11 years after his departure, former Nine Inch Nails guitarist Adrian Belew opened up about his days with the band.
Despite never touring with Trent Reznor and the band, Belew was expected to join NIN’s touring team in 2013 but was suddenly dismissed shortly before the tour began. Until a recent interview, Belew has never revealed the actual reason for his absence from the stage during that tour.
In the new interview with Ultimate Guitar, the guitarist reminisced about the day he was fired from the band, and shared his belief that Reznor was forced by someone else to fire him from the band:
“But after 17 days, he said that some of the guys in the band weren’t comfortable with me. They didn’t feel like I was doing my parts right and that I knew the songs as good as I should. And I said, ‘Listen, I can tell you for sure – this is 17 days in. I’m still working out ideas of sounds and things. I’m not even worried about the songs.’ But those were ‘LA kind of players,’ you know? And in my mind, they have very little imagination, I’ll put it that way. So he said, ‘It’s time for you to go.'”
Why Was Belew Really Fired?
When he was first fired from the band, neither Nine Inch Nails nor Belew made an official statement about why he left, except Belew saying that ‘it didn’t work.’ Shortly after his brief statement, where he also shared his appreciation for the band, he deleted it and replaced it with the following:
“Concerning me being part of the 2013 Nine Inch Nails band: it didn’t work.”
Before making that announcement, Belew had consistently shared updates regarding the progress of rehearsals with Nine Inch Nails. He appeared enthusiastic but also highlighted potential obstacles.
Belew was the second band member to leave Nine Inch Nails in less than a month. Bassist Eric Avery announced his departure on May 15, saying he had felt ‘overwhelmed’ by ‘all the intensity that Nails demands.’
After changes in the line-up, Reznor revealed that the band had turned into ‘something different’:
“It’s felt like a wrench in the works at times, but at the same time it’s made me rethink a lot of how we put this together, and I think where we’re ending up at is a place that’s much truer to what Nine Inch Nails should be and better in the long run.”
You can hear more details in the interview below.
