Trent Reznor Changes Opinion on Rock Hall After Seeing Ceremony Firsthand
Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor has been critical of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the past, but after being asked to induct The Cure earlier this year and seeing the experience firsthand, he's done an about face on his past comments.
Reznor revealed his reasoning for the change of opinion in a chat with Forbes, stating that he doesn't have a problem admitting he's changed his mind.
"I get asked to do the Cure, induct them, and I love the Cure, and I wanted them to be inducted properly," said the singer. "I thought I could do a good job, went there. As I was in the audience, sitting there, it felt kind of cool in the audience. So I'm sitting at a table with the Radiohead guys, super nice, and I think we all kind of looked at it like, 'This could be bullshit,' [but] as we're there it kind of wasn't bullshit."
He continued, "We're watching Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music get inducted, who I love, and then play. And I see a whole arena full of people into it. I walk backstage cause the Cure's gonna come up. I go out and do my thing and I'm not sure if the Cure is gonna resonate with the audience, the audience I see sitting on the floor there is mostly old industry people. Then I walk out to do the induction, it's loud applause for them and it seems real. They come up and I can see that Robert Smith is happy and the other guys in the band are all kind of freaked out. It felt validating."
Reznor says, "I wanted to see them respected someplace I feel they deserve. It ended up being a pretty cool experience and I thought, 'Alright, it doesn't feel as bullshit as I kind of snarkily dismissed it as. I don't have any problem admitting I've changed my opinion about something."
The musician says he went through a similar situation attending the Oscars for the first time and eventually understanding a little bit of what it all meant.
"I'd seen bits of them like everyone else, but I didn't think I was a composer and it never crossed my mind until we find ourselves with a movie everybody likes, talking about the score and we've got a shot at it," says Reznor. "When I saw what went into the nomination process and the endless rules and the different guilds and how seriously they take the whole thing it was pretty impressive. And it is guys that do what you do voting on what you did. To wind up somehow at the other end of that process holding a trophy in your hand, it legitimately felt like, 'Thanks, man, that felt good to be appreciated for the work that I really felt was good.'"
Nine Inch Nails have been previously nominated for the Rock Hall and in the past and Reznor had stated his reluctance to give it much of a thought, but now he feels that the induction process could be quite cool.
Voting is currently underway for the Rock Hall's members. Meanwhile, fans can also vote and the top five vote getters will be part of a "fan ballot" that joins the other Rock Hall member votes. You can see the current voting standings as they are tallied and updated every 60 seconds. Nine Inch Nails currently sit tenth in the fan voting. You can login to vote, with their voting capped at one ballot per day. Head here to make you votes count.
The voting concludes Jan. 10, with the results and the induction class announced soon after. The 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place May 2, 2020 at Cleveland's Public Hall.
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