"I played him the song first, and Johnny just looked at me like I was insane." How Rick Rubin convinced Johnny Cash to record his iconic cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt, and why Trent Reznor originally considered Cash's interpretation 'invasive"

Johnny Cash Hurt video still.

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."