Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) Denounces Former Friend Marilyn Manson

Trent Reznor says the story in Manson’s memoir is a “Fabrication”

Trent Reznor is the founder and primary creative force behind industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. He signed Marilyn Manson as the second act of his label Nothing Records, and was the band's producer from 1994 until 1996. Reznor was the credited producer for Marilyn Manson's albums Portrait of an American Family, Smells Like Children, and Antichrist Superstar.

It was during that time that he and Marilyn Manson's friendship began to cripple, and after several fallouts, the two were revealed to no longer be friends by 2001.

In 1997, Marilyn Manson was tapped to produce the soundtrack to the film Lost Highway. Reznor would end up getting the job, a move that Manson found hard to forgive. Over the next two years, Reznor and Manson exchanged harsh words but in 2000 they seemed to reconcile their differences, citing what they perceived as a threat to modern music: the resurgence of boy bands and the rise of nu-metal.

Even though, things seemed to be friendlier between Reznor and Manson, the feud continued. Reznor called Manson "unhealthy to be around" while Manson didn’t understand why they were fighting but added that he was more "dangerous" than Reznor despite Reznor's muscle gain in recent years. It is widely believed that Manson's drug and alcohol consumption are a major factor in Reznor's unwillingness to reconcile.

In a 2009 interview with Mojo magazine, Reznor expanded on his falling out with Manson, saying:

“He is a malicious guy and will step on anybody’s face to succeed and cross any line of decency. His drive for success and self-preservation was so high, he pretended to be fucked up a lot when he wasn’t.”

In a 2012 interview with AZ Central when asked about if a future box set was able to be released without any issues with Interscope Records and Reznor, Manson stated “No. That part of the whole record deal on our end is through. The only unfortunate part of that is that some of the mixes have been destroyed. But he didn't destroy the mixes I care about. I don't have any bad feelings towards him. I really don't. He helped put me out into the world and I went my way and whatever happened. I don't think you should go back and fix things that have already been done anyway.' When asked if there would be no hard feelings if Reznor and Manson did cross paths, Manson said 'No. I don't think there is tension. I don't think we ever really had a lot in common. We had a certain sense of humor in common. He was always more of the jock and I was more of the burnout.'

In 2017, Manson claimed that he and Reznor had reconciled.

“We had sort of mended ways after a long time through Tyler Bates strangely enough,”. Manson told Zane Lowe at the time. “He goes and he said in the email something along the lines of, ‘It really pisses me off that music’s not dangerous anymore and it reminds me of how great you were and I was and the time, the era.”

Now, in the light of recent events, Trent Reznor , leader of Nine Inch Nails and one of the main promoters of Marilyn Manson's career in its early stages, has released a statement through Pitchfork, to distance himself from the shock rocker and once again expressed his dislike for Manson.

Marilyn Manson has been under fire in the past few days. Evan Rachel Wood previously testified before Congress in support of the Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights about her experiences, though she didn’t publicly name Manson until this past week. In the wake of her allegations, Manson’s record label, touring agency, and television shows cut ties with the musician. He has since denied the allegations in a statement, which in part read:

“My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners.”

This accusation came days after Manson's ex-fiancee Evan Rachel Wood alleged that the musician abused her during the relationship, triggering a number of other accusations.

Screenshots of passages from The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, an autobiography book released by Marilyn Manson in 1998, began to circulate on Twitter after Wood and multiple other women came forward with allegations that Manson abused them. The book—co-authored with Neil Strauss—includes stories about Reznor, who signed Manson to his Nothing Records imprint and produced his band’s 1994 debut album Portrait of an American Family.

In a new statement, Reznor clarified his relationship with Manson while denying the incident in question.

Reznor’s statement addresses an anecdote involving Reznor that Manson included in his 1998 autobiography. In the story, which has recently resurfaced, Manson recounts a horrific scene in which he and Reznor allegedly physically and sexually assaulted an inebriated woman in the 1990s.

The passage in question was allegedly part of an unpublished interview with the now-defunct Empyrean Magazine, originally intended to run in the magazine in 1995, but never printed due to “content objections on the part of Empyrean’s publisher, Centaur Enterprises, which believed that the magazine had followed unethical interview procedures in order to extract information from Mr. Manson,” according to Manson and Strauss’ book.

After this excerpt started circulating on social media, Trent Reznor released the following statement:

“I have been vocal over the years about my dislike of Manson as a person and cut ties with him nearly 25 years ago. As I said at the time, the passage from Manson’s memoir is a complete fabrication. I was infuriated and offended back when it came out and remain so today.”

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