10 Amazing Covers Albums In Rock And Roll Music

In the era when alternative rock started ruling the charts, no one was really betting on Johnny Cash making a comeback any time soon. The Man in Black had already been known as the outlaw of country music for a while, and some of the more embarrassing songs he made in the '80s weren't really helping his case as a sinister figure. When Rick Rubin came into the picture though, Cash got to know his dark side again on American Recordings.

While it might be cheating to include a Johnny Cash record on a list like this, this is probably the closest to rock that he had come to at this point, especially when you look at the spare production behind these songs. With only Cash's trademark baritone to carry most of these songs, you really starteto zero in on the lyrics, which would have been far too macabre if Cash had decided to release them during his golden era.

While murder ballads are nothing new in country music, hearing something like Delia's Gone in Cash's old age is terrifying in spots, sounding apathetic talking about having to kill his old flame and get out of town. This wasn't the last time that Cash got an inkling for rock music either, with later records featuring members of the Heartbreakers and going on to cover artists as diverse as Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden. Johnny was a much different man than the one who stepped into Folsom Prison all those years ago, but hearing these songs was just a reminder that we still had a giant of outlaw country among us.