Cash's producer, Rick Rubin, sent a copy of the video to NIN (Nine Inch Nails)'s Trent Reznor. “We were in the studio, getting ready to work—and I popped it in,” Reznor says. “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.’”
“Johnny Cash Makes 'Em Hurt [1]”
I came close to tears myself watching the video [2]; it's that powerful. And he just doesn't cover NIN “Hurt,” he owns it.
I then played the original version done by Trent Reznor [3] and both Spring [4] and I agree: Johnny Cash owns this song; Trent just doesn't come close.
[1] http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=17603
[2] http://www.markromanek.com/video/14_video.html