“He should do this”: Trent Reznor on the song only Dave Grohl could play
Anyone building a record from the ground up always needs the right people for the job. Even if there are core members of the band who are some of the finest players in the world, that’s not to say that all of them have the exact right feel for what a song needs when they are stuck behind the glass. While it might not be fun to put certain people on the bench, Trent Reznor knew when he needed someone who could hit hard when working on some of the best Nine Inch Nails records.
After Pretty Hate Machine, it became clear that Reznor could do everything himself. He had been one of the leading figures of the band when ‘Head Like A Hole’ started taking off, and while Richard Patrick wanted to do some more songwriting, it was clear that he was going to have to make that a reality with Filter rather than get in Reznor’s way on any of the new material he was making.
And looking at what happened on The Downward Spiral and The Fragile, Reznor wasn’t afraid to get insanely dark. Aside from the fact that the former was recorded in what was left of Sharon Tate’s old house that was ransacked by Charles Manson’s ‘Family’, Reznor unleashed some of the most brutal parts of his psyche. No matter how many people liked a song like ‘Hurt’ when it was played on the radio, it doesn’t get any easier to listen to after going through the ominous title track.
While every piece of those two albums was about tearing himself apart in many ways, With Teeth was one of the first steps towards healing. He knew that he would have probably been dead if he kept going, and when he let out his aggression this time around, he had a more poignant message behind tunes like ‘Right Where It Belongs’ and ‘Every Day Is Exactly the Same’.
“I wouldn’t play on a band’s record that I don’t enjoy. Or play for money.”
Dave Grohl
At the same time, it’s not like Reznor needed a great catalyst to be angry in 2005. George W Bush was leading people into another war that would leave millions of families displaced, and while ‘Every Day is Exactly the Same’ was never going to resonate with everybody, Reznor figured that he get Dave Grohl in the mix to make sure that they would at least be moving their legs as they listened to it.
According to Grohl, Reznor said that he couldn’t think of anyone who could nail the drum track except for him, saying, “Trent Reznor was recording and giving directions to the drummer that maybe he should do this like Dave Grohl would do it. Finally, he thought, ‘Why don’t I just call Dave?’ I wouldn’t play on a band’s record that I don’t enjoy. Or play for money.”
Grohl’s willingness to work with Reznor also provides good insight into how he sees music being made. The drummer has made no secret that he is not a fan of technology like Pro Tools, but when he sees someone like Reznor using things in a humanistic way, he realises that it could be simply another tool in the musician’s toolbox when putting together one of their records.
But, really, Grohl did end up stealing the show a little bit when he threw his drums on Reznor’s tracks. After all, With Teeth was a protest record when it wanted to be, and if he was looking for a smack in the mouth, the Nine Inch Nails frontman knew that he needed someone who could hit with the ferocity of John Bonham.
