists, but artists from just about any genre imaginable.
When you have a songwriter who is able to tell stories so compelling like Cash, and have the commanding persona and presence to match, it’s much more likely that you’ll reach across genre lines.
With that being said, one musician outside of the country realm that Cash left his mark on, is Chad Smith, drummer for the Red hot Chili Peppers (the guy who looks like Will Ferrell, but by God don’t tell him that).
Smith sat down for an interview with the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum and discussed meeting Cash for the first time, as well as Smith’s opportunity to work with him years back:
“I was fortunate to play with him, we played a few tracks together, and to meet Johnny Cash, I’ll tell what I think what happened… 1994, and Rick calls me as he typically does at 6 at night, ‘Hey Chad what you doing?’ Nothing.
‘You want to come down tonight and do some playing?’ I’m like yeah sure. He goes, ‘I’m recording with Johnny Cash.’ Uhhhh okay. Before I even hung up I’m like out the door, and it was his ‘American Recordings’ record, it was just him guitar and vocals, but he said he wanted to try stuff with a band.”
It was me and Flea and Mike Campbell from Tom Petty’s band… And so I’m like oh Mike Campbell and Johnny Cash, so we go down, I get there early and say hi to Rick, he goes ‘Johnny’s out there go say hi.’”
The first album in Johnny’s American Recordings series was just Johnny and a guitar, but the second album, Unchained, utilized Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, as well as country music’s own Marty Stuart.
Chad’s recordings would wind up on Cash’s 2003 Unearthed album which featured outtakes and alternate recordings from the various American Recordings albums. That album was released just two months after his death.
Meeting Johnny Cash
He went on to detail his first encounter with the great Johnny Cash:
“He’s standing there in the vocal booth, glasses down to his nose he’s got his guitar, and I kinda walk in you know, and it was classic he opens the door and I said ‘Hey I’m Chad, I’m the drummer for the session.’ He goes ‘Hey Chad nice to meet you, I’m Johnny Cash (Deep Johnny Cash voice),’ and that voice! I’m like ahhhh.
I’m like ‘Johnny, wow great, nice to meet you.’ He goes ‘Come on I’ll play you a couple songs, tell me what you think.’ And I’m standing right here, and Johnny Cash is right here, and I think it’s something Dolly Parton sent.
He was playing, I can’t remember the song. I was just stunned that I’m standing, we’re in the vocal booth and he’s standing and singing in the voice you know, and it was great…
And he finishes and I’m like ‘Great! Yeah! That’s a good one!’ And he’s like ‘Alright what about this one,’ and I’m getting my private f*cking Johnny Cash concert… Like 10 minutes of me and him, and I should’ve left at that point.
But it was incredible, he was such a gentleman, humble, unbelievable. He was so f*cking cool, without trying to be cool he just is.”
Johnny Cash… the one and only.
You can check out the full conversation here:
Johnny Cash’s “Hurt,” AKA The Greatest Cover Ever
Talk about one of the most powerful songs (and music videos) you’ve ever seen.
20 years ago, in November of 2002, Johnny Cash rocked our worlds with the release of his final studio album, American IV: The Man Comes Around.
It was the fourth album in Cash’s American series of albums, and the last released during his lifetime. Produced by Rick Rubin, who was primarily known for his work in rap and metal, the first album featured some of bare bones recordings of old Cash songs as well as new ones written by A-list artists, and a few covers, but overall, the 6-part project featured a ton of covers.
Perhaps none more iconic that his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt.”
Written by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, it’s a brutally honest reflection about self harm and how empty life can be in deep, dark depression, and many even suspect that the song is meant to be written as a suicide note.
The song was released less than a year before Cash passed away at the age of 71, only a few months before his wife, June Carter, passed away.
With that being said, “Hurt” has one of the most moving, yet saddening, music videos you’ll ever see.
The video, directed by frequent Nine Inch Nails director Mark Romanek, displays the man himself dressed in black at his home, and also features a number of flashback videos of the man in his prime, along with footage inside of the empty House of Cash museum.
According to Romanek in an interview with Rolling Stone, the decrepit nature of the video was meant to reflect the poor condition that Johnny was in:
“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.”
You can literally see the “hurt” in Cash’s eyes, as he reflects on his past, and begins to break down and weep at the end… it’s beautiful and brutal.
Trent Reznor Weighs In
When Reznor finally saw it, he had to take five:
“We were in the studio, getting ready to work and I popped it in. By the end I was really on the verge of tears. I’m working with Zach de la Rocha, and I told him to take a look.
At the end of it, there was just dead silence. There was, like, this moist clearing of our throats and then, ‘Uh, OK, let’s get some coffee.’”
And speaking of Reznor, he was initially skeptical about Johnny recording it and actually he didn’t really like it the first time he heard it.
According to an interview with NME, he said it felt invasive… too personal to share:
“I said I’d be very flattered but was given no indication it would actually be recorded. Two weeks went by. Then I got a CD in the post.
I listened to it and it was very strange. It was this other person inhabiting my most personal song. Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend. It felt invasive.”
But when he saw the video everything changed:
“I pop the video in, and wow… tears welling, silence… wow. I felt like I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn’t mine anymore.
It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone.
That winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning… different, but every bit as pure.”
And to this day, one might argue that it’s the greatest cover of all time.
It damn sure is one of the best music videos of all time.
Go behind the scenes with director Mark Romanek, as well as commentary from Rick Rubin, Trent Reznor, Bono and more.