The old adage “Don’t knock it ’til you try it” turned out to be true for Trent Reznor and his feelings about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
In the past, the Nine Inch Nails frontman has been less-than enthused about getting inducted into the Rock Hall — choice quote from a 2018 Stereogum interview: “I don’t give a f***!” — but in a new interview with Forbes, Reznor now feels it would be “cool” to get in.
Why the about-face? As Reznor explains, he had a change of heart about the Rock Hall when he attended the 2019 induction ceremony to introduce The Cure.
“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 bulls***,'” Reznor recalls. “As we’re there, it kind of wasn’t bulls***. 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.”
When it came time for him to induct The Cure, Reznor was again surprised by the genuine reaction.
“I walk out to do the induction, it’s loud applause for them and it seems real,” Reznor says. “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.”
“It ended up being a pretty cool experience and I thought, ‘Alright, it doesn’t feel as bulls*** as I kind of snarkily dismissed it as,'” he adds. “I don’t have any problem admitting I’ve changed my opinion about something.”
Nine Inch Nails is among the 16 nominees for the 2020 Rock Hall induction. The official inductees will be revealed in January.
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