In words, this is what the chart says:
LATE 80's / EARLY 90's 01) Singer/guitarist Courtney Love begins relationship with fellow scenester musician Eric Erlandson. Their relationship eventually crumbles but they end up founding the band Hole together and remain friends. 02) Trent Reznor assembles a live band for his Nine Inch Nails '88 preview tour. Until his departure in 1993, Richard Patrick serves as touring guitarist for NIN as well as a friend to Trent. As rumor has it, he also served as a love interest. This has never been admitted to by Trent. The only known fact is that Trent kicked his ass on stage during each NIN concert. Richard grew to hate him for this constant mental and physical abuse. Richard joined NIN at the tender age of 17. Looking back, he admits he didn't really know how to play guitar at the time. 03) The following information comes from a person named Amy who read this page and sent me an email. She says: Courtney and Billy had a "romantic relationship" before she ever met Kurt. She was over at Billy's house one night in Chicago where she had been staying, and they had an argument. Consequently, that night Billy kicked her out. With no where to go, Courtney headed downtown for a rock show at the Cabaret Metro. The band playing was headed by Kurt. That night she got back stage and met Kurt. They had a "romantic interlude" if you will, and spent the night with him. The next morning she headed back to Corgan's house to try, once again, to rekindle their relationship, but to no avail. 04) Courtney Love marries Seattle up-and-coming musician Kurt Cobain, leader of the band Ted Ed Fred which would later become Nirvana. 05) Tori Amos' debut solo album, Little Earthquakes, contains the lyric "nine inch nails" within the song "Precious Things." 06) Tori Amos' Crucify EP contains a cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
1994-1995 01) Tori Amos and Trent may have had a romantic relationship. They each claim that they are fans of each others work and friends and both vehemently deny romantic rumors. Still, Trent appears on Tori's 1994 album Under The Pink, singing soft loveydovey backup vocals on the track "Past The Mission." An amusing story of their relationship, which seems to be a similar non-romantic one akin to the one between her and Maynard James Keenan of Tool, is the chicken story. From an interview with Trent in Details Magazine (4/95): "...she would visit him at the Los Angeles house where TDS was recorded. The house where Manson followers killed Sharon Tate. On one visit, Tori told a depressed Trent that she would whip him up a hearty home-cooked meal. The cursed chicken. After six hours in the Tate house oven, it was still bloody and raw. Tori's preferred excuse: 'The spirits of the house wouldn't let it.' Eventually Trent left for another studio, where he ordered in. And the chicken? He shrugs. 'I didn't ask. The ghosts ate it.'" 02) Courtney and Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan have a secret affair. If memory serves correct, they were with each other as lovers in Paris when... 03) Kurt Cobain commits suicide. According to Courtney, the bandmates were feuding up until the time of Kurt's death. Dave Grohl said he would not talk to Kurt until he gave up his heroin habit. Kurt never stopped and Courtney alleges that before he died he hated Dave and was probably more depressed because of his stubbornness. Dave claims it was because he was such a good friend that he gave the ultimatum. 04) The Corgan/Love affair ends, I think amicably but quietly too. Courtney goes into faux grieving widow mode, making a point to be on MTV constantly (whether reading suicide notes or performing with Hole). The Smashing Pumpkins give up time from their Lollapalooza set each night post-suicide so Courtney could do a few songs before their set. Supposedly Nirvana was the original headlining act that summer. 05) Months later, Hole lands the opening spot on 6 dates of the NIN Self-Destruct tour. Trent and Courtney become friends and, according to a rumor perpetuated by Trent, eventually lovers. This relationship takes a nasty turn for unknown reasons. It remains Trent's most highly publicized and by far most embarrassing affair. His account is that they were merely friends and that he took pity on her and tried to be a friend. Courtney has told multiple magazines that they've had sex and that his band should be called Three Inch Nails. 