AS a music icon, few could touch the black cotton hem of Johnny Cash. So it is not surprising that it required 36 of the coolest figures in popular culture to pay tribute in a video which has become the talk of YouTube.

Kate Moss reclines languorously, Keith Richards flashes his skeleton ring, while Johnny Depp strums away in the grainy black-and-white video accompanying Cash’s gospel song, God’s Gonna Cut You Down.

With Jay-Z, Bono, Chris Martin, actor Owen Wilson, Iggy Pop and even pop artist Sir Peter Blake joining the stars, mugging, miming or staring intently at the camera, those not invited to participate must feel they are off the “cool list”.

The tribute to Cash, which accompanies one of his last recordings before his death in 2003, was conceived by Tony Kaye, the British film director, and Justin Timberlake, who also appears.

Artists dropped everything when the call to participate from Kaye came through. They were told simply to wear black and interpret the song in whatever way they felt channelled the outlaw spirit of Cash. Each star would be limited to a five-second appearance.

The three-minute video, placed on the YouTube website yesterday, has already attracted 65,000 plays, with fans seeking to identify the icons making “blink and you’ll miss it” appearances.

Amid legends such as Dennis Hopper and Beach Boy Brian Wilson is Corinne Bailey Rae, the Leeds jazz singer, who has begun to make waves in the United States. She was filmed by Kaye in the hour before she left Los Angeles after recording for the Jay Leno TV show, in a hired black dress, lip-synching while the track played on her manager’s laptop.

THE STARS WHO TURNED OUT FOR CASH

Dennis Hopper; Justin Timberlake; Corinne Bailey Rae; Amy Lee; Chris Martin; Brian Wilson; Shelby Lynne; Patti Smith; Kanye West; Johnny Depp, Kris Kristofferson; Jay-Z; Iggy Pop; Sir Peter Blake; Sheryl Crow; Keith Richards; Sharon Stone; Terrence Howard; Kate Moss; Bono, Flea, Q-Tip, Adam Levine, Chris Rock, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee, Dixie Chicks, Mick Jones, Anthony Kiedis, Travis Barker, Lisa Marie Presley, Kid Rock; Billy Gibbons, Brandon Flowers, Graham Nash, Rick Rubin and Owen Wilson

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