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Gary Numan Credits Trent Reznor for Building His Confidence

Gary NumanMitch Schneider Organization

For years, Gary Numan has fought his past as the electronic and New Wave pioneer who hit the top 10 with the 1980 smash 'Cars.' "I'm overly obsessed perhaps about being seen as a retro or nostalgia act and so I've tended to avoid it completely," Numan tells Spinner of why he didn't perform his early material for so long.

But in recent years, Numan has loosened up on that a bit, playing albums like 'Telekon' and 'Replicas' in their entirety. Now, when Numan returns to the States for a highly anticipated tour later this year, he'll be performing all of 'The Pleasure Principle,' his 1979 hit album that spawned 'Cars' and 'Metal,' and earned Numan his biggest success.

"'The Pleasure Principle' anniversary came along towards the end of last year in Britain. It's the 30th anniversary of it hitting No. 1," he says. "On that particular tour, I decided I was going to play keyboards as well, so I played keyboards for the whole 'Pleasure Principle' thing, which I hadn't done since I wrote it and recorded it. I actually really enjoyed it; no one was more surprised than me."

Another thing that brought about the change of heart was encouraging words from friend and longtime admirer Trent Reznor, who brought Numan out onstage in L.A. for the final four shows of Nine Inch Nails' "Wave Goodbye" farewell tour. That meant the world to Numan as an artist. "A great deal of the way I feel now is thanks to Trent and what happened when I was in America with him," Numan says. "He sent me an e-mail at the end of that, just as I was leaving to come home, which is one of the loveliest things I could've ever wished for. It's just really confidence-building."

Numan also believes those L.A. shows were very important for his upcoming tour. "The way he brought me into those 'Wave Goodbye' shows and put me in front of his crowd was just a really, really brilliant thing to do," he says. "I said to him at the time I was really honored to be there and really grateful for him to give me the opportunity. No doubt about it, it introduced me to a huge amount of people that perhaps hadn't known about me before."

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Leopold Stotch

Numan still kills it.
BTW you can hear NIN w/Numan here:
http://www.versionsgalore.com/2010/07/30/car-culture/

July 30 2010 at 9:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David X

I bought the Pleasure Principle album when it came out in 1979 and it was one of my favorites for a while. I bought a couple others too but lost interest after that. Then, about a year ago, I saw a Youtube video of "Crazier" that was mashed up with footage of Christian Bale movies. Amazing stuff! Like David says, his best stuff is really on his latest albums.

July 29 2010 at 11:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

Numan is a nostalgic act?!? Insanity! I think his last few albums are his best work to date. I've been listening to Numan since I was about 5 years old...30 years later I'm still excited when his new albums drop. Anyone that rates the relevance of an artist by how much music they sell is clearly oblivious to the effects the internet has had on the music industry. I hope you enjoy American Idol...I'll be going to see Numan when he comes state side!

July 26 2010 at 4:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Simon Keeling

David S is right, Gary Numan has had nothing to say musicaly since 1981. I haven' bothered with Numan for a long time but last year I saw an advert for the Pleasure Principle Tour, yet another nostalgia tour.

July 24 2010 at 10:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dave C

Seriously David you are ignoring and insulting one of the most important artists of the last 30 years and if you don't believe me ask Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl, Jack White, Smashing Pumpkins, the Hip Hop genre, Electro Genre, Artists from the industrial genre etc etc These are people who have sited Numan as very influential. So work it out for yourself. Numan matters regardless of whether he sells bucketloads of units

July 23 2010 at 6:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David Schleicher

No one cares what Numan says - he's washed up and a retro act. His new music sells squat

July 22 2010 at 3:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Josh

Ugh-why is this news? It's all nice and stuff, but hardly news worthy.

July 21 2010 at 10:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply