Biography for
Trent Reznor More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

17 May 1965, Mercer, Pennsylvania, USA

Birth Name

Michael Trent Reznor

Nickname

Stimpy

Height

5' 6" (1.68 m)

Mini Biography

Trent Reznor, or common known as the one man band Nine Inch Nails, is one of the most influencial, unique and talented musicians of our time. He is widely known for his absurdly high standards, which is shown alone in the fact that although his band, NIN, has existed for almost 15 years to date Trent Reznor is furthermore responsible for other very famous groups to have come through, of these, most famous is Marilyn Manson, for whom Reznor produced the first couple of albums and helped raising to the fame they enjoy today.

IMDb Mini Biography By: filmfreak@stewiesminions.com

Spouse

Mariqueen Maandig

(17 October 2009 - present)

Trivia

Leads the music group Nine Inch Nails.

Marks all official releases with 'halo' numbers.

Heads up 'nothing records', a division of 'Interscope Records'.

Has an ongoing artistic feud with Limp Bizkit frontman and Interscope VP Fred Durst.

Converted an old funeral parlor in New Orleans into a recording studio. The door to the studio was salvaged from the former rented "love house" of Sharon Tate (one of seven of the victims of Charles Manson and his "family").

He has a younger sister, Tera

Played in bands such as Option 30, Prick and Exotic Birds (which did music for the Michael J. Fox movie, "Light Of Day".

Has a project band called Tapeworm.

At his high school he played the role of Judas in a school performance of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Played the saxophone in his highschool band.

Reznor has 2 dogs. A labrador named "Ethyl." and a Weirmaraner named "Daisy May." They both walk around freely in the New Oreleans Headquarters of Nothing Studios.

Spent a year at Alleghheny College majoring in Computer Engineering and Music.

Dropped out of College to spend his time with local bands, not doing much more than playing keyboards and occasionally doing background vocals.

Trent played tenor sax in The Mercer Junior and Senior high marching bands.

Played prominent roles in his high school's productions of Jesus Christ SuperStar and The Music Man, as Judas and Professor Harold Hill respectively. He was voted "best in Drama" by his classmates.

Is good friends with fellow recording artist, Tori Amos. He sang background vocals on her hit song, "Past The Mission"

He renovated an old funeral home into his home / studio.

He produced Marilyn Manson's first few albums. He later had a falling-out with Manson. The two do not speak to this day.

Is a huge David Bowie fan.

His musical influences are David Bowie, The Cure, Nick Drake, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Joy Division, Jim Morrison, Pink Floyd, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, Throbbing Gristle and Tom Waits.

He enjoys listening to Tori Amos, Aphex Twin, Dead Can Dance, The Flaming Lips, Jane's Addiction, Ministry, Portishead, Radiohead, Rammstein, Skinny Puppy, The Smashing Pumpkins and Tool

Band-mate Chris Vrenna left Nine Inch Nails to form the electronic one-man- band "Tweaker"

Former band-mate Richard Patrick is now the front-man for the alternative rock band "Filter"

His favorite filmmakers are David Cronenberg, David Lynch and Ken Russell.

Is a huge fan of The Cure.

Is a good friend of Tori Amos.

Nine Inch Nails were voted the 44th Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artists of all time by Rolling Stone.

Brought in bassist/long time friend Jordie White (aka Twiggy Ramirez) to tour in support of the album 'With Teeth.'

He is a direct descendant of George Reznor, founder of Reznor Company in 1888 (a major manufacturer of Heating/Ventilation/Air Conditioning equipment). The Reznor Company was sold in the 1960s, but the equipment is still manufactured in Mercer, Pennsylvania (Trent Reznor's home town).

Only Nine Inch Nails member to appear on every one of the group's albums.

A popular rumor is that Reznor got the name Nine Inch Nails for his band because it was the length of the nails used in the crucifixion of Christ. Reznor, however, denies this.

Prior to the release of the 2007 NIN album Year Zero, several tracks were leaked through various music download websites. Reznor later admitted that he intentionally leaked the tracks himself as part of a "conspiracy" ad campaign to go along with the subject matter of the album.

His musical work heavily inspired Maquinista, El (2004) (The Machinist). Christian Bale's character is named Trevor Reznik, a clear play on Reznor's own name; the N in Machinist was often seen in promotional posters printed backwards akin to the infamous Nine Inch Nails logo; and originally the soundtrack was meant to include a lot of NIN's material but was deemed too 'cheesy' due to the overall industrial feel and setting of the film as it was.

He rented the infamous Benedict Canyon house located at 10050 Cielo Drive, in which members of Charles Manson's "Family" murdered Sharon Tate and four others in 1969, to record his album "Broken". He moved out not long after, stating, "there was too much history in that house for me to handle".

In May of 2009 publicly announced his wedding engagement to Mariqueen Maandig, a one-time Playboy model and lead singer for underground rock band "West Indian Girl".

Personal Quotes

It's like beating your head open and unzipping your chest cavity saying 'here are my guts - everything I've felt, including a lot of stuff I'm not proud of'. It's hard. It uses you up. I walk off stage sometimes and feel like I've just slept with everybody in the audience. - on performing

I write most of my songs when I'm in a bad mood.

I thought my goal in life was to be in a successful band, and I had got that, but I was as miserable as I had ever been, and I couldn't understand why that would be.

I wanted to escape Small Town USA. To dismiss the boundaries, to explore. My life experience came from watching movies, TV, and reading books and magazines. When your culture comes from watching TV everyday, you're bombarded with images of things that seem cool, places that seem interesting, people who have jobs and careers and opportunities. None of that happened where I was. You're almost taught to realize it's not for you.

