This is actually mind blowing.
When you think of all the country singers who sing baritone and bass, like Johnny Cash, and Josh Turner, and you attempt to hit those notes, you realize just how truly gifted they actually are.
With that being said, one American Idol contestant just might sing deeper than both of those singers combined.
Let me introduce you to Luke Taylor, a 20-year-old college student at Liberty University who resides in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
From one look, you see a guy with the baby face.
However, the second he opens his mouth, you realize that he has a voice of James Earl Jones… literally, the kid should be doing movie trailers.
It’s that deep.
He immediately impresses judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry, and Lionel Richie with his voice, although, Katy voices the obvious concern that he doesn’t have enough range to do well in this competition (she ain’t wrong).
You realize before he even starts singing, he’s gotta career in radio or movie voiceovers in his future if the singing thing doesn’t work out.
He kicks off his audition with a cover of the Johnny Cash hit, “Ring of Fire,” before throwing in a little “Frosty The Snowman” for good measure.
Is Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” The Greatest Cover Of All Time?
Talk about one of the most powerful songs (and music videos) you’ve ever seen.
20 years ago, in November of 2002, Johnny Cash rocked our worlds with the release of his final studio album, American IV: The Man Comes Around.
It was the fourth album in Cash’s American series of albums, and the last released during his lifetime. Produced by Rick Rubin, who was primarily known for his work in rap and metal, the first album featured some of bare bones recordings of old Cash songs as well as new ones written by A-list artists, and a few covers, but overall, the 6-part project featured a ton of covers.
Perhaps none more iconic that his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt.”
Written by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, it’s a brutally honest reflection about self harm and how empty life can be in deep, dark depression, and many even suspect that the song is meant to be written as a suicide note.
The song was released less than a year before Cash passed away at the age of 71, only a few months before his wife, June Carter, passed away.
With that being said, “Hurt” has one of the most moving, yet saddening, music videos you’ll ever see.
The video, directed by frequent Nine Inch Nails director Mark Romanek, displays the man himself dressed in black at his home, and also features a number of flashback videos of the man in his prime, along with footage inside of the empty House of Cash museum.
According to Romanek in an interview with Rolling Stone, the decrepit nature of the video was meant to reflect the poor condition that Johnny was in:
“It had been closed for a long time; the place was in such a state of dereliction. That’s when I got the idea that maybe we could be extremely candid about the state of Johnny’s health, as candid as Johnny has always been in his songs.”
You can literally see the “hurt” in Cash’s eyes, as he reflects on his past, and begins to break down and weep at the end… it’s beautiful and brutal.
When Reznor finally saw it, he had to take five:
“We were in the studio, getting ready to work and I popped it in. 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.'”
And speaking of Reznor, he was initially skeptical about Johnny recording it and actually he didn’t really like it the first time he heard it.
According to an interview with NME, he said it felt invasive… too personal to share:
“I said I’d be very flattered but was given no indication it would actually be recorded. Two weeks went by. Then I got a CD in the post.
I listened to it and it was very strange. It was this other person inhabiting my most personal song. Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend. It felt invasive.”
But when he saw the video everything changed:
“I pop the video in, and wow… tears welling, silence… wow. I felt like I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn’t mine anymore.
It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone.
That winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning… different, but every bit as pure.”
And to this day, one might argue that it’s the greatest cover of all time.
It damn sure is one of the best music videos of all time.
Go behind the scenes with director Mark Romanek, as well as commentary from Rick Rubin, Trent Reznor, Bono and more.
