Talk:Trent Reznor

[02_08_2006]

"The Grammys make me hate music, and certainly everyone in the ass-licking music industry."

5:53pm_PST

Posted on the official Nine Inch Nails website (www.nin.com) by Trent himself and I couldn't agree more. Awards ceremonies remind me of high school popularity contests...

-

"One step closer to the end of the world. The one-two combo of corporate greed and organized religion apparently proved to be too much for reason, sanity and compassion." 4 November 2004, after the declaration of US President George W. Bush's re-election.

I agree Trent, we are in dire circumstances beyond our control. nEdra gUnn

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• "One step closer to the end of the world. The one-two combo of corporate greed and organized religion apparently proved to be too much for reason, sanity and compassion."
  • 4 November 2004, after the declaration of US President George W. Bush's re-election.

• "I tell you what I do feel like right now - it's like, I'm 39 now, yeah? I don't feel like it. The last time I checked I was about 26. Thirty-nine, that's fucking old. That's not cool anymore. I never thought about age, I was never concerned about it. Until I turned 39 this year and I went, ‘Are those wrinkles? What the fuck? And is that hair? On my back? Jesus Christ’."

• "I do actually believe in love. I can't say that I'm 100 percent successful in that department, but I think it's one of the few worthwhile human experiences. It's cooler than anything I can think of right now."

• "I used to hate being alone. I always used to have roommates, or somebody near me, because I couldn't stand being by myself. I remember one time, it was about 10 years ago, I was in a dilemma because I wanted to see this film, but I didn't have anyone to go with. So I agonized over it - Everyone was going to know I didn't have a date, and it was a Friday night too. So I purposely crept in after the film started, and I didn't enjoy it because… I don't know."

• "I hated school... I fucking hated it. The fact is that it revolved around something you didn't have access to. If you weren't on the football team, if you were in the band, you were a leper. When people say those are the best years of our lives, I want to scream."

• "When I went to college, the year that I went, I went there with this grandiose idea of... Well, I felt like I'd fucked up in high school because I was the guy in the art class not doing anything... I decided I was going to fit in, in college: 'I am going to fit in.' One semester later, I'm in the art room with all the other guys that don't fit in."

• "I cut my hair now, and nobody recognizes me. It's that whole thing I was bitching about earlier - 'I can't go anywhere without someone pointing' - And now it's like, 'Hey, it's me man!' I'm standing in the N section with my laminate on and covered in mud. (laughs) I just can't get a response anymore."

• "Oh, I wouldn't say I'm a rock star, though we're always the last to leave a party. Does that count? Jesus, what a loser!"

• "It just took me time to sit down and change my head and my life around. I had to slap myself in the face: 'If you want to kill yourself, do it, save everybody the fucking hassle. Or get your shit together.'"
  • Rolling Stone Interview on his decline of killing himself.

• On the Closer video - "I remember when that was having problems, aside from nudity and a couple things which was obvious, the main complaint was the tone of it. And the tone wasn't one of.... 'Take that scene out.' It was the whole thing makes you feel like.... You might throw up."

• On the Closer video - "If you think that I worship Satan because of something you see in the 'Closer' video[with its images of a crucified monkey], great!"

• On 20 Years of Rock On MTV talking about Closer Video.-"I thought Closer was a catchy tune but crippled because of the lyrics"

• "One thing I always thought growing up was, 'Man, I hope I never get to the age where I don't like toys anymore 'cause I love Christmas and I love getting toys.' Later I thought, 'I hope I never get to the point where I lose touch with what's going on musically.' But then you realize this weird thing of maturity creeps in. Understand that I'm not saying I'm Mr. Old Guy right now, but I've gone through changes and I realize I'm not 21 right now and I still like innovative, cool things... but I'm lying if I think my brain hasn't changed."

• "If I think the NIN record has to be all dobro and Jew's harp, then it has to be that."

• "Well, it's weird when you play a show somewhere and there's a disproportionate number of people backstage talking about how they're witches. And that there's a cool place to go - 'Hey, you guys want to go out tonight after the show?' 'Yeah, where?' ' Well, there's a great place. There's this old abandoned church that these satanic cults hang out at.' It's not, 'Let's go down to the bar.' It's like, 'Let's go out and slaughter a cow.' What the fuck? It's the last thing you're expecting. And they assume that you must be into that. I've got someone coming up to me saying, 'The promoter is telling everyone you're a warlock.' I think a lot of spare time breeds incredible weirdness. They're looking for some way to rebel. I don't know."

• "I didn't want to come across as an industrial, snarling, Satan-singing entity"

• "'To a large extent, my music is about me coming to terms with who I am, and addressing that in a potentially ugly manner'. Sometimes that's a shocking thing because when you peel back the skin, sometimes you find that what you see is not always the person you originally hoped or thought you were."

• "I've not thought about suicide a lot because it's kind of dangerous in your own mind to think about it. But I make myself think about it once in a while to explore what it would be like, you know, what if I did? I don't want to do it, I have no plans to do it, but there's been times when I've seen that black fucking cloud, and I don't even want to get up, like, what's to get up for? Because there's no way I can fix everything that's fucked up."

• "There's nothing like a stressful day."

• "I mean, I don't fucking know how to write songs. I opened my journal up, wrote things I could never let anybody hear, and it turned out people liked them. I was embarrassed, because it was like telling people your most naked thoughts. Each new song probably won't start with the word 'I'. If you add up the number of 'I's' I've used in my life, it comes to... quite a lot! There's also a real element of boxing yourself into a corner. How much more dead can you be? How much closer to suicide can you get?!"

