Sharon Van Etten has delivered an elegiac cover of Nine Inch Nails classic ‘Hurt’ for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Sound of Saving’s “Song that Found Me at the Right Time” series.

Before launching into the performance Sharon Van Etten detailed her own journey with depression, “In my life, when I’ve accepted help are the times when I have overcome [my problems],” she shared. “I found the road, ya know? It was like somebody opened the gate to a road that I knew was a better road.”

She continued, “Even if it’s a different road, at least it’s moving.

“And you’re moving forward to something else then this dark place alone. Wouldn’t you rather go down a road with someone you care about that wants to help you? Sometimes it does take an outside perspective for you to understand yourself better.”

Van Etten went on to detail that she was introduced to the Downward Spiral track by her older brother, when they were listening to cassette tapes together. Revealing that at the time it felt as though her brother was trying to connect with her on emotionally through the secret language of music.

“I was the cliché middle child and always felt misunderstood, and then the oldest brother was the one that I connected to the most with music. When I was learning to play guitar, he gave me a box of cassettes,” Etten said of the 1994 track. “By the time ‘Hurt’ came on, I just remember connecting to it so much but also realizing that my brother had listened to it, and we’d never really talked about any deep feelings, but we always shared music.

“It was my first sign that my brother was trying to connect with me on a more emotional level than just “we’re sharing music.”

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Check out Sharon Van Etten covering ‘Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails:

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