06) According to rumor, Tori gets very jealous. An AOL user who claims to have gone on tour with Tori has informed me recently by email that the imagery and metaphor behind Tori's "The Waitress" is without a doubt aimed at Courtney Love. Since this song was released before The Downward Spiral and its tour (where Hole opened), this seems to imply Tori was not exactly a fan of Courtney's to begin with. 07) Manson's autobiography says that the guitarist for Marilyn Manson, Twiggy Ramirez, had a brief affair with Courtney shortly after the breakup. Supposedly this was to keep track of Trent. A reader of this page notes that Twiggy actually had two affairs (another during the Big Day Out Australian tour years later) and that his relationship with Courtney subjected him to continual derision from Manson. In an unrelated note, in a year 2000 interview with NIN guitarist Robin Finck, when asked who he wants to "fuck like an animal" he answered Twiggy. Make of that what you will. 08) Richard Patrick breaks through with new project Filter. Their only hit off of the first album is the dark, NIN-like "Hey Man, Nice Shot." Many fans are offended, thinking that the song is intended to be a sick joke on Kurt Cobain's self-inflicted fatal gunshot wound to the head. Richard counters that he had written the song four years ago about someone else who had shot himself in the head. A reader of this page explains: "'Hey Man, Nice Shot' was written about former Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer. He was our state treasurer over a decade ago and he called a live press conference where he committed suicide live on TV with a .357 magnum handgun. It was one of the most shocking moments on TV in PA. I remember seeing it and I couldn't believe it--it happened so quickly and yet it seemed to go in slow motion." Richard also admitted in an interview that the old song was put on the album because it was "the only good one he had." It is also worth noting that this is the song that ushered in other NIN soundalikes such as Stabbing Westward and Gravity Kills, and later Orgy. 09) Smashing Pumpkins release their critically acclaimed double album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. Billy Corgan clearly lashes out at Courtney in such songs as "X.Y.U." (Think about it: "Ex, Why You?") "Erin H." writes, however, that the song is born out of a demo song called "Rachel," which may mean it's about a different ex-lover.
1996 01) Trent, now no longer touring, records, produces and essentially performs Marilyn Manson's third album, Antichrist Superstar. During these eight months the two men become very close "friends." There has never been an official comment on either side about any kind of sexual bond, but many fans believe it is so. Trent has denied it before but Manson has said things so innuendo filled that, if not meant to be shocking/insulting to fans, is hard not to believe. Anyway, they become best friends for a while. 02) Tori releases her third album, Boys For Pele. And boy is she pissed. The CD jacket features images of her victorious over the pigs, clearly a kiss-off to NIN songs like "Last" ("pigs we get what pigs deserve"), "Piggy" and "March of the Pigs." The leadoff single, "Caught A Lite Sneeze", has another direct kiss-off: the lyric "made my own Pretty Hate Machine" (1989 NIN debut album). The follow-up single "Professional Widow" has lyrics that seem to deal with Trent choosing the idiotic and slutty Courtney over her, Tori proclaiming her a "starfucker" (Eric, Kurt, Billy, Trent...). Tori's lyric "Little Amsterdam in a southern town" from that album's "Little Amsterdam" could also refer to Trent if you're a creative thinker. For the tour she covers NIN favorite "Hurt", shortening the song to a minute and giving it light hearted, silly lyrics like "I hurt myself today to find a jelly bean." 03) Trent says that Courtney Love meddled in his relationship with Tori and this drifted their friendship apart. 04) Courtney Love thrashes Trent and defends her late husband on the Hole newsgroup. She is disgusted that people mentioned the two men even in the same sentence.
1997 01) El Duce (real name Eldon Hoke) is found dead on April 19th in a train yard. He was a "porno metal star" who traveled with NIN and Manson on the Self-Destruct Tour. You can see him in 1998's Closure documentary in the groupie scene. In Kurt & Courtney, a documentary on Kurt Cobain's death and his relationship with Courtney Love, El Duce says that Love offered him $5,000 to kill Cobain. When he went public with this in 1997 he was shortly killed. 02) Hole releases the CD My Body The Hand Grenade which contains the song "Old Age", a song Nirvana bassist Kris Novoselic alleges was an unreleased Nirvana song.
