The first person to inspire Trent Reznor to be a musician: “Some day I’d love to be on that stage”
Not everyone has the most linear career trajectory in history. While everyone likes to think that their career is going to go the same way as they see in the movies, it’s easy for every artist to hit stumbling blocks along the way and stand at the crossroads where they begin to wonder if they will ever get their dreams off the ground. But Trent Reznor always had a vision for what he wanted Nine Inch Nails to be, and he wasn’t going to rest until he made that vision a reality.
Then again, it wasn’t like fame wasn’t going to magically solve all of his problems, either. He was always looking to make art with his music, and while the attention may have been nice for the first few years of becoming a rock star, The Downward Spiral felt like one loud cry of pain from someone who had achieved all of their dreams and decided to use all of that attention to mutilate himself throughout a record.
Because for Reznor, there was a difference between being a celebrity and being an artist. He wanted to make statements every time he made a record, but all anyone wanted to hear about was what drove him to make a song like ‘Closer’ so seductively grotesque. It’s not like he didn’t play into it with his live antics, but he knew that music could mean more than the hit singles.
And looking through his record collection, it wasn’t like Reznor was unfamiliar with how to make music feel deep. He was a card-carrying member of bands like Pink Floyd and The Cure during his upbringing, but he knew that there was some merit to be found in the way that prog bands like Rush challenged their audience by using different synthesisers on their albums. But amid the synth pioneers, no one would have expected country music to be at the top of his list of influences.
Granted, Reznor indirectly led to one of the biggest country-adjacent songs in recent memory when his sample was featured on ‘Old Town Road’, but it’s not like anyone was expecting him to don a cowboy hat and start talking like a good ol’ boy out of Tennessee. When he was a little kid, though, Reznor got the first inkling to play music for a living after watching the Eagles play when they came through town.
Despite ‘Hotel California’ having nothing in common with Nine Inch Nails, Reznor was mesmerised when he heard the band locking together, saying, “The first concert I ever saw was The Eagles in 1976. The excitement of the night struck a chord with me and I remember thinking, Some day I’d love to be up on that stage.”
And while Don Henley wouldn’t consider himself an aficionado of Reznor’s brand of rock and roll, there is some overlap. Both of them knew that their music could be taken seriously beyond the catchy tune, and when each of them made their masterpieces, they made sure to give the fans a bit of a lesson in between the classic melodies as well.
But Reznor’s fascination with the Eagles is simply another musical texture he can play with in his own music. A lot of people might think of programming when it comes to Nine Inch Nails’s back catalogue, but it’s that love of all different shades of music that made him pull wild left turns, like getting together with Lindsey Buckingham onstage to perform a version of ‘Copy of A’ at the Grammys.
