10 Final Songs That Will Give You Chills

To say that Johnny Cash had a few peaks and valleys in his career is a drastic understatement. Outside of his tumultuous marriages throughout the years and his problems with drugs, Cash was either giving us some of the greatest country ever created or weapons-grade cheese depending on the decade. Still...how is a man putting out his most gripping song while barely clinging onto life?

Though Cash's American series with Rick Rubin features a lot more covers than originals, his version of Hurt by Nine Inch Nails does what Trent Reznor could have only hoped to do. As for the finale of the Downward Spiral, Hurt works as a great final statement, and yet Cash using it to close out his career sounds like a guy who is aware of the many mistakes that he has made in his life.

It's not that much of an upbeat song. In fact, there's rarely a moment of happiness at all. Then again, Johnny doesn't seem to be looking back with disdain. He recognizes that he might not be able to make peace with everything, but he'd much rather own his behavior than live up to the legend persona that he's cultivated for so many years. All it took was for him to be human to reach the level of a true icon.