Biography Nine Inch Nails - Showbiza.com/us

Nine Inch Nails is a one-man industrial-rock band whose symphonic noise and intense, alienated lyrics have attracted millions. The diviner of this millenarian angst is Trent Reznor, who writes, arranges, performs, and produces all of Nine Inch Nails' material.

Reznor grew up isolated in the small town of Mercer, Pennsylvania, where he studied classical piano, switching to keyboards and playing in garage bands as a teen. He dropped out of Pennsylvania's Meadville College, moved to Cleveland, and recorded a self-made demo. That tape got him signed to TVT, an independent label best known for compilations of TV jingles.

Pretty Hate Machine was coproduced by Flood (Depeche Mode, U2), John Fryer (Love & Rockets, Cocteau Twins), and Adrian Sherwood and Keith LeBlanc. It yielded three college-radio hits, most notably "Head Like a Hole," the video for which got extensive MTV play. Although the album vented an extremely dire, introspective outlook, it sold a million copies. This was at least in part due to the fact that Reznor assembled a band that spent three years on the road promoting Pretty Hate Machine, in the process dazzling audiences at the 1991 Lollapalooza Tour and opening for Guns n' Roses in Europe.

NIN spent so long touring because Reznor was suing to be released from TVT, who he said didn't support him artistically or financially. Several other companies were interested in NIN, and when TVT wouldn't let Reznor go, Interscope negotiated an agreement to co-release the band. Interscope also gave Reznor his own label, Nothing. Broken (Number Seven, 1992) was recorded during this period in a number of locations "without the permission of The Record Label," as the liner notes say. The EP is an intensely devastated and devastating document, once again masterminded by Reznor, with three tracks coproduced by Flood. NIN had Coil and Foetus' Jim Thirwell remix tracks from Broken on Fixed.

Broken debuted at Number Seven on the pop albums chart, while "Wish," a track from the record, won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 1993. Reznor tested the freedom granted by his new record company on the video for "Happiness in Slavery," which showed a man being sexually tortured and ground into a pulp by a machine - a visualization of NIN's own tortured nature as a synth band venting human emotions and an apt metaphor for Reznor's feelings about the music business. This was not the first controversial NIN video: "Sin," from the first album, was refused by MTV for its images of genital piercing and gay men smearing blood on each other, while outtakes from "Down in It" were investigated by the FBI, which suspected that they were culled from a snuff film.

Working on his next album in L.A., Reznor moved into the house where Charles Manson's followers murdered Sharon Tate. Flood again co-produced, and the album featured guitarist Adrian Belew. The Downward Spiral (1994), a dense, depression-filled, and uncompromising work, debuted at Number Two on the chart and went on to sell 5 million copies.

In the summer of 1994, NIN appeared at the Woodstock '94. A version of "Happiness in Slavery" from the live album culled from performances at the festival earned NIN its second Grammy for Best Metal Performance, in 1995. In 1996, Reznor co-produced shock-rocker Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar (the two men later had a falling-out). Reznor also produced the soundtracks for Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994) and David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997).

Accolades from both the rock and mainstream press were pouring in by this time, with Time magazine naming Reznor one of the 25 most influential Americans. In 1999 NIN released its first studio album in five years, a despairing double CD called The Fragile (Number One). Working with a broader sonic palette than before, Reznor tempered his throbbing cacophony with moodier, subdued moments. Rolling Stone hailed the record as "a brutal and delicate masterpiece." "The Day the World Went Away" debuted at Number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart to become the first Top 40 single of NIN's career.

All that Could Have Been, a live disc and video documenting the Fragile tour cycle, followed in 2002. Reznor resurfaced three years later with another Number One studio album from Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth, which included the Number One Modern Rock singles "Every Day is Exactly the Same" and "Only." NIN was slated to perform the anti-George W. Bush song "The Hand That Feeds" at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards but dropped out when the channel refused to allow the group to perform in front of a large image of the president.

