[MRM]

I heard Johnny Cash interviewed about Hurt not long before he died. He told about being aproached to cover it and listening to it for the first time. His response was that it was the best anti-drug song he had heard and that he would love to do it, but he would have to do it his way. He didn't think they would agree, but they gave him free rein and the song and video were exactly the way he wanted then. FWIW, he said the song was about drugs.

Most artists will agree that there are many layers to their work, some of which they don't realize. That's one of the beauties of Cash's version of Hurt. With him singing you see so many things: an adict who may or may not be in recovery singing about drugs, an old man close to death recounting his regrets, devout Christian repenting for a life filled with sin, a faithful husband crying over past infidelities, a father worrying about what will happen to his children when he is gone, and a husband looking forward to seeing his wife again soon.

My dad liked Johnny Cash but I never listened to him because I thought he was just country, and I don't care for most of that. But then I heard him on NPR (of all places) a couple of times, and he told about writing the lyrics to Ring of Fire and I started listening to the words. Johnny would have made a great Punk. Now I love him and listen to all I can. Even Folsom Prison has great symbolic imagery. He can layer meaning on even the simplest song.