1998 01) Tori offers subtle Trent/Courtney dis in her song "She's Your Cocaine" off her new album. No more direct references though. 02) Marilyn Manson releases an autobiography totally exposing Trent for all of the seedy, terrible things he was a part of on the 1994/1995 Self-Destruct Tour with Manson as openers. Although it's not "I hate you Trent", Trent is deeply saddened by Manson's betrayal. They had not spoken for about a year but were not enemies at the time. 03) Manson befriends Pumpkin Billy Corgan. Corgan announces plans to produce Manson's new album; these plans eventually fall through. They do however perform on stage together at a Smashing Pumpkins Bridge School Benefit concert. 04) Trent begins recording The Fragile. 05) Billy Corgan puts out a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Adore. By Pumpkins (and industry) standards it's a commercial and critical failure. A precursor. 06) Manson and Hole both release new albums, both actually produced by the same guy.
2000 01) Foo Fighters open for Nine Inch Nails, Nine Inch Nails open for Red Hot Chili Peppers. Thus was the highly successful Big Day Out tour in Auastralia and New Zealand this January and February. Interestingly, Hole and Marilyn Manson co-headlined the previous year's Australian Big Day Out festival along with Korn. 02) Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins release their fifth and supposedly final album, Machina / The Machines Of God. In my opinion it is very, very much like The Fragile musically and, in a way, thematically. Thematically The Fragile was about rebuilding; many songs on Machina say we are back, we are good and we will get through this. They got their drummer back. They switched bassists. The album isn't as depressing as Adore but, like The Fragile, it presents a grim form of optimism. Corgan and Reznor are survivors and I think as long as they're making music then we're all alright. Musically I could name many comparisons: the off kilter drumming, the synthetically processed instruments and vocals, the distorted guitars. It's even produced and/or mixed by the team of Flood and Alan Moulder, both of which worked on The Downward Spiral and Moulder which spent two and a half years working with Trent on The Fragile. And like that album, it debuted respectably (although not #1 like NIN) and soon dropped off the charts. Both bands are trying to rejuvenate their new music through stadium tours. 03) Manson and Trent apparently patch things up. Manson says so; Trent is elusive; radio stations and magazines promise Manson to star in the video for "Starfuckers, Inc." Manson is granted official musician status on the nin.com message board. 04) Trent promises exciting things ("a shit storm", to be precise) in the near future. Allstar News reports in an article that the video takes shots at Courtney, Durst, Puffy, Mariah Carey (now she is totally out of the blue; I understand the music is bad but she never did anything to Trent; then again, neither did Bush or R.E.M.) among others. It was Puff Daddy whom, in 1998, Trent remixed for the challenge, or, depending on the interview, for the money. Trent and Puffy also battled each other on MTV's Celebrity Death Match (it was a tie). Celebrity Death Match has hosted Marilyn Manson two or three times or more and has had the band on its soundtrack with the Antichrist Superstar reject "Astonishing Panorama Of The End Times." 05) The new video premieres and it insults everyone listed above, and in addition: Billy Corgan, Michael Stipe, Richard Patrick, and Marilyn Manson. And as rumored, Manson himself is in the video; he is the limo "girl" (he also directed the whole thing). So does this mean the song isn't about him after all? Or that it is about him (partially) and that Trent and him have patched things? The video also mocked Trent himself who appeared with his Don Juan style 1997 "The Perfect Drug" hair (including one scene where he smashes a statuette of himself from that year), very fruity eyeshadowing (kinda like Manson '96-99, or perhaps like Trent's musical hero Robert Smith of The Cure?), and acting very rockstar-ish and childish (it was at a carnival, after all). There may be more stars insulted in the video but a lot of it goes by very quickly. Uglified blonde Baywatch and Playboy stars Pamela Anderson Lee (Playmate of the Year for 1995) and Donna D'Errico both appear, looking very old and gross, holding up photographs of their fake Holywood appearances. Later Trent smashes plates with the faces of pop stars. One is Gene Simmons from one of Trent's favorite bands, Kiss. What is Trent saying about his favorite rock group growing up? Is he just kidding or is he pissed about their constant farewell tours? Weird. Rose McGowan also appears to be on one of the plates, just above her real life fiancé, Marilyn Manson. It is also worth noting perhaps that when Carson Daly introduced the video he looked and sounded like a "sad puppydog." Trent has taken to insulting Carson and his TRL show in the