It was during the sessions for Wildflowers, his second solo album, that Tom Petty suggested to producer and American Recordings label owner Rick Rubin that he should try to sign Johnny Cash. The country icon had been released by Mercury Records after his 1991 album The Mystery Of Life peaked at a lowly number 70 on the Billboard Country chart, and his confidence was at an all-time low. When Cash agreed to meet Rubin after a dinner circuit gig in Orange County, California, his first question for his distinguished guest was blunt and to the point: "Why do you want to make records with me?"
"He was surprised that anybody cared," Rubin told Mojo magazine last year. "I think he felt he had nothing to lose."
Following the success of the pair's first collaboration, 1994's American Recordings, which included covers of songs by Glenn Danzig and Tom Waits alongside Cash originals, Rubin sought to incorporate covers by more contemporary artists on its follow-up, 1996's Unchained. It saw Cash tackle Soundgarden's Rusty Cage, and Beck's Rowboat, among other covers, and received a Grammy award for 'Best Country Album'. While Cash was initially somewhat suspicious of his motives, Rubin now had his full trust. Which was a huge advantage when Rubin came to present him with the suggestion of covering a Nine Inch Nails song on what would turn out to be his final studio album, American IV: The Man Comes Around.
"Hurt wasn't one he understood at first, or Rusty Cage," Rubin told Mojo. "It was more that the original recording was so foreign to him, that he didn't hear the song in there. I ended up doing a demo of it, just with acoustic guitar and vocal, closer to how he would do it, and then he went, 'Ok, I see what it is - it's like folk song lyrics."
Before getting Cash to record his cover, Rubin contacted Trent Reznor to ask how he would feel about this, and Nine Inch Nails' mainman told the producer that he would be "flattered".
"Two weeks went by," Reznor told The Sun newspaper in 2008. "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. I'd known where I was when I wrote it. I know what I was thinking about. I know how I felt. Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend. It felt invasive."
It was seeing Mark Romanek's award-winning video for the song, however, that truly brought home the power of Cash's cover for Reznor.
"I thought what a powerful piece of art. I never got to meet Johnny but I'm happy I contributed the way I did. It felt like a warm hug. I have goosebumps right now thinking about it."
