Country award for Cash
Johnny Cash has won the Country Music Association’s single of the year and video of the year awards for his rendition of the rock song Hurt.
“It’s amazing my father had such a life that he could expose himself and still never lose his dignity and his charm,” said Cash’s son John Carter Cash, who accepted the awards in Nashville, Tennessee overnight with Cash’s daughter, Kathy Cash.
The announcements drew a standing ovation at the CMA’s 37th Annual Country Music Awards.
Cash, who died on September 12 aged 71 of complications from diabetes, was nominated for four CMA awards this year.
CMA voters – about 5,000 industry insiders who belong to the association - nominated him before his death for best single and video for Hurt, a song about drug addiction written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.
The Hurt video underscored Cash’s frailty by contrasting images of a young, robust Cash from concerts and movies with new footage of the weathered and grey singer crooning, “You can have it all, my empire of dirt”. The sequences are stark and interspersed with religious imagery.
The show included a tribute to Cash, with Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Travis Tritt and Hank Williams Jr performing his music.
