The album that almost forced Trent Reznor to quit music: “I was really in a low emotional place”
Trent Reznor is really quite a perplexing figure in rock music when you think about it, swinging constantly back and forth between the vines of enigma and being a complete truth serum. It’s frankly how he built a name and brand for himself over the years, always coming off slightly grumpy or, at worst, like he just doesn’t give a fuck. But there is a darker, unspoken reasoning behind all of this – and it’s one that nearly cost him his career in its prime.
To any outsider looking in, 1994, with the release of Nine Inch Nails’ breakout record The Downward Spiral, would have represented the very best period of Reznor’s life and career. He was finally famous, with a number two album in the charts, and millions of newfound diehard fans – what more could the man want? As it turns out, quite a lot, and indeed, the ironic name of the record began to ring true to the direction of his own life.
Reznor retrospectively told Kerrang in 1999: “Working really hard had brought me to this state of despair, emotionally and spiritually. The Downward Spiral became a self-fulfilling prophecy. I wound up distorted – someone I didn’t know.” But waking up and no longer recognising himself in the mirror didn’t happen overnight – it was a process that the bug of fame leached all over him, and the consequences certainly weren’t pretty.
The musician explained the breakdown by saying: “Finishing a long tour for that record, I found myself at a weird place. Everything was different to when I got on that tour bus a few years before – more people kissing your ass and more wanting you to fail.” But that wasn’t the only project on his plate.
“Then I went right into doing another [Marilyn] Manson record,” Reznor added, “which was a way of staying on tour, mentally. Every night was some ridiculous scenario. When that finished, I was really in a low emotional place, disillusioned.”
As such, in a place with no energy physically left within him and his sense of personal identity at a loss, the easiest and possibly understandable thing for Reznor to do was to bow out. Fame had been a rollercoaster, but the motion sickness of the constant twists and turns had ultimately proved too much to bear, and it was time to get off the ride for the last time.
In the end, it took the healing time and space of half a decade before Reznor decided it was time to get back on the horse – but unlike other comeback stories where everyone rode off into the sunset from that point forward, the ride was far from plain sailing. Addiction issues still remained a plight on his life, and as such, even though the subsequent The Fragile in 1999 was a pretty reasonable success, more work was needed in order to get Reznor’s mindset back on track before he headed back into the trials of a music career one more time.
A further six years and a stint in rehab under his belt, Reznor returned in a much healthier place in 2005 carrying With Teeth – and he finally reaped the rewards. As the slew of hits and number one album followed, it perhaps proved the lesson that the best things come to those who wait, because if the musician had given in at the first hurdle, he would never have known the rapture that was waiting for him on the other side.
