One of the final recordings - and the last video made - by the late Johnny Cash was of the song "Hurt", written by Nine Inch Nails / Trent Reznor. The story of how Cash came to cover the song, and Reznor's emotional reaction to it, is found here.
I hurt myself today,
to see if I still feel.
I focus on the pain,
the only thing that's real.
The needle tears a hole,
the old familiar sting.
Try to kill it all away,
but I remember everything.
What have I become?
My sweetest friend.
Everyone I know,
goes away in the end.
And you could have it all,
my empire of dirt.
I will let you down,
I will make you hurt.
I wear this crown of thorns,
upon my liar's chair.
Full of broken thoughts,
I cannot repair.
Beneath the stains of time,
the feelings disappear.
You are someone else.
I am still right here.
What have I become?
My sweetest friend.
Everyone I know,
goes away in the end.
And you could have it all,
my empire of dirt.
I will let you down.
I will make you hurt.
If I could start again,
a million miles away.
I would keep myself.
I would find a way.
