Rick Rubin on Cash's Legacy

He just heard the words. They resonated with him. I remember when I sent it to him. I said, "I really feel like this one has the potential to be special." So he may have given it a stronger chance, than if it was one of twenty songs on a CD. I don't know if he would have picked it, but I asked him to listen closely and pay attention to the words. I imagined him singing it and knew how powerful it could be.

It's fascinating to look at the songs he covered on the American albums, and the people who wrote them: Reznor, Soundgarden, Beck, Nick Cave. With his intense life experiences with drugs, poverty, despair and ultimately resurrection, Johnny Cash had every right to look at these younger songwriters and say, "What the hell do these kids now about life?"

He wasn't like that. He looked at everyone and everything equally. He liked what he liked, and he didn't like what he didn't like. It didn't have anything to do with who you were or what experience you had or what your track record was. He looked at these songs as art, judged them as art. And he decided, "This is good art, and it's good art that fits me.

He was like that in every way in his life. It's not unique to his music. He didn't see barriers or classifications between people. He just loved people.

When did you first meet him?

In 1992. I went to see him perform, got to meet him after the show backstage. And we talked. I can't really remember anything about it. But I felt like there was a strong connection. The connection we made didn't seem to come from the words we spoke. It felt like we could have sat together silently for the same amount of time, and the exchange would have been the same — or maybe better.

Were you awed by his titanic presence, the gravity of his voice?

It's odd: With some people, I've had that. For some reason, I didn't feel that with him. It was an immediate feeling of safety. There was no sense of intimidation, right from the time we met.