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Trent Reznor Calls Marilyn Manson a 'Dopey Clown'

Trent Reznor is pulling no punches as of late, with the Nine Inch Nails mastermind taking swipes at Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, Prince and Chris Cornell. But in a new interview in Mojo, Reznor saves his sharpest venom for one-time protege, Marilyn Manson. "He is a malicious guy and will step on anybody's face to succeed and cross any line of decency," Reznor says. "Seeing him now, drugs and alcohol now rule his life and he's become a dopey clown."

While Reznor does have some kind words to say about Manson, saying, "He used to be the smartest guy in the room. And as a fan of his talents, I hope he gets his s--- together," the disdain is evident. In the interview, Reznor says the feud dates back down to the 'Downward Spiral' tour in '94 and '95. "During the Spiral tour we propped them up to get our audience turned on to them and at that time a lot of the people in my circle were pretty far down the road as alcoholics. Not Manson. His drive for success and self-preservation was so high, he pretended to be f---ed up a lot when he wasn't."

Still, Reznor accepts a some responsibility for the bad blood, sorta. "Things got s----y between us and I'm not blameless. The majority of it though was coming from a resentment guy who finally got out from under the master's umbrella and was able to stab him in the back."

And before you say it, Reznor recently proclaimed his own doucheness: "I might be happy and engaged, but I'm still a prick."

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Scott Meekins

OK, who can explain to me ( IN DETAIL ) why Trent claims that Manson stabbed him in the back? What did he do exactly?

October 01 2009 at 1:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mcrforeverr

YEAH U ROCK TRENT! THTS WAT U GET MM FOR DISSING MCR!! yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!oh yeah mcr is my chemical romance. MM SUCKS CRAP! IN YO FACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AHHHHHH HAPPY DAY......mm is a dopey clown. HAHA TRENT REZNOR AND MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE DISSED HIM! HAHA IM HAPPY:) end of story.....

August 09 2009 at 1:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mcrforeverr's comment
Lolwat

holy crap what? No offence 'Amber', but you are a total idiot.
This thread is CLEARLY not about Manson talking crap about MCR (however, they are just a bunch of whiny attention seekers), this about Trent being annoyed with Marilyn for copying him.
I'm a big fan of both bands (NIN & MM), have seen them live numerous times, and I agree with Trent about how Manson really needs to get his life sorted out.

Additionally, nothing annoys me more than 10-year-olds being let on the internet and casting their immature opinions like people actually care. Honestly, save it for the playground.
lern2troll HARD.

August 27 2009 at 7:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
raggrafs

Listen, all you out there. Trent has got it right on the money. I managed a band in South Florida in the early 90's called Wet Flower. We opened up for MM more times than I can count. I was just talking about this today wit a friend of mine. If it wasn't for Trent Reznor you would not have ever heard of Marilyn Manson. Brian Warner (MM) interviewed Trent back in 1991 for a school paper. He asked Trent to come see his band play and being a fellow person from Ohio, Trent went, liked what he saw and helped MM and the Spooky Kids the rest of the way. They forged a great friendship that should've never been ruined and then he used Trent to make it. Nothing wrong with that but don't bite the hand that feeds you. Then he threw out members one by one in his original band that wrote songs and music. As I write this I look at my tape of Miami Rocks on my desk from 1991. Ten of the best S.Florida bands made it and only one MADE IT thanks to Trent Reznor...

June 16 2009 at 12:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ALeX

jealous of what? do your homework, reznor wrote mansons first two mega hit records, "portrait of an american family" and "antichrist superstar", word for word. how could reznor possibly be jealous of manson's success when he is the reason for it? i mean, reznor completely defied interscope records by putting year zero, which was his last release on the label, on flash drives and placing them around the venue and encouraging fans to get and steal his music, all for free. Then, he recorded, "the slip" and released it on NIN.com, free for download as a tribute to his friends.
reznor is a mega producer, having produced the likes of: Notorious B.I.G, busta rhymes, manson, eminem, korn, tool, tori amos, pink, just to name a handful along with his own records.
responsible for filter, the guns and roses fallout and reconstruction, even every single beat and song in kanye west's, "808's and heartbreaks", yes, even the dying genre of rap music is trying to make a last shot at survival by transitioning over to industrial music. a genre, whos success rest solely on the shoulders of reznor.
reznor and perry ferrel are solely responsible for the success of lollapalooza (sp) having launched it into an annual event just after its infancy. the spiral tour and fragility tour were all funded out of his own pocket.
Though there was a slow down, sales wise, after the fragile, nontheless he has continued to mold, shape, influence, and will always be the face of music.
remember that every time you turn your ipod on, whatever one hit wonder band youre listening to was most likely produced by and IS influence by reznor, the face of modern music.

