--- title: "AI Lets Johnny Cash Cover Taylor Swift From Beyond the Grave" description: "Someone used AI to create a cover of the late Johnny Cash singing Taylor Swift's \"Blank Space,\" and it unfortunately absolutely slaps." date: "2023-11-01" modified: "2023-11-01" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-johnny-cash-taylor-swift" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai music" - "taylor swift" - "the digest" - "voice cloning" --- # AI Lets Johnny Cash Cover Taylor Swift From Beyond the Grave ![Someone used AI to create a cover of the late Johnny Cash singing Taylor Swift's "Blank Space," and it unfortunately absolutely slaps.]() *\Image: David Eulitt via Getty / Futurism\* ## Write Your Name Someone used AI voice cloning to create a cover of the late Johnny Cash singing Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" — and we must admit that it absolutely slaps. It's been less than a week since [Swift's self-released and re-recorded version]() of her 2014 album "1989" dropped, and already the "[There I Ruined It]()" TikTok account has done the opposite of its tagline by creating a sparse, bluegrass-tinged version of the single that sounds freakishly authentic given that Cash died more than 20 years ago. To hear it in Cash's "voice," the track's chorus recounting of the singer's "long list of ex-lovers/they'll tell you I'm insane" is transformed from the declarations of a precocious pop starlet to the tired admission of a wizened country outlaw, complete with violin and mandolin. "Hello," the AI voice announces at the start of the 53-second clip, "I'm not Johnny Cash." https://twitter.com/buccocapital/status/1719482652577644722 ## Party Time While country stans will recall that this is not the first time the Man in Black's voice has transmogrified a song from its original version into something entirely unique — that distinction, of course, goes to his [2002 cover]() of Nine Inch Nail's "Hurt," released less than a year before his death — this is also not the first time "There I Ruined It" dropped a chillingly-good Cash rendition, either. Earlier this year, the popular TikTok account, which is run by [Dallas musician Dustin Ballard](), created a mashup of Aqua's "Barbie Girl," the Spice Girls' "Wannabe," and Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" in time for Greta Gerwig's instant classic "Barbie" film — all sung by the AI Cash to the tune of his "[Folsom Prison Blues]()." https://twitter.com/BenjaminDEKR/status/1680696407970177025 Strangely, Ballard deleted the "Barbie Girl" mashup from his TikTok and YouTube accounts, but not before the likes of [*Insider*](), [*Open Culture*](), and even the [*Fox News*]() and the *[Daily Mail]()* tabloid published laudatory reviews of the "cover." The brain genius behind "There I Ruined It" seems to have a sense of humor, too, and at one point made the resurrected Cash voice sing "if they free me from this AI, if my voice was only mine, I'd bet I'd move it on a little further down the line," a reference to a similar line in "Folsom Prison Blues." "Far from Barbie World, that's where I want to stay," the not-Cash sings on the AI-infused mashup, which was fortuitously [re-uploaded by a fan account]()*.* "Oh come on, Barbie, let's go party, and take my blues away." Ballard, who has [also done]() a bunch of [really hilarious]() and [often amazing]() "[ruined]()" [songs](), will be doing a [few live shows in the Dallas area]() at the end of this year and the beginning of 2024, and it'll be awesome to watch videos of the events and see how his skills translate live. **More on AI:** *[Biden Apparently Got Scared of AI After Watching the New "Mission: Impossible" ]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()