NIN Bail On MTV Show

Nine Inch Nails have cancelled their performance at the MTV Movie Awards because of a disagreement with the network over the band's use of a George W. Bush picture.

"Apparently the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me," frontman Trent Reznor posted on NIN's Web site Thursday.

The band was planning to perform its politically charged single "The Hand That Feeds" with the Bush image as a backdrop. The song features the lyrics, "Inside your heart it is black and it's hollow and it's cold . . . There's a price to be paid for the blood on which we dine/Justified in the name of the holy and the divine."

"While we respect Nine Inch Nails' point of view, we were uncomfortable with their performance being built around a partisan political statement," said an MTV spokesperson. "When we discussed our discomfort with the band, their choice was to unfortunately pull out of the Movie Awards."

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »

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