Trent Reznor, leader of the band Nine Inch Nails, once said he “couldn’t give less of a sh*t” if he and his band got inaugurated into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Since then, he changed his tune about the Rock Hall to a more supportive one. Last month, he and NIN bandmates past and present : Atticus Ross, Robin Finck, Chris Vrenna, Danny Lohner, Ilan Rubin, and Alessandro Cortini got inducted. Now, Reznor has said firstly, he was the only member set to get in, but he made sure his bandmates got the credit they earned.
Speaking with Consequence Of Sound, Reznor said:
“From my perspective, I just felt it was the right thing to do. I think, kind of lazily, the approach was, ‘OK, we’re just going to induct you.’ Then I thought I’d push back and say, ‘Well, you need to at the very least induct Atticus, and you should induct these guys.’ And that was pre-pandemic. And the endless kind of justification of that, which wasn’t necessarily fought by me, as much as me telling my manager, ‘Make this f*cking happen … Enough.’
It’s backed up by the precedent where you could look at other bands and say, ‘The Cure got these guys in. That guy’s been in the band X amount of time.’ Again, I wasn’t the one presenting the case, but I felt strongly that it’s a shared recognition, and it would certainly feel better to me. It wasn’t rolling a boulder up a hill. They weren’t against it. I don’t know where their minds were at, but I’m glad it turned out the way it did.”
Ross also spoke with the publication about his induction, saying, “From my perspective, I try and approach life without any expectations. Something like being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and something like Trent going out on a limb to make sure that happened, I’m incredibly flattered. And I think it’s incredibly generous. I mean, did I ever think I was going to be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame? No, I never thought that would be the case. Did I ever think any of this was gonna happen? I’m just trying to get through the day. You know what I mean? So, it’s all been good.”
Meanwhile, Reznor recently got one step closer to becoming an EGOT winner, as he’s only one award away now.
