Another year, another list of egregious snubbings for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the third consecutive year, Nine Inch Nails were snubbed of even a nomination. In a new interview with Stereogum, frontman Trent Reznor was asked about the omission, and he made his stance perfectly clear: “I honestly couldn’t give less of a shit.”
Reznor compared the Rock Hall to similar accolades like the Grammys and the Oscars. While the Academy Awards feel “like it’s coming from a much more significant place and from the community that’s honoring you,” Reznor said the Grammys and the Hall of Fame don’t carry as much weight. As he put it:
“I saw somebody write something online or comment on Twitter like, ‘What could be less rock and roll than the fuckin’ Hall Of Fame?’ And that is authentically how I feel about it. I’ll say this: It’s nice to be appreciated. It’s nicer when it feels like that’s coming from a place that you care about. Like, a Grammy doesn’t mean a fuckin’ thing. It means a few assholes in a room that are trying to make a TV show have good ratings deciding, ‘Let’s give it to this guy.’ It doesn’t feel like it has any meaning behind it.”
(Read: The 20 Worst Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs)
He added, “The worst would be if we did [get inducted] and then what? We’d have to fuckin’ show up and jam? I can’t even imagine what that would be.”
Of course, none of this is the say he wouldn’t take the honor if it was bestowed upon him, but it’s not something that’s keeping him up at night. “I’m not saying this as sour grapes,” Reznor concluded. “I honestly couldn’t give less of a shit. I’m not gonna sleep any better. Included or not. With that being said, it’s always nice to feel you’ve been appreciated to some degree but it’s not on my list of things I have to achieve before I die.”
The 2019 finalists for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame include Radiohead (who, incidentally, share Reznor’s sentiments), Rage Against The Machine, Janet Jackson, Roxy Music, Stevie Nicks, The Cure, Def Leppard, LL Cool J, Devo, Todd Rundgren, Kraftwerk, John Prine, and others. The five inductees will be announced in December, with the induction ceremony going down in April 2019 in Brooklyn.