media. Apparently he's actually a NIN fan (he was a KROQ DJ before signing onto MTV). It's kind of a double standard; on one side he is a rock fan, on the other he hosts the most bullshit, sugarcoated garbage pop music show on television. As an aside which is not related to the saga at all, but in the new video, Trent references his idol Aphex Twin by doing something out of his video for "Come To Daddy", directed by Chris Cunningham. Like the tall demon in the Aphex video, Trent opens his mouth wide and lip syncs the screaming part of the song. Cool! We'll see how all the stars react to this... personally I don't think they'll care or notice much. Also, if anyone can tell me who the bald headed and red headed female statuettes are in the background when Trent is smashing himself and Billy, please let me know! Update: Someone emailed me to suggest that the redhead is Shirley Manson of Garbage. The emailer told me that, in a 1998 interview with Rolling Stone, Shirley said "Trent's music sounds psycho but I think he's weak man. And I'm much more real psycho, enough to make him escape." At the time she was entering stardom as a sex symbol and the musical merits of her band weren't being discussed much. 06) Richard Patrick disses Fred Durst for a) saying the Family Values Tour should not go on for a third time and shouldn't have happened twice to begin with and b) doing the on-stage duet with Christina Aguilera at the 2000 Video Music Awards, apparently an insult to everything that rock 'n' roll is about. 07) Fred Durst and Courtney Love are friends. He comes to her for advice about how he should come across to the public. 08) Limp Bizkit release an album entitled Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water. The song "Hotdog" disses Trent but borrows so heavily musically and lyrically from "Closer," "The Perfect Drug," and "Burn" that Trent has to be given a writer credit. When asked about this, Trent says that he could have held up the album release if he wanted to but he didn't want to sink to that level. Pumpkins fan "Erin H." writes that the Limp Bizkit album title is "widely believed to be inspired by/poking fun at the Smashing Pumpkins' title Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness."
2001 01) Tori Amos records with Adrian Belew (King Crimson guitarist featured on NIN's last two albums) for her new album. 02) Director Baz Lurhman hires Marilyn Manson to record some music for his film Moulin Rouge. One of the songs Manson chooses is Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." However, Courtney Love, Nirvana's copyright controller, bars the usage of this in the film and it remains unheard by just about anyone. The AOL user who said he toured with Tori says it is in the film ("watch and listen") which may be true; I haven't seen it yet, personally. 03) Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic (ex-Nirvana bassist) become involved in a law suit with Courtney Love (and later Cobain's mother) over the rights to release a Nirvana boxed set, including an unheard song that Courtney stole and re-wrote on an early Hole album. Further details can be read in this MTV News article (and others it links to). 04) While not selfishly fighting to keep unreleased Nirvana songs away from fans, Courtney Love has embarked on a mission to change songwriter copyright laws in the music industry. Trent Reznor, during his promotional blitz for his band's live album and DVD, tells the press that he applauds her efforts to protect the rights of musicians and songwriters.
In a way, this is how '90s rock music fell apart, or, shall I say, killed itself. Think about it: these are most of the key players of mainstream music in the last ten years. I mean, OK so I didn't directly involve Pearl Jam or Sublime, but these above connections are astounding. It is my personal opinion, given the above evidence, that Courtney Love destroyed '90s rock music. This could be good or bad depending on your opinions and musical tastes. It is good to change things around every few years. But if you think about it, is the current state of angry, one-dimensional jock rock really that great? I don't think so. But this is only the beginning of a journey through totally uncharted territory. I can't help but smile when I hear the industrial grooves of a new Filter song or the teen angst driven machismo of a Limp Bizkit chorus. My only hope is that, in addition to all this new music, we can still enjoy the old fogies like the Smashing Pumpkins and Foo Fighters. And perhaps some day we will get an all-star jam out of this whole mess.
Everything written by Travis Christensen. Almost everything done by memory in two sittings in 2000. Sources are various articles and interviews. Updated periodically since 2000, but only a couple times after 2002. The partial inspiration for this page was this article (thanks!) linked here:
If you have more info, especially about Love/Corgan and Trent/Tori, please email me.
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