Trent Reznor has a long history with David Bowie: the Nine Inch Nails frontman discovered and become obsessed with Bowie’s music at a young age. This progressed to collaborations onstage and fatherly advice when Reznor’s drug habit reached an unbearable state.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Reznor remembers: “His music really helped me relate to myself and figure out who I was. He was a tremendous inspiration in terms of what was possible, what the role of an entertainer could be, that there are no rules”.
So, when Reznor desperately needed something to hold onto, Bowie threw down the rope. “There were a number of times where the two of us were alone, and he said some […] pieces of wisdom that stuck with me: ‘You know, there is a better way here, and it doesn’t have to end in despair or in death, in the bottom'”.
Of Bowie’s death, Reznor says that “[i]t feels like the loss of a mentor, fatherly figure, someone looking out for you”.
Read the touching recollection in full at Rolling Stone, and watch a Reznor and Bowie perform Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” below:
#Peace.Love.DavidBowie