June 15 2009 at 10:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Maria

Trent is a genius.
He's been great since the beginning, and is Marilyn Manson's very reason that he still makes music.

June 15 2009 at 10:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
treybaby4a69

You tool, Reznor didn't open up for Jane's Addiction, they were on his tour. Reznor is the shit and he's just telling the truth, Manson is a tool. (ie. see this page http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8077246.stm )

June 05 2009 at 3:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Emaes7

Reznor is just jealous because his last few albums, YAWN!!!

And what was up with him opening up for Jane’s Addiction?? Not as good as you used to be huh, Trent.

Bashing other people doesn’t make you look any better, makes you sound like a weak jealous little crybaby. Grow up!!

June 03 2009 at 11:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Emaes7's comment
Dakota

I honestly don't think Trent Reznor needs to pick on anybody (especially Marilyn Manson) to make him self feel better. He's just saying how he wishes he would have turned out better, not to put words in his mouth but that's what it seems to me. His musical career has been and is nothing but complete success that needs no comparison to make it look better.

June 04 2009 at 1:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ALeX

jealous of what? do your homework, reznor wrote mansons first two mega hit records, "portrait of an american family" and "antichrist superstar", word for word. how could reznor possibly be jealous of manson's success when he is the reason for it? i mean, reznor completely defied interscope records by putting year zero, which was his last release on the label, on flash drives and placing them around the venue and encouraging fans to get and steal his music, all for free. Then, he recorded, "the slip" and released it on NIN.com, free for download as a tribute to his friends.
reznor is a mega producer, having produced the likes of: Notorious B.I.G, busta rhymes, manson, eminem, korn, tool, tori amos, pink, just to name a handful along with his own records.
responsible for filter, the guns and roses fallout and reconstruction, even every single beat and song in kanye west's, "808's and heartbreaks", yes, even the dying genre of rap music is trying to make a last shot at survival by transitioning over to industrial music. a genre, whos success rest solely on the shoulders of reznor.
reznor and perry ferrel are solely responsible for the success of lollapalooza (sp) having launched it into an annual event just after its infancy. the spiral tour and fragility tour were all funded out of his own pocket.
Though there was a slow down, sales wise, after the fragile, nontheless he has continued to mold, shape, influence, and will always be the face of music.
remember that every time you turn your ipod on, whatever one hit wonder band youre listening to was most likely produced by and IS influence by reznor, the face of modern music.

June 15 2009 at 9:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Darkarts40

I believe what Reznor says about Manson. Manson seems like a complete user asshole that would do anything and fuck anyone over to get ahead. Trent Reznor is a musical genius, and he talks shit about other artists because he can back up his shit talking with his music.

June 01 2009 at 5:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Darkarts40's comment
ChurchiesMakeMeLOL

Ya know what? They both are dopey clowns, neither one of them are anything like what they used to be. They had their peaks, imo, for Trent it was The Fragile, and for MM it was "Holy Wood" and after that they both just started making weak watered down albums for the legions of trendy 16yo Hot Topic shoppers who only buy their shit to look cool, not because of anything like musical quality or lyrical content in the albums.

Trent's shit got lame from lack of drugs, and Manson's got lame because of an overindulgence in them. Trent stopped making anger-fueled hard ass industrial hits with subtly political lyrics and went head on into cliche Bush-bashing. Manson stopped writing scathing anthems against religion and started writing about his breakups and other personal relationship crap like some whiny emo kid while simultaneously taking coded pop shots at MCR and other "doppelgangers" he thinks are copying off him.

The two people I looked up to and admired most are now just a withering husk of what they used to be, but it's alright and I've accepted it, after all nobody's heroes can ever stay super forever. I've accepted it and moved on to other things.

December 07 2009 at 4:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply