Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor discussed his lyrical inspiration these days after overcoming drug addiction in a new Kerrang interview.
“In terms of not feeling like I want to kill myself all the time, where does my inspiration in music come from? And why am I not writing Paul McCartney love songs?”
He said he’s still inspired by how he feels, and has become comfortable with his past.
“I’ve spent lots of time running from it. I’ve allowed myself to go down trails of memory I hadn’t spent time thinking about, experiences I went through, in an effort to understand what’s happening right now. I’m saying that as a U.S. citizen, as a father, as a middle-aged guy, as a person whose had close friends of mine, my age, die. You know, looking through mortality.
I’m trying to be observant, not simply as a writer or an artist, but as a person, a human trying to quantify what’s happening right now. The catalyst I think being this happening against a backdrop of political turmoil.”
He later said, “I think I’m getting more successful at tuning out people’s opinions,” he laughs. “It’s another benefit about getting older: you really don’t give a fuck about almost anything.”