• "I was raised by my grandparents, the greatest people in the world. I try to tell them, 'You're not going to hear my music on the radio. I'm not going to be on soap operas singing this.' I can imagine what my grandfather tells people: 'It's called Nine Inch Nails-here's the video. And here he is lying dead at the end of it.' I warned my grandfather that the church might be after him."

• "I come out of this cocoon now into a climate where things have changed, and it hasn't in my opinion been for the better. Today, musicians are complimented much more on their business plan than their talent. When I see an idiot like Fred Durst [of Limp Bizkit] spouting off about, 'I'm in it for the money, buy my record, buy two copies of it, I'm going to be the best business man, I'm just doing this till I get into movies' -- [he should] sell dish-washing liquid or something. It's damaged music. I don't mean him personally, but this climate has created a very unhealthy situation to spawn new creative acts."

• On live performances- "At the end, I feel like everybody in the audience is my friend - we've gone through a battle and come out the other side. In the past, it had more of a confrontational vibe. We assaulted the audience, and they assaulted us back. This time it transcends that. By the encore, it seems like I want to invite everybody over to my house and sit around ... it's a strange connection that I don't remember being there, a vulnerability that wasn't apparent last time around."

• "I watch MTV and I think it sucks and most of the videos are shitty. But I watch because I like knowing what's going on. I want to know that the last No Doubt video sucked so I don't do it myself."

• On his friendship with Marilyn Manson- "There was a long chunk of time that we (Marilyn & I ) weren't each other's favorite people, but I have since realized he is very much like the brother I never had. The feeling is mutual. You sprinkle a little fame on two stubborn people in close quarters, and they both think they know what is right and wrong, and there's going to be a fight. We both did some growing up."

• On his music- "I can make something loud but how can I make it the loudest, noisiest, most abrasive thing I've ever heard? Can I go ten steps past the goriest horror film that you have ever seen that its more disturbing than cheesy? I know I can; I've done it. If you're not ready for it, it's terrible, it's noise. On a couple listenings, if you get that far, you hear through the distractions and find a beauty under the surface of ugliness."

• "There are just some things that don't seem very fair in the world, like this fucking hypocrisy of organized religion. I just don't understand how people can blindly believe a bunch of the shit they're fed, to believe it so that they don't think too hard about other issues. 'Be a good boy and you'll go to heaven.' If it works for you, fine, but it doesn't work for me and that pisses me off, because I kind of wish it did."

• "While I was working on Downward Spiral, I was living in the house where Sharon Tate was killed. Then one day I met her sister. It was a random thing, just a brief encounter. And she said: 'Are you exploiting my sister's death by living in her house? 'For the first time, the whole thing kind of slapped me in the face. I said, 'No, it's just sort of my own interest in American folklore. I'm in this place where a weird part of history occurred. 'I guess it never really struck me before, but it did then. She lost her sister from a senseless, ignorant situation that I don't want to support. When she was talking to me, I realized for the first time, 'What if it was my sister?' I thought, 'Fuck Charlie Manson. 'I went home and cried that night. It made me see there's another side to things, you know?"

• "When Nine Inch Nails first got signed, I didn't know how to do interviews. I really still don't. I talk too much and say stupid things."

• "I'd be sad if I was dead tomorrow."

• "Those are things I never felt I needed. I haven’t had time to cry if I felt like crying. I haven’t had time to stop myself from being this robot who is really running away from everything. You think that [success] or even good work will take care of everything, but part of you starts to rot if you leave it unattended. I want to enjoy some degree of the ride that I am on, and I do. I’m not walking around in a gloom all the time. I'm feeling whole again."

• "I was at my most miserable when I had everything I ever wanted."

• On Johnny Cash's cover of his song Hurt- "Any exposure to this video or any of Johnny's music may help some people realize the possibilities of music, and [it] reminds you that it doesn't have to all be what it has turned into for the most part."

• On Johnny Cash's music video for the cover of NIN's Hurt - "When I saw the video it was...goose bumps up the spine. It's an unbelievably powerful piece."

• "Sometimes we pee on each other before we go on stage."

• "I think there's something strangely musical about noise."

• "Today's political climate does not allow the luxury of apathy."

• "The Grammys make me hate music, and certainly everyone in the ass-licking music industry."

• On shaving his head: "and I thought, 'Christ, I'm ugly! What kind of hats are out now?'"

• "Why do I not jump in the crowd? Because my shirt gets ripped off and someone sticks their finger in my butt."

• "An integral part of any relationship is knowing that you could be killed in your sleep at any time."

• "Universal has even asked me to sign something saying it's ok with me for them to sue ME. I then asked them if it was ok with them if I sued myself as well. They're getting back to me on that."

• On Year Zero (album): "A lot of it was improvised. It is very tedious describing your own music. It's not just music. It's probably too long, but it felt like the right thing to do to paint the complete picture. It will sound different after a few listens. You can think about it and it will reveal more than you were expecting. You can dance to a lot of it... You can fuck to a lot of it. Maybe all of it, depending on what you're into."

• On his motivation for Year Zero (Album):"I just couldn't stand being represented by that asshole"

• I may be happy and engaged, but I can still be a prick.

• "People are always saying, 'You're really nice, I thought you were going to be a complete asshole.' I'm getting pretty fed up with it. I just want to say to them, 'Well I could always piss on your head.'"