Who would have thought it? Richie Kotzen, the ex-Poison and Mr Big guitarist has revealed that he once came close to joining forces with Trent Reznor in Nine Inch Nails.
Kotzen was speaking to Australia’s Hot Metal magazine, promoting Black Light/White Hoise, his collab album with Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith when he dropped this little nugget.
"I was friendly with the bass player from Marilyn Manson (Twiggy Ramirez) who was playing in Nine Inch Nails,” Kotzen remembers. “He said to me, 'Listen, you've got to come down. We're having a hard time finding a guitar player.' So I went down to Third Encore (rehearsal studio in North Hollywood) and I spent the day.
"Trent told me, 'You're by far the best guy that we've tried. I would love to have you in the band. I'm gonna have my manager reach out to you.' And I left that day thinking, 'Wow, okay, I'm gonna join another band."
But then nothing happened. "A week went by. And then another week went by. And I ran into Jeordie and I said, 'What happened?' He said, basically, (Reznor) said he didn't wanna open up Rolling Stone magazine said see (the headline)‘Nine Inch Nails gets former Poison guitar player Richie Kotzen'. He didn't want the association with a hair metal band in that camp.
"And, you know, aesthetically, when you think about the fanbase and you think about how people would read into something, I can kind of could see that; I could see the point. So I jokingly said, 'Hey, I'll do it under an alias,' 'cause I wasn't doing anything at the time and I think he's, you know, a genius and I would have loved to have worked with him."
Kotzen is philosophical about Reznor’s decision these days. “That's kind of how the music business is. It's not just about the music; a lot of people listen with their eyes. And it's unfortunate in a situation like that. But it is a reality. And it's more in the rock world, by the way."
He contrasted his experience with Reznor that with what happened later on when he collaborated with jazz legend Stanley Clarke. “He didn't give a shit what band I was in before then. It was about the music.
"So that's kind of the cool thing about jazz and jazz fusion - it really is about the music. And rock - although I'm a rock guy; I love it - as much as they want you to believe it, it's not really about the music. It's about the music and a lot of the other stuff that come along with it. So you just have to kind of put that hat on when you're in that realm."
