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The Man in Black
September 13, 2003
When any of those pop stars won MTV Video
Awards in the same category as Johnny Cash's video,
Hurt, they
should have stood up and said the following.
I would like to thank my director for making this
video. I confess that I had nothing to do with it.
Furthermore, I discussed it with the director before
the show and decided that to accept this award in
place of Johnny Cash, Mark Romanek, Rick Rubin and
Trent Reznor would be something I would not be able
to live with for the rest of my life. I do not deserve
it.
Mark Romanek deserves this award for making a mind
blowing work of art that my video does not compare
to in any way. Trent Reznor deserves it for writing
such a great fucking song that I always thought
should have received more accolades than it did
when it was first released. Rick Rubin deserves
it for bringing this song to Johnny Cash and producing
it. And finally, Johnny Cash deserves it for his
fifty years of relentless work in the field of music,
for his 1500 songs, and for the time he spent in
an addictive darkness that has allowed him to create
such a beautiful and real interpretation of this
song.
For those of you who don't know, Johnny Cash was
unable to attend these awards ceremonies because
he is in the hospital. I don't believe in god, but
if I did, I would pray that Johnny Cash recovers,
because I have never met him and I would love to
and I have never worked with him and I would love
to and I know that he is working on another album
and I would love to hear it finished.
But I don't know if Johnny will recover. He is old
and he is sick and what worries me most is that
he has lost his wife this year, and when that happens
to the very old and very married, they often can
not see the reason to keep on living.
This thought has led me to my next course of action.
I can not keep this award. The winner of this award
is Johnny Cash, Mark Romanek, Rick Rubin and Trent
Reznor. I would like to have the honour of awarding
it to them. As only Mark Romanek is in the audience
today, I must insist that he come forward to accept
it when I have finished saying this: Johnny Cash
is old and he is quite possibly dying. It will be
a sad day when he does, but we will be sadder for
it if we do not honour him before he leaves us.
Therefore, I pay tribute to a great man and encourage
others to do so over the coming weeks.
(raise arm)
Here's to the man in black, to a man who has spoken
to me and inspired myself and millions of others
with his songs of real people, with his humility,
with his weaknesses and his fearlessness, and with
his stories of poor and violent and desperate men
facing death unflinching. Here's to Johnny Cash. |
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