Even though MTV was instrumental in Nine Inch Nails’ success in the 90s and helping solve a fake murder, Nine Inch Nails’ leader, Trent Reznor seemed to always have a lot of disdain for the network.
Trent Reznor Expresses His Disdain for MTV
During an interview with Vidmag Media in the early 90s, he expressed his disdain for the music network and its commercialism. He would play along though, appearing on Headbanger’s Ball in 1989, during Christmas, decorating a tree on set to promote the band’s first album, Pretty Hate Machine.
Years later, MTV transformed into a shell of its former self. It stopped playing music videos, it shifted to low-production reality TV shows, while still hosting award shows that featured live musical performances.
On May 3, 2005, Nine Inch Nails released their fourth album, With Teeth. The album was a huge hit, producing several big singles including, “The Hand That Feeds”, “Every Day is Exactly the Same”, and “Only”.
Nine Inch Nails Pulls Out of 2005 MTV Movie Awards
The album was the band’s second record to top the Billboard album charts and the band was set to perform on June 4, 2005 at the MTV Movie Awards to promote the album’s first single, “The Hand That Feeds” when suddenly the band pulled out of the show. They were replaced by Foo Fighters, whose frontman Dave Grohl also appeared on the album With Teeth, playing drums and percussion on several songs.
“Apparently, the image of our President is as offensive to MTV as it is to me.” – Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails released a statement outlining why they dropped out of the performance, saying, “Nine Inch Nails will not be performing at the MTV Movie Awards as previously announced. We were set to perform “The Hand That Feeds” with a straightforward image of George W Bush as the backdrop. Apparently, the image of our President is as offensive to MTV as it is to me. See you on tour this fall when we return to play in America.”
“While we respect Nine Inch Nails’ point of view, we were uncomfortable with the performance being built around a partisan political statement.” – MTV
MTV would respond with their own statement that read, “While we respect Nine Inch Nails’ point of view, we were uncomfortable with the performance being built around a partisan political statement. When we discussed our discomfort with the band, their choice was to unfortunately pull out of the Movie Awards.” One could surmise that the song’s politically charged lyrics were largely influenced by the second Iraq war, which was in the news at the time of the record’s production and release.
“The Hand That Feeds” Peaks on the Top 40 Charts
“The Hand That Feeds” would peak at No. 31 on the Top 40 charts and it would mark the band’s first Top 40 hit in a decade or so.
A week before the Presidential election in 2008, Nine Inch Nails played in Jacksonville, Florida and a photo of George W Bush was displayed behind the band. As the band played the single, the photo eventually morphed into Republican Presidential candidate John McCain.
“The Hand That Feeds” was included in video games, Rock Band, and Midnight Club 3, and as downloadable content in Guitar Hero: Worries of Rock. It was also nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance for the 40th annual Grammy Awards in 2006.
Nine Inch Nails Catches the Attention of the FBI
Sometimes in life we tend to catch the attention of people we don’t want, without even knowing it. That’s exactly what happened when Nine Inch Nails caught the attention of the FBI before the band even released their first record.
In 1989, Nine Inch Nails were about to release their first album, Pretty Hate Machine. The album was a huge hit, going triple platinum in the U.S. and it was instrumental in helping popularize the industrial metal movement.
Prior to the band releasing the album, they were unknowingly on the radar of the authorities from local, state and federal levels of government.
Shooting of the “Down In It’ Music Video
Ahead of Pretty Hate Machine coming out, the band filmed their first ever music video for the single “Down In It”. The band, at the time, was signed to a pretty small label named TVT Records. TVT Records didn’t have much money so the video was shot on a shoestring budget in Chicago.
It was directed by Eric Zimmerman and Benjamin Stokes, who had previously worked with another hugely influential industrial band named Ministry.
The directors sketched out an idea for the video which was pretty simple. Trent Reznor would play a character being chased by several men. As he tries to escape them, he climbs to the top of a skyscraper where he slips and falls and has a pretty nasty death. The video would end with the two assailants standing over his body several days later. The assailants were played by his bandmates, Chris Verena and Richard Patrick.
Since his body wouldn’t be found until a few days later, they wanted to simulate a decomposing body so they put cornstarch on his face. The cornstarch also had a pretty special meaning for the band as Nine Inch Nails did promo shoots for Pretty Hate Machine using cornstarch and during live shows in the early days, Reznor used to mix chocolate with cornstarch and throw it into the audience and onto his bandmates.
The frontman would recall in 1991 why he did this, saying, “It looks really great under the lights. It’s very grungy. It’s sort of an anti-Bon Jovi, anti-glamour thing.”
Camera Gets Caught By the Wind, Found One State Over
Since the video was shot before the days of commercially available drones and it was on a shoestring budget, the crew had to get creative. The overhead shots were captured by tethering super 8 cameras to weather balloons. One of the cameras, which was supposed to capture Reznor’s body with the two assailants, got blown away by the wind and the crew thought they had lost the footage forever.
In actuality, the footage ended up one state over, in a farmer’s field, in Michigan. A farmer found the camera and without looking at the footage, handed it over to the state authorities, thinking it was their camera that was used to find grow operations.
Once the authorities in Michigan reviewed the footage, they thought they had captured a gang-related crime or snuff film. They saw a deceased man with two men standing over him and a third man running away while the camera seemed to spin out of control. Nobody knew who Trent Reznor was at that point in time and the authorities started to review the background of the film to see if they could figure out where the film was shot.
Authorities in Chicago Investigate the Film Location
They saw a city street, late at night and it was the lights on the local metro that made the officials realize that the video was shot in Chicago. Eventually, the authorities in Chicago were notified and they were able to narrow down the area to where the film was shot, in the Fulton River District, which was mostly industrial, containing warehouses and parking garages.
The police reviewed reports of crimes in the area but couldn’t find anything. The case eventually found its way to the FBI but none of the authorities could find any further information on exactly what happened. It was the Chicago police, in a last-ditch effort, who started going to local schools and handing out flyers, asking for any information about the video.
Nine Inch Nails Required to Prove Trent Reznor Is Alive
The move would pay off as it was one Chicago art student, who was watching MTV one day in 1991, who saw the “Down In It” music video and connected it with the flyer he received at school. The student notified the authorities, who soon got in touch with Nine Inch Nails management about the lost tape. Nine Inch Nails had to demonstrate to the authorities that Reznor was in fact alive and the tape wasn’t a snuff film.
The story didn’t end there though, the nationally syndicated news program, Hard Copy ran a whole story on it. The program interviewed the authorities who were involved in the investigation, as well as the video’s directors and Reznor himself.
Here are the directors and Reznor discussing the investigation:
“It’s interesting that our top government agency, the Federal Bureau of Intelligence couldn’t crack the super 8 code.”
“When the news came through that, yeah, this was some sort of cult killing, I’d been killed in this great story, initial reaction was it was really funny. You know, something could be that blown out of proportion and this many people worked up about it and I felt kind of good that the police had made idiots of themselves.”
“Somebody at the FBI been watching too much Hitchcock or David Lynch or something.” – Trent Reznor
In an interview with Select Magazine in 1991, Reznor revealed, “Somebody at the FBI been watching too much Hitchcock or David Lynch or something.”
Reznor had some pretty harsh words for the show, Hard Copy, saying in the same interview that the experience of being on the show was, “Total junk gossip exploit of journalism. That was the icing on the cake, getting on the worst TV show in America.”
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