We’ve all heard by now that Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor is busy retiring NIN’s live incarnation with a “Wave Goodbye” tour and, according to rumors, starting a family with the former frontwoman to West Indian Girl, fiancée Mariqueen Maandig. Also, he loves to hate on Chris Cornell’s Scream album via April Fool’s Day, interviews, and Twitter. Well, Trent still has time to drop a few rants on the Internet, though his management has now forbidden questions on “the state of the industry.”
“I really have no personal issue with Chris [Cornell] at all,” Reznor told Eye Weekly’s Liisa Ladouceur. “We were on [Interscope]. And I have had Jimmy Iovine, the president of that label, come up to me on every record from With Teeth onwards saying I should do some sort of urban thing — it was Timbaland for a while, then it was Pharrell for a while — because ‘that’s how you sell records.’ The idea seemed so preposterous and insulting.”
Reznor goes on to insist that his gripes with Cornell’s album have nothing to do with working with hip-hop producers, as he says making a record with Dr. Dre “would be kind of cool,” but the impetus behind Cornell’s foray into dance/rock was, according to Trent, to pander for radio play.
Though his manager was probably biting his nails in the wings, pondering cutting off the lights, Reznor offered one unprompted comment on the previously off-limits music industry topic: “If I have one major fight in the world of the music business, it’s trying to keep art first and commerce second.”
Fair enough, Trent. You’re doing just fine at both thus far. Now just steer clear of Virgin America and it’ll be okay.