Why the Late Great Johnny Cash Is Better Than Nine Inch Nails

Why the late great Johnny Cash is better than Nine Inch Nails:

Johnny Cash walked the line for nearly 50 years, every inch of his journey through the country, gospel, folk and rock worlds etched into his face. He is a character of truly biblical proportions, with a voice, all wailing freight trains and thundering prairies, like the landscape of his beloved America. He has a soul as big as a continent, full of righteous anger mixed with human compassion.

Even Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails adored him. "To hear that Johnny was interested in doing my song was a defining moment in my life's work," Reznor said in a statement. "To hear the result really reminded me how beautiful, touching and powerful music can be."

Johnny Cash was a fighter too. Cash had to keep battling, too. Drugs, booze, and 30-plus operations for a broken jaw, heart surgery--he battled, and came back, from all of these. Perhaps his toughest fight came from his most clinical-sounding opponent: Autonomic neuropathy, the chronic nerve disorder, originally misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease, left him extremely susceptible to pneumonia and frequently sent him to the emergency room. Cash wasn't one to curse his fate or his bad health.

But was Johnny Cash bitter about his health issues? "Why should I be bitter? I'm thrilled to death with life," he told CNN's Larry King in 2002. "Life is--the way God has given it to me--was just a platter, a golden platter of life laid out there for me. It's been beautiful."

Cash's secret seemed to be simplicity: Keep the music basic and roots-oriented, keep the wardrobe monochromatic--all black. "I wear black because I'm comfortable in it," Cash told Larry King, before confessing, "but then in the summertime, when it's hot, I'm comfortable in light blue."

Rest assured Johnny Cash never introduced himself to audiences ("Hello, I'm Johnny Cash") in anything but black.

Therefore Johnny Cash is better than Nine Inch Nails. Thank you for your time David. But deep down you know ole' Johnny is Better! Wishing Johnny Cash was still alive,