Listen to Chris Cornell’s take on Johnny Cash’s You Never Knew My Mind

Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell (Image credit: Getty)

Chris Cornell’s take on Johnny Cash’s You Never Knew My Mind has been released.

The song features on upcoming album Forever Words which will launch on April 6 via Legacy Recordings on CD, 2LP and on digital platforms.

The collection of material has been created from Cash’s unknown poetry, lyrics, and letters and features performances by artists including John Mellencamp, Elvis Costello, Alison Krauss and Willie Nelson.

Along with the audio stream, the record label have also issued a video showing Cornell at work in the studio along with the late Soundgarden frontman talking about the process of recording the track. View the clip below.

Cash’s son John Carter Cash collected his father’s notes and, over the course of the last two years, he and producer Steve Berkowitz invited a range of contemporary artists to set new music to Cash’s written work.

John says: “Determining the artist for each song was truly a matter of the heart. 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 endeavour to go through these works, to put them together and present them to different people who could finish them in a way that I believed that dad would have wanted.”

Forever Words is now available to pre-order, while a list of songs and artists can be found below.

Johnny Cash Forever Words tracklist

  1. Forever/I Still Miss Someone - Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson
  2. To June This Morning - Ruston Kelly and Kacey Musgraves
  3. Gold All Over the Ground - Brad Paisley
  4. You Never Knew My Mind - Chris Cornell
  5. The Captain’s Daughter - Alison Krauss and Union Station
  6. Jellico Coal Man - T. Bone Burnett
  7. The Walking Wounded - Rosanne Cash
  8. Them Double Blues - John Mellencamp
  9. Body on Body - Jewel
  10. I’ll Still Love You - Elvis Costello
  11. June’s Sundown - Carlene Carter
  12. He Bore It All - Daily and Vincent
  13. Chinky Pin Hill - I’m With Her
  14. Goin’, Goin’, Gone - Robert Glasper featuring Ro James, and Anu Sun
  15. What Would I Dreamer Do? - The Jayhawks
  16. Spirit Rider – Jamey Johnson
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Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.