David Bowie and Trent Reznor Perform a Gorgeously Haunting Version of the Nine Inch Nails Song ‘Hurt’

In 1995, David Bowie and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails teamed up during their Outside Tour, to perform a gorgeously haunting electric version of “Hurt”, Reznor’s banner ode to the tragedy of addiction from the 1994 album The Downward Spiral.

Also in 1995, the two musicians sat down with Kennedy of MTV’s Alternative Nation to talk about their collaboration.

In 2013, Reznor spoke with Studio Q about the profound effect that Bowie had on his music.

Getting into Bowie. The first Bowie record I really got into was “Scary
Monsters”. …Yeah it to seem like the weirdest, coldest, scariest kind of something really interesting and seductive to me about it, but it wasn’t friendly and it took me a while to understand that record and I still listen to it to all the time. …But to me it was like finding this …artist that seems to have not only created one larger-than-life identity but then while it was getting bigger threw it out and create another one, and then threw that out and create another one and seemingly skipping from genre to genre, style to style. Fearlessly not putting his career first, not putting “hey this was successful, so I better hold on track here”.

via Erika Hall

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.