My dad and I are best friends. He's pretty much responsible for the way I turned out. He would provide a little artistic inspiration here and there in the form of a guitar, stuff like that.

I foolishly thought that if I just 'made it' then everything would be okay. And everything wasn't okay.

If you look at the most talented filmmakers around right now, David Cronenberg and David Lynch, they had relatively normal upbringings. It doesn't always take exotic, bizarre lifestyles, early-age molestations and prison sentences.

When I was five, I got forced into taking piano lessons. And it came really naturally to me. Knowing that I was good at something played an important role in my confidence. I was always shy, uncomfortable around people. I slipped by. But with the music, I didn't. I got into bands. I studied trumpet and saxaphone a little bit. It got to the point where my teacher was like, you can be a concert pianist. But the last thing I wanted to hear at 15 is, well, you're not fitting in now, how about dropping out of school, studying all the time and becoming a concert pianist? It sounds like "penis." Even earlier, Kiss had changed my world. It seemed evil and scary-the embodiment of rebelliousness when you're age 12 and starting to get hair on your balls. Also, my dad, who I'd not lived with since I was 5, got me an electric piano. He had a little music store that sold acoustic instruments in the back room, where me and a couple other guys started jamming in terrible garage bands. I realized that music wasn't all about learning a piece on the piano.

The idea of politics is just so uninteresting to me - I've never paid much attention to it. I don't believe things can really change. It doesn't matter who's president. Nothing really gets resolved. I don't know. I guess that's not the right attitude to take.

My music has been a sort of personal therapy. It's got me out of tough times, it has been the friend that I needed, when I didn't have a friend there.

There are just some things that don't seem very fair in the world, like the hypocrisy of organized religion. I just don't understand how people can blindly believe a bunch of the lies they're fed, to believe it so that they don't think too hard about other issues. 'Be a good boy and you'll go to Heaven.' If it works for you, fine, but it doesn't work for me.

An integral part of any relationship is knowing that you could be killed in your sleep at any time.

I don't know if you have ever tried to think of band names, but usually you think you have a great one and you look at it the next day and it's stupid. I had about two hundred of those. Nine Inch Nails stood the two week test, looked great in print and could be abbreviated easily. It really does not have a literal meaning. It seemed kinda frightening. It's a curse trying to come up with band names.

I would much rather sit in a room by myself than entertain a bunch of people. That's not my style.

I become irritated when I am being written off as aloof or stand-offish when I'm shy and don't know what to say.

I was raised by my grandparents, the greatest people in the world. I try to tell them, 'You're not going to hear my music on the radio. I'm not going to be on soap operas singing this.' I can imagine what my grandfather tells people: 'It's called Nine Inch Nails -- here's the video. And here he is lying dead at the end of it.' I warned my grandfather that the church might be after him.

I cut my hair now and nobody recognizes me. It's that whole thing I was bitching about earlier - 'I can't go anywhere without someone pointing' - And now it's like, 'Hey, it's me man!' I'm standing in the N section with my laminate on and covered in mud. I just can't get a response anymore.

I think, fundamentally, music is something people love and need and can relate to. A lot of what's out right now feels like McDonalds. It's quick-fix. You kind of have a stomach ache afterwards.

When Nine Inch Nails first got signed, I didn't know how to do interviews. I really still don't. I talk too much and say stupid things.

I pop the video in, and wow. Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps...Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore...It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. That winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning. Different, but every bit as pure. - on his emotions upon watching the video of Johnny Cash's cover of his song "Hurt"

[On living in the house at 10050 Cielo Drive, where 5 people were murdered in 1969 by Charles Manson's "Family"]: While I was working on Downward Spiral, I was living in the house where Sharon Tate was killed. Then one day I met her sister. It was a random thing, just a brief encounter. And she said: 'Are you exploiting my sister's death by living in her house?' For the first time, the whole thing kind of slapped me in the face. I said, 'No, it's just sort of my own interest in American folklore. I'm in this place where a weird part of history occurred.' I guess it never really struck me before, but it did then. She lost her sister from a senseless, ignorant situation that I don't want to support. When she was talking to me, I realized for the first time, 'What if it was my sister?' I thought, 'Fuck Charlie Manson.' I went home and cried that night. It made me see there's another side to things, you know?

Where Are They Now

(January 2002) Released the live DVD/CD/VHS "And All That Could Have Been" documenting the bands 1999-2000 tour.

(April 2004) Working on the new Nine Inch Nails Album "Bleedthrough," which should be in stores by early 2005.

(August 2004) This fall, He is planning to rerelease the Nine Inch Nails' concert video "Closure" on DVD. Updated with 90 minutes of new footage.

(October 2004) The Nine Inch Nails concert DVD "Closure," will probably not be released until early 2005 due to legal problems.

(October 2004) This November, Nine Inch Nails will release a remastered deluxe edition of "The Downward Spiral." The package will include a bonus disc containing b-sides, demos, remixes and previously unreleased material.

(December 2004) Putting the finishing touches on the new NIN album, "With Teeth", which will be out in stores in March 2005.

(April 2006) On tour with with Nine Inch Nails and writing their follow-up to 2005's highly acclaimed "With Teeth", which should be released sometime this year or 2007.

(January 2007) Confirms that the new Nine Inch Nails album will be called "Year Zero" and it is supposedly coming out sometime in April.

(January 2007) Confirmed that the new Nine Inch Nails album will be called "Year Zero".

(September 2007) On Overseas Tour for Year Zero no Anouncement for US Tour.

(July 2008) Nine Inch Nails embarks on the "Lights in the Sky over North America/South America" tour.

(May 2008) New album "The Slip" released world wide on nin.com

(March 2008) "Ghosts I-IV", a 36 track all instrumental album is released.

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