Trent Reznor meant that too.

We all know it's Johnny Cashs song now though.

Trent Reznor even said so.
- Trent is wrong, the original is better. Johnny's is ok.
His version is better yeah

All my fellow edgy 90s goth/headbanger friends: "He called it 'Nine Inch Nails' because that was the size of the nails that were used to nail Jesus to the cross"

Then watching an interview with Trent in a documentary 20 years later: "I just thought it sounded cool at the time".

Never ask your fav musicians for the reasoning behind something. It always means less to them than it does to you.
- I'm pretty sure that the band "Free Beer," later known as "BareNakedLadies." Knew exactly what they were doing.
- Type o negative was supposed to be subzero. They got band tattoos already when they found out there already is band called subzero so they had to think something that would fit the tattoos
- Laura Jane Grace’s band naming lives up to her. She just scrawled Against Me! on her first demo tape
actual nine inch nails are probably too big to nail someone to a cross with, they're huge!
- The nails in the NIN branded nail gun ammo crates in Quake sure as fuck weren’t nine inch long.
  But they still gave enemies a….
  Head like a hole 😎
You are all wrong! It was always about manicure!
Just like Trent in Exotic Birds.

Lisan al Gaib?

I fucking hate that it feels like JC "stole" the songs identity from NIN. IMO it sounds awful, there's so much more raw emotion in Trents voice. Ugh, give credit to the man who actually wrote it.

I honestly don't like the JC version. He's iconic so I've never said it out loud but it sounds like your uncle doing karaoke to me.
My biggest beef with the Cash version is "crown of thorns". It's almost as bad as when Ceelo sang "all religions true".
Being a huge NIN fan, I'm completely biased and agree that Trent's version has a bigger impact. But it's important to know that Trent is definitely a fan of Cash's cover.
Unpopular opinion: I think "Hurt" itself is overrated, and everyone just likes it because it happened to become one of the hit songs off the Downward Spiral. I think songs like Mr. Self Destruct and Eraser are what you really want if you want a display of raw, fucked up emotions.