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Guitar World
Guitar World
Entertainment
Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour

“We were out to satisfy our animal instincts onstage. I think we spent $40,000 on gear that we smashed on Lollapalooza”: Nine Inch Nails made their name with infamously destructive live shows – this is the true story behind their epic guitar smash-a-thons

Nine Inch Nails at Lollapalooza in Waterloo, New Jersey on August 14, 1991.

Lollapalooza 1991 may have been headlined by Jane’s Addiction, but every Gen Xer in attendance left the alternative festival’s first iteration with the same three words on their lips: Nine Inch Nails.

Trent Reznor’s burgeoning industrial rock outfit would take to the stage at 4pm, while the sun was still up, and tear through tracks from debut album Pretty Hate Machine, before taking out the angst accumulated throughout their set on their equipment.

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