Originally Posted by Trent Reznor

Rick sent me a CD of it. I listened to it, and it seemed incredibly strange and wrong to me to hear that voice with my song. I thought, "Here's this thing that I wrote in my bedroom in a moment of frailty, and now Johnny Cash is singing it." It kind of freaked me out.

Did you say any of that to Rick?

Rick asked what I thought, and I said, "You did a very tasteful job with it" -- which I did think and do think. It was a big juxtaposition for me to hear it as someone else's song now. It instantly became his song after that.

[...]

Then I heard that Mark was campaigning to do a video for it. If I had to list the people that I had the most respect for in the music business, Mark and Rick would be on that list. I saw the video and it took my breath away. Immediately my throat had a lump in it, and at that point, it really struck home. It was heartbreaking. I had goosebumps, which I have right now even thinking about it. It became really inspiring to me.