Thanks to his work with Nine Inch Nails and his emergence, in collaboration with NIN bandmate Atticus Ross, as one of the film and television industry's most decorated and in-demand soundtrack composers, Trent Reznor is acknowledged as one of the most accomplished, innovative and fearless songwriters of the modern era. In 2023, in conversation with his good friend Rick Rubin for the latter's Tetragrammaton podcast series, Reznor spoke about the expansive musical education he received as a teenager growing up in the 1980s, and singled out one record in particular as "life-changing" for him.
Reznor began by revealing that, had he not fallen under the spell of rock 'n' roll, and specifically the louder-than-life music of Kiss, as a young teenager, his life might have taken an altogether different route, as his piano tutor had suggested that his gifted young student might want to consider a career as a concert pianist. Informed that this might entail a lifetime of hard work and endless practise, the 13-year-year old Trent Reznor concluded that this "didn't sound like it was any fun", whereas the universe created by Kiss "seemed like it was too good to be true."
"It was exciting. it was taboo, it felt larger than life," Reznor recalled. "It felt like you might get in trouble if you had the Hotter Than Hell album.... It just clicked that I want to be in a band., I want to do that."
