10 Cover Songs That Make Absolutely No Sense

Not many people can claim to have the true career renaissance that Johnny Cash had. Up until his death in the early '00s, Cash had made an entirely new career working with Rick Rubin, taking the more contemporary songs from the alternative community and meshing them into his outlaw country format. While many might single out his take on Hurt by Nine Inch Nails as an inspired choice, his take on grunge made for something interesting on Rusty Cage.

Being one of the standouts on BadMotorfinger, Soundgarden's original version of the song is the polar opposite of country, as Chris Cornell reaches into the deepest depths of his soul to deliver his trademark wails. When put into Johnny's hands though, the whole track feels like we're on a dark and dusty highway as Cash talks about burning dinosaur bones.

Though his voice is clearly not as forceful as it used to be in his prime, the character Cash has in his lower register fits this kind of story well, as he feels like the seasoned journeyman who has seen his fair share of rough patches in life. By the time the music unfolds when he says "I'm gonna break my rusty cage and run," it feels like the ending of some epic Western. For a man as worn-in in the music industry as Cash was at the time, this was just proof that the legend still had some magic left in him.