Trent,

Your life in many ways mirrors mine. I went through my twenties in a blur of rage and alcohol... hit 30 and met my lovely wife. Everything changed at that point. It doesn't mean you've lost your edge if you're happy. It just means you've evolved! I cant wait to see the exciting direction your creative energies will soon take now that you've found your other half.

Patrick

P.S. Didn't you learn your lesson about social media back in the old NIN dboards days? God knows that place taught me exactly how vile people can be. Though I met my wife there... so good things DO come from social media too.

funkwoman posted:

Keep changing. Stay sober. Love your fiancee and make a wonderful life with her. You don't owe us shit. You already give us the music and the shows--and that's a fuck of a lot more than we get from most people. You owe us nothing and the fact that we got you for a few months on Twitter was a delightful gift that was unfortunately ruined by the bad apples. I personally couldn't take the level of vitriol that regularly gets sent your way, and I wonder how many of the people walking around could. Good luck, and be happy. The world is a better place with you in it.

very well said I liked that...

I sure will miss your twitter but I do understand where you are coming from... just got to know it not so long ago and it made me smile a lot of times when you were talking about how much in love you are I feel that i got to know your persona alot more then just through the music and it made me love you even more.
Thanks to you I found my soulmate as we met through the internet with one thing in common -at first = the love we had for NINE INCH NAILS, it was the first thing we started talking about and as things went on we fell in love, we have been together for 11.yrs now and have 2 adorable kids and hopefully the 3rd one coming soon, so all I can say is THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING, you brought me love and the soundtrack to my life so I wish with all my heart you will be as happy in your love, and I can feel it/see it from they way you and Q twitter about eachother you are very happy and very much in love,
she seems very joyful and a big joker - I like her sence of humor, she makes me laugh alot as well, plus she is gorgeous
good luck with whatever your plans are, wish you all the happiness you possibly can have- you sure do deserve it, and if/when you come back I/we will still be ready to listen.....
remember there are more ppl out there that love you then hate you

see you in London



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2009 12:55PM by katrintrent.

I hope that you don't completely drop off the online community. Part of what makes you such a great artist, in my eyes, is your ability to get across to your fans (through music or here). Don't let the ugliness of humanity outshine the good.

Trent, you're so smart, now I see who all the "smarty-pantses" on nin.com try to emulate. (P.S. "smarty-pantses", leave it to the pros)
I suck at the whole internet anonymity shit, which is why my username is my real first name, and up until recently, I used my own picture of my real first face on most of my social networking profiles. Then I realized that I'm trying to get a job and since I'm sometimes an obscene person, I might not want potential employers getting that first impression of me. The internet is a big nasty sea to navigate, and the real world is ALWAYS (not even almost always, ALWAYS) a better place to be.

Keep on trucking, Trent. Ignore the idiots.

I am to busy to read through 14 pages of replies, so this has probably been said already but the thing with social networking sites is they are a lot like high school. You have the popular kids and the not so popular kids.

I once saw a movie where a guy in prison told this loser kid that "school is just like prison the first day you have to find the biggest baddest muther fucker and beat him up on the yard where everyone can see." And that is pretty much true. Social networking sites ESPECIALLY twitter are for narcissist who are competing in a popularity contest. They know the quickest way to get attention is to find a big mofo and beat his ass (metaphorically speaking). This gives them instant popularity. The problem is Trent, do you ever interact with the people who have nice things to say about you, the band or mariqueen? My guess is that you don't interact with those people at all, if you called more attention to the people who have endearing things to say about you rather than starting fights with people who want to slander you, you will have a different experience on social networks.

edit: I am going to add a picture to my profile to prove I am not an ugly fat chick



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2009 03:40PM by halo_smyth.

Trent,

It really sucks that these losers have managed to get under your skin so far as to drive you away from the internets. I really enjoyed your tweets. I follow a few celebrities on twitter and it's refreshing to see that they are real people. I get a kick out of it.

I have read some of the shit on metalsludge and twitter, and it's just so depressing that people devote SUCH A HUGE AMOUNT OF TIME to hating someone they don't even know. Really, those people seem to exist only to hate on you. It blows my mind. I read ONTD, and there is a lot of hate there, but a lot of it is also tongue in cheek. The hate on metalsludge is frightening!

I feel bad that you have to go through this. I have been a fan since the early 90s and I appreciate everything you have done for the fans. You never seemed like a douchebag to me. I just hope you know that most of your fans are cool we love you and wish you well.

