Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor is set to induct The Cure into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the March 29th ceremony scheduled at the Barclay Center in NYC.
In agreeing to present the honor, Reznor seems to be acting to contrast to an interview he did with Stereogum last year, describing his feelings on being snubbed the past 3 years since being nominated in 2016:
“I saw somebody write something online or comment on Twitter like, ‘What could be less rock and roll than the fuckin’ Hall Of Fame?’ And that is authentically how I feel about it. I’ll say this: It’s nice to be appreciated. It’s nicer when it feels like that’s coming from a place that you care about. Like, a Grammy doesn’t mean a fuckin’ thing. It means a few assholes in a room that are trying to make a TV show have good ratings deciding, ‘Let’s give it to this guy.’ It doesn’t feel like it has any meaning behind it.”
He added, “The worst would be if we did [get inducted] and then what? We’d have to fuckin’ show up and jam? I can’t even imagine what that would be.”
“I’m not saying this as sour grapes,” Reznor concluded. “I honestly couldn’t give less of a shit. I’m not gonna sleep any better. Included or not. With that being said, it’s always nice to feel you’ve been appreciated to some degree but it’s not on my list of things I have to achieve before I die.”
Despite this, Reznor’s reason for inducting The Cure can probably be summed up from this excerpt from a 1998 interview with the Alternative Press, as pointed out by Cure Fansite Chain of Flowers:
Every city in America has at least one Gothic club. In New Orleans, it’s the Blue Crystal. When a band like the Cure is in town, the Blue Crystal throws a party after the show. The club called Reznor, the closest thing they have to a local dignitary, to invite him to the Cure after-show party. Further conversation revealed that the only way the Cure would show is if Reznor is there, too. You can’t hear it anywhere in Nine Inch Nails, but Reznor is a Cure fan from way back. He considers the Cure’s The Head On The Door” one of the best records ever.” His favorite description of himself: “Robert Smith with a head cold.”
“I end up going to the club, and surprisingly, everyone from the Cure is there. And the bartender calls me over and says, ‘Robert really wants to talk to you.'” Reznor smiles, makes a face that says: You mean I have to meet one of my teen idols in a goth club in Louisiana? Now? In front of all these people?
“It ends up,” Reznor says, “me and him, hugging on the dance floor. He’s like, ‘I love you, dude,’ and I’m like, ‘I love you too, man.'” The Cure fans formed a loose circle around the pair while New Order’s “Blue Monday” pumped out of the speakers. “It was the greatest scene.”
Reznor would later retell the story in greater detail during an interview with The Quietus last year, elaborating on his love for “The Head On The Door”:
“The Cure were one of those bands that really struck a chord and Head On The Door is the album that made them really important to me. I got into that and then worked my way backwards. That album got me through a lot of long dark times. I felt that this Robert Smith guy really understood who I was and I loved The Cure from that point on.”
Smith would later show his appreciation for Reznor, by choosing Nine Inch Nails to perform last year during his “Curætion” of the 25th annual Meltdown Festival in London.
During the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony later this month, Radiohead are also scheduled to be inducted by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.
Speaking to Variety in January, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke indicated that he and his bandmates don’t know what to make of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and will not be attending:
“So we don’t want to offend anyone. We just think that we just don’t quite understand it. We’ve had it explained to us, so it’s cool,” he said. “But we don’t really understand it as English people.
“I think our problem is essentially that every awards ceremony in the UK stinks. We grew up with the Brit [Awards], which is like this sort of drunken car crash that you don’t want to get involved with.
“So, yeah, we don’t really know what to make of it.”
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