The group toured through 2006, stopping briefly for Reznor to put together another set of studio tracks, and resumed touring in 2007. The bleak Orwellian concept album Year Zero (Number Two) arrived in April, spawning the Number One Modern Rock hit "Survivalism." The album included a pre-release marketing campaign that involved an elaborate online alternate reality game offering fans clues to the album's storyline, and a remixed version (Y34R Z3R0 R3M1X3D), offered fans the opportunity to contribute their own remixes of the tracks online. Reznor, long unhappy with the music industry, announced that October that Year Zero had been his contract-ending release for Universal Music Group and that he would release all future music independently.

In 2008, within two months of each other, Reznor released two albums: Ghosts I-IV, an entirely instrumental album, was released in March and The Slip, released in May, was given away as a free download. In February, 2009, Reznor announced that, while Nine Inch Nails would still record new music, he would stop touring for the foreseeable future.

In 2009 Reznor married Mariqueen Maandig, and formed a project with Maandig and Atticus Ross dubbed How to Destroy Angels. Their first release, a six-track self-titled EP, was made available for free download in June 2010. Reznor's next collaboration with Ross was co-writing and producing the official score for David Fincher's 2010 film, The Social Network. Reznor and Ross received two awards for the score, a 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for a Motion Picture, and a 2010 Oscar for Best Original Score. Reznor and Ross again collaborated with Fincher for the official score the American adaptation of the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, released in December 2011.

In July 2012 it was announced that Trent would compose the theme music for Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Later that year Reznor also worked with Atticus Ross and Alessandro Cortini on a remix of the song "Destroyer" by Telepathe. Trent Reznor also appeared in a documentary called "Sound City" directed by Dave Grohl; in addition to co-writing and performing the song "Mantra" with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme. This led to further collaboration with Reznor and Homme on the 2013 album from Queens of the Stone Age titled ...Like Clockwork. Reznor contributed vocals and drum programing to the song "Kalopsia" and vocals on "Fairweather Friends" along with Elton John on piano and vocals. In October 2012 Trent Reznor teamed with Dr. Dre and Beats Electronics for a project that is "probably not what you're expecting". The project named "Daisy"; a digital music service was announced in January 2013.

Return to touring and Hesitation Marks (2012–present)

In an interview with BBC Radio 1, Reznor indicated that he would be writing for the majority of 2012 with Nine Inch Nails "in mind". In 2012, Reznor confirmed that he was currently working on new Nine Inch Nails material and may be performing live again. In February 2013, Reznor announced the return of Nine Inch Nails and revealed tour details. He also revealed that the new lineup of the band includes Eric Avery of Jane's Addiction, Adrian Belew ofKing Crimson, and Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv, as well as returning members Alessandro Cortini and Ilan Rubin. Since that time it has been revealed that Adrian Belew and Eric Avery will not be part of the Nine Inch Nails tour.

The band will tour North America in fall 2013, and worldwide in 2014. On February 23, 2013, it was announced that the band will perform at Fuji Rock Festival, Pukkelpop and Rock 'n' Heim Festival in Hockenheim, Germany in mid-2013. On March 11, it was announced that they will also play Reading and Leeds festival. On May 15, 2013, Avery announced that he had quit the band before performing on any of the scheduled shows. On May 17, Reznor announced that Robin Finck had rejoined the band. On May 28, Reznor announced that the new Nine Inch Nails album was finished and will be released on Columbia Records later in the year. On June 5, Reznor revealed that the album's title would be Hesitation Marks, and that it would be released on September 3. The first single, "Came Back Haunted", was released on June 6. The second single, "Copy of A", was released on August 12. "Everything", the third single, was released on August 20. In August the Tension 2013 tour started, with opening band Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

On December 5, 2013, Trent Reznor revealed that the band will be touring as a four piece for the remaining legs of the tour, which include gigs in Australia, Asia, South America and Europe. However, he stated they will return to the US afterwards. The new line up will include previous collaborators, Ilan Rubin, Alessandro Cortini, and Robin Finck.

On March 16, 2014, it was announced that Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden, along with opening act Death Grips, were going to tour together in North America.