Nearly a year after Soundgarden's Chris Cornell committed suicide, his collaboration with Johnny Cash was released by Sony's Legacy Recordings.
Earlier this month, reports revealed that Cornell contributed to Johnny Cash: Forever Words, a collection of songs that were recorded from the poetry, lyrics, and letters written by Cash. The tribute album also features contributions from Kacey Musgraves, Alison Krauss and Union Station, John Mellencamp, Brad Paisley, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson, Jewel, and Rosanne Cash.
The album was co-produced by Cash's son, John Carter Cash. The material is culled from documents that were discovered following the death of his parents.
"Determining the artist for each song was truly a matter of the heart," explained John in a statement. "I picked the artists who are most connected with my father, who had a personal story that was connected with Dad. It became an exciting endeavor to go through these works, to put them together and present them to different people who could finish them in a way that I believe that Dad would have wanted."
Returning The Favor
In 1996, Cash covered the song "Rusty Cage" originally performed by Cornell's band Soundgarden from the album Unchained. Now, Cornell is returning the favor.
In Johnny Cash: Forever Words, the rock icon performed the song "You Never Knew My Mind." The track marks one of Cornell's final recordings before his suicide in May 2017. Listen to the song below.
In a previous interview, the '90s rock icon talked about meeting Cash and how the "I Walk The Line" singer inspired his life and his music.
"I met the man once or twice in my life, and he was so gracious and he was such an influence on me as a musician," Cornell said at the time he recorded the poem. "And he also covered a song that I wrote. Since that time, I've felt like he's maybe one of the bigger presences in my life, in terms of artists that I'm a fan of."
Johnny Cash's Forever Words
Johnny Cash: Forever Words would come in a CD, two-LP vinyl, and digital formats. The album will contain 16 tracks recorded at the Cash Cabin Studio in Tennessee by a star-studded lineup of musical artists.
The album is now available for preorder from Google Play and Amazon. It will officially be available on April 6 via Legacy Recordings.
A book titled Forever Words: The Unknown Poems that collected never-before-published poems of the singer-songwriter was also published in 2016.
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