Trent Reznor has revealed that hearing Johnny Cash’s superlative cover of his song ‘Hurt’ for the first time was like "like someone kissing your girlfriend".
Talking to The Sun (that popular news source for information about cover versions recorded by old boys about to cark it), Reznor explained how the sonic snog came about. Apparently Rick Rubin "called me to ask how I’d feel if Johnny Cash covered ‘Hurt’. 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."
However, he was pretty chuffed really: "Having Johnny Cash, one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time, want to cover your song, that’s something that matters to me," Reznor explained. "It’s not so much what other people think but the honour that this guy felt it was worthy of interpreting.
"He said afterwards it was a song that sounds like one he would have written in the 60s and that’s wonderful."
Watch the ‘Hurt’ video. Verily, it shall make you cry