Well, I for one really enjoyed the revelation of the real Trent Reznor--even if it came through in a very small way via 140-characters and the LED-illumination. I think there's something to be said about knowing there's a person behind the music. I don't think it answered any questions I might have had about NIN--I'm married to a musician who has schooled me quite thoroughly in separating out the music from the man. Usually I try my hardest not to think about the person behind the music--it's my impression that a lot of musicians are rather disappointing in personality, if not enraging; this is not the kind of thing that makes me feel comfortable buying their albums. If I like a band and I find out the lead singer is a homophobic racist who beats his wife, I'm not going to be okay forking over the $15 (or whatever the fuck they charge these days) for his CD. I try and follow a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with most musicians. In face of the fear that I'd find someone absolutely despicable, I'd rather just not know anything about musicians at all.
But it was relieving to find out that NIN had a decent human being behind it. And it was a big motivator to become a more dedicated fan. While your experiment on Twitter may have destroyed your faith in humanity, it gave me back a little bit of mine--at least the part that was extremely cynical towards celebrities. It's nice to know that at least not everyone who entertains me is an egomaniacal asswipe. Now if only we could do something about the ones that are... I recommend your same advice for the Metal Sludge.

A) You are an amazing artist for showing your true self online and your not crazy for expecting the same genuine responses from others; it'll just never happen. And that is the story of the internet.

You are a lucky man to have found the kind of love you can pledge for a lifetime. I had a fan-girl crush on you too but honestly, your wife is beautiful and I am happy for the two of you.

C) I love the end of your post, you are awesome and so is NIN, this tour fucking rocked and Street Sweeper Social Club kicked it with YOU. And that is just one more reason for them to hate, can you blame them? It's the fucking life you live.

Take it from a REAL fan, most of us are very happy/proud of you and excited for all your success.

It was fun while it lasted... thanks for the smiles =)

*waves goodbye*

I will miss twittering TR.

Nope, definitely not the same person as I was in '94, which is good, cuz I was 14, had no job, no car, no money, and no girlfriend, with just my Super Nintendo to keep me company. Sad panda.

Glad you're not the same person you were back then either, because though you created amazing music back then, you were obviously on a bad track, and if you had continued on said track, you probably wouldn't be with us still, giving us great music and shows, and that's the saddest panda of them all.

just a wee note to all and sundry - lay off the fat birds. being plump or rotund, fat or obese doesn't make you a stalker/ bad/ anything-else-bad-you-can-think-of. there may be interceptions on the venn diagram of fans. agreed. but the root of this whole social-interaction-gone-wrong-thing has fuck all to do with people with body size issues. it's all in the head. if that is more pertinent to fat chicks, fine. I don't think that's fair in any way. fuckshits come in all shapes and sizes and genders. they are out there. they feed off whatever you dish out. unfortunately, that means that the majority of reasonable fans miss out because you read that shit more than you do their positive stuff. if you want a get-out based on unnervy fans, please, use another one. that one reeks. and really makes you sound like a fud. sorry.

I have to admit, I used to have a small fan-girl crush on you, Trent. Twitter helped to relieve me of that because I got to see you as a person. It was really nice to have that veil of "mystery" lifted so I could appreciate NIN and Trent as two separate entities.
Either way, don't let the haters get you down, you'll always have love & support from your true fans <3

I'm sure what I'm going to say has been said already in some form, sprinkled throughout the last 14+ pages, but I don't pretend to be the most groundbreaking, original individual ever on the internet, so I suppose it doesn't really matter.

First of all, Trent, I just want to thank you for giving us a glimpse of "the man behind the music" and sharing with us your insights on music, technology, scifi geerkery (as an unabashed nerd myself, I found all the Star Trek talk particularly entertaining!), and life in general! Furthermore, reading your Twitter updates--especially about everything you've done to help with #Eric's cause--helped restore some of my faith in humanity: there really still are people (even celebrities, who all too often get portrayed badly when it comes to awareness whether fair or not) who give a shit about the world and what's going on in it. In a seeminly self-absorbed era, thank you for being one of those few people that still do care.

While I'll miss reading your updates as they were hands down my favorite to read out of all the people I follow, I more than understand your disgust for social networking and desire to no longer be a part of it and the way it opens a person up to complete rubbish. Honestly, I'm not even anyone important, but when I read some of the heinous things people have the audacity to say to/about someone they don't really even know, I often get the urge just walk away from it all. Furthermore, it's just disgusting that people can be so selfish and unhappy that they begrudge you the happiness of being in love and the fact that you've cleaned up and changed and grown as a person in the last 15 years. I guess it just shows how all you've got to do is give a self-important coward a keyboard and he/she will grow a huge pair. I suppose as long as the internet allows people to hide behind a veil of anonymity, that will always be the case for a few creeps.

Personally, I wish you and Mariqueen the very best and I'm glad you're so much happier and healthier than you were in 1994! I hope the haters that are wasting their lives plaguing you and you fiancee 24/7 either a) eventually snap to and realize just how rotten it is put down two happy people simply because they're not happy or b) take your advice to heart and end their miserable existences (or at the very least end their existence on the internet--some time out in the fresh air would do the lot of them some good, I'm sure!).

Anyway, thanks again for everything: the incredible music, fantastic concerts, and for taking the risk and putting yourself out there online to begin with!