Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor Explains Why He Left Twitter

Trent Reznor has made a brief return to social networking, hitting up the safe confines of his NIN.com message boards to tell fans why he left the savage world of Twitter. As Rock Daily previously reported, Reznor unceremoniously deleted his Twitter account a few weeks back with no explanation. Prior to the deletion, Reznor talked about ditching Twitter because, simply, "Idiots rule." As Reznor reiterated in his NIN.com post, it was the trolling that made Twitter insufferable for him and caused the sudden end of @trent_reznor.

"Yes, I deleted my account and I'll explain why since somehow someone apparently thinks this is newsworthy," Reznor writes. (Ed. Note: Guilty.) "Around the time news broke of my engagement, a faction of troublemakers showed up whose sole intent was to disrupt, harass, insult and incite." Reznor recently announced his engagement to West Indian Girl singer Mariqueen Mandaag, and writes that his Twitter was reply-spammed with harassing responses — everything from racist slurs to wishes he would overdose. "YES — I could (and did) block them," he notes, "but everyone else reading my replies sees ALL of that nonsense." Reznor goes on to write that the faulty Replies function, or the @, allowed for a constant spamming that eventually inundated his account.

But the real breaking point came following the death of Eric De La Cruz, a fan for whom Reznor helped raise nearly a million dollars to fund a heart transplant. Reznor pinpoints one person who wrote "someone got balls at last! Hey, can I have some of that #Eric money? The dude's dead, he doesn't need it lol." Since all #Eric posts appear on the WeLoveEric Website, Reznor had to explain to De La Cruz's sister Veronica that that's the sad state of Twitter.

"It depresses me to think my art and life's work can attract this kind of scum, and trying to explain to Veronica why someone would stoop to that level of ignorance for attention — and it's someone that because of me is in her world causing her pain... well, it sucks," Reznor writes. "If that was your intention you trolling, cowardly pigs — you've succeeded."

In other NIN news, Trent reiterated that just because this is the final Nine Inch Nails tour, that doesn't mean it's the end of Nine Inch Nails. Rather, "I am NOT stopping making music or working on things — NIN is just not touring anymore. Nin.com will remain active and alive with lots of updates planned," Reznor writes.

Related Stories:
• Trent Reznor Ends Twitter Legacy By Deleting Account
• Trent Reznor Tuning Out Twitter Because "Idiots Rule"
• Nine Inch Nails Reveal Final U.S. Tour, Small Shows In Three Cities

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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