The singer who prayed for the opportunity to sing with Nick Cave
Think of that dreaded feeling when it’s a big day you’ve been looking forward to, so obviously, that is the day you’ll wake up ill or exhausted, when the weight of the world will hit you hard, and the only thing you can do about it is pray or beg some higher power for the strength. In 2000, a prayer came in from a hero, requesting the strength to sing with Nick Cave.
This is a beautiful story, because really, it’s all the wrong way round: one day at some point in the year 2000, it was Johnny Cash on his knees praying to meet the punk, when really it should have been reversed, but what we have here is a truly moving story of mutual reverence. It’s a testament to Cash’s reputation as a true music fan. Just as much as he was a maker, and a truly great maker, Cash was a fan, and he was until the end, such that he didn’t see it as co-signing new acts or bestowing his grand status on them just to help them out, but he was listening and locked in.
He was like this even back in the 1960s when he was an early fan of Bob Dylan and became his pen-pal of sorts, offering the young star advice and support as he went electric. Then, in the late stages of his life, Cash seemed to develop a real love for punk and heavier sounds, and the fact he chose to cover Nine Inch Nails feels so insane and unexpected that people forget that ‘Hurt’ isn’t his own song after he took the alternative track and turned it into a country anthem.
People can’t seem to believe that Cash could possibly love these tunes, but he did, clearly a man who kept his ear to the ground and kept up to date with who was new and who was exciting, because in the 1980s, when Nick Cave’s reputation was still that of a wild punk on the come up, Cash was already listening, and in 1988, when Cave released ‘The Mercy Seat’, Cash was locked in.
He loved it, and he wanted to record his own version, so he did. As a man who wrote plenty about the justice system and famously did his run of prison shows, it’s really no wonder that he’d love a spiralling track about a man walking to his punishment, questioning the ethics of the death penalty; yet still, the connection between Cave and Cash feels wild, and there’s no one it feels wilder to than Cave himself.
“Just to be clear, Johnny Cash was my hero. I used to watch him as a child,” Cave declared on Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and the fact that Cash was a fan was a complete dream come true and one that has bolstered him ever since. The former says no critique can ever get him down now, all because of the simple fact, “It doesn’t matter what anyone says, Johnny Cash recorded my song”.
But that recording almost didn’t happen, as when it was booked for Cash and Cave to come together to cover ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ for the former’s album, American IV: The Man Comes Around, the country star was nearing the end. However, while this was a bucket list moment for the latter, it was clear that Cash wanted to sing the song as bad as anyone.
Cave recalled of the moment they met, “When I got there quite early at the studio and when he arrived, this was close to when he actually died, and he was not well at all”. Cash admitted that really, he was in no shape to be there, and, “He said, ‘Look, you know, I’ve had the flu, I’ve had laryngitis, I have no voice. I’ve never asked Jesus for anything, but I had to perform with you today’”.
Imagine worshipping someone forever, idolising them and loving them your entire life and not only do they like your work and want to meet you, but they look you in the eye and say, “Last night, I dropped down on my knees, and I said, ‘Jesus, I got to sing with Nick. Give me back my voice’”.
Even though it was Cash’s prayer, clearly desperate to sing with Cave, it was Cave himself who really had his prayers answered, as in that moment, his hero was worshipping him back.
