The song that Trent Reznor called a hug from God: “A very insecure time in my life”
Every single artist who has ever made rock and roll has had those moments of doubt when it comes to their songs. Even if everyone is screaming every lyric at the top of their lungs, there are always those times before anyone has heard of a group when they start to wonder if they really have anything to say or if they’re wasting their time. While Trent Reznor has had many instances where he felt creatively lost, he knew to cherish those few times when he knew everything was going to be alright.
That didn’t mean Nine Inch Nails were going to have the easiest ascent, though. Reznor may have been a songwriting genius from the days of Pretty Hate Machine, but while every label was impressed by what he was singing about, more than a little bit of rockstar excess got in the way of everything.
Since Reznor was already in a bad emotional place at the start of his career, he felt that the fame only magnified a lot of his problems. It didn’t hurt to have millions of people relating to a song like ‘Head Like A Hole,’ but now that he had been placed under a microscope in some respects, he felt more alone than ever when it came time for him to write the follow-up record. So if he started the first record already angry, The Downward Spiral was a case study in self-destruction.
Throughout every piece of the album, Reznor sounds like he’s trying to mutilate himself in front of his audience, whether that’s tearing down his social tendencies or exacting violence against anyone who looks at him the wrong way. And for anyone who isn’t used to albums with happy endings, the title track is where everything comes to a grizzly end after he chooses to end his life.
While ‘Hurt’ does bring a little bit of levity to the end of the record by having Reznor choose life if he decided to do everything over again, it didn’t fully settle in until Johnny Cash recorded his own version. Reznor had begun to come out of the darkness by the 2000s, and while he was still on the road to recovery, hearing his song juxtaposed with one of the legends of American music.
“It said ‘Everything’s okay and the world is bigger than what’s just in my head.'”
trent reznor
Despite having played the tune with artists like David Bowie, Reznor felt this version was the moment he realised someone was looking out for him, saying, “I was flattered as an artist and as a human being they could do that with my song. And it came at a very insecure time in my life and it felt like a nudge and boost and a hug from God. It said ‘Everything’s okay and the world is bigger than what’s just in my head.’”
And listening to what Reznor would do afterwards, you can hear that sense of inner peace whenever he sang. Although nothing had changed on an album like With Teeth, hearing him end the album off with ‘Right Where It Belongs’ showed that he had gone from being a reckless sociopath on his records to a much more level-headed version of himself.
‘Hurt’ is by no means the best pick-me-up song of all time, but for anyone who has ever travelled to that dark place in their mind, hearing both Reznor’s and Cash’s versions is enough to keep you sane. It might not be easy trying to go through the struggles of life, but this is always going to be that confirmation that you’re not totally alone in the world either.
