Nine Inch Nails is set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later this year with a lineup that does not include guitarist Richard Patrick. Patrick was in Nine Inch Nails between 1989 and 1993, and contributed guitars to Pretty Hate Machine.
In an interview with the Stop! Drop & Talk podcast, Patrick discussed what it was like to realize his time with the band was done and his immediate plans for Filter. He also said Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor suggested he deliver pizzas for some extra cash.
"[Trent Reznor and I] were just two knuckleheads from Cleveland, Ohio — we were not big yet. But eventually, we did get big. And there was a point in time where Trent just kind of looked at me, and I said, 'Wow, you're going down to New Orleans to go live in this beautiful house that you're getting, and I'm gonna go back to my mom and dad's house.' And Trent goes, 'Well, go write a record.'
"And I was, like, 'Wow!' What do you say to that? He goes, 'You should have seen your face. 'Cause you were kind of pissed at first, and then you were, like, 'No. I should." He said that to me in Paris. And I remember thinking to myself I'm gonna literally go back and eat out of my mom and dad's kitchen every night, and this guy is gonna go off and write 'Broken' and whatever else he was gonna go work on.
"But I sat there and I took his words of advice, which was, 'Go do something.' His advice was, 'Go get off your ass and do something. Don't wait for me to do it. Don't wait for me to write a record without you. Just go off and do it.'
"I got close to kind of getting a record deal, and [Trent] didn't know it at the time, but I had already lined up Warner Brothers, and I was in Los Angeles to kind of work on 'The Downward Spiral', or just be around, and I had already kind of made a decision on a mushroom trip in the Grand Canyon. I had already decided. I was like, 'You know what? I'm only getting on this ball one time, and if I don't step out on my own now, I'm never gonna do it.'
"But the final straw was Trent goes, 'Hey, listen, Rich, I know you need some extra cash. Listen. Down at the end of [the street], there's a little pizzeria, and they need drivers. So maybe you can go make some extra cash over there. And I'm, like, 'Wow!'
"This was when I had 'Hey Man, Nice Shot' written, and I had five record companies ready to sign me. And I was, like, 'Hey, dude, I hate to tell you this now, but I quit. And I'm so sorry. But I fucking quit. I'm not gonna sell pizzas and I'm not gonna drive for a [pizzeria]."
This year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame event has officially been cancelled and replaced with a TV special. The special will air on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max come November 7 at 8pm ET/PT. This year's inductees will be Nine Inch Nails, The Doobie Brothers, Depeche Mode, The Notorious B.I.G., T. Rex, and Whitney Houston.
[via MetalSucks]
