The singer Trent Reznor saw as his lifelong “inspiration”
Anyone lucky enough to cross paths with major musical legends will know what it’s like to have them completely change your life for the better. Just ask Trent Reznor.
For most of his life and career, Reznor has always gravitated towards musicians who take the biggest risks, whether it’s the emotionally vulnerable and immersive experience of Pink Floyd’s The Wall or the rebellious attitude towards mainstream tropes that Reznor found in bands like Rush.
When it came to truly revolutionary and groundbreaking artistic visions, however, Reznor found everything he’d ever need in a certain David Bowie. To Reznor, Bowie was everything rock needed, something that challenged everything it stood for while enhancing all of its best parts. You can imagine, therefore, his delight when Bowie called him up to personally ask if Nine Inch Nails wanted to join him on tour.
It was a major moment for Reznor, of course, but aside from all of the obvious reasons why it was an absolutely incomparable experience to exist in the same room as one of the greatest minds in music history, Reznor also became endeared to the way Bowie surpassed all expectations, not just creatively but because he was also a “fearless” character who took risks even when everything was on the line.
As he later reflected, meeting Bowie on the tour was “validating and surreal” because Bowie was “graceful, charming, happy” the entire time, becoming a “new point of inspiration” from then onwards. Reznor was mainly charmed by the way Bowie did whatever he wanted, and didn’t much care for the consequences at the time.
As evidenced by one moment he recalled to Jonathan Zwickel, when Bowie had turned to him and said, “I’m gonna only play stuff off this new album I did, It’s very obscure and obtuse, and it’s probably going to fail, but it’s something I feel like I need to do, and the audience probably isn’t going to like it, but it’s right for right now.”
He also discussed how Bowie inspired his broader approach to life, saying that his attitude had an impact on the way he felt about enjoying every moment and reframing different aspects of life in a positive way, with him explaining, “After getting to know him and becoming friends with him, it’s been an inspiration not only in his music and his career but also his life… I met him when I was about to bottom out, and it was somebody that had bottomed out, and I saw that there was hope on the other end. Life wasn’t about sitting around AA meetings, smoking cigarettes, reliving the glory days. His life was a shitload better than it was.”
At the time, Reznor was battling his own addictions, something that he’d later reflect on with slight remorse when it came to getting to know Bowie. Luckily, though, when he met Bowie again, this time in sobriety, he was met with nothing but love and understanding, despite feeling a little embarrassed at the memory of who he was last time they crossed paths.
In many ways, therefore, that moment was more important than any precious encounter with the ‘Starman’. After all, Reznor got a second chance, not just in the general sense but when it came to interacting with someone who had had such an impact on his mindset and artistry. And instead of being met with ambiguity, Bowie told him he’d always believed he would do it. “I knew you’d come out of that,” he’d said, and he was right.
