Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) Speaks Out Against Marilyn Manson: “I Cut Ties With Him Nearly 25 Years Ago”

Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor has issued a statement condemning Marilyn Manson for the abuse allegations that have surfaced over the course of this week.

The two have a shared history, with Reznor releasing Manson’s first five albums on his label, Nothing Records, beginning in 1994 with Portrait of an American Family.

In his statement, Reznor says he cut ties with Manson “nearly 25 years ago” and that a passage from Manson’s memoir, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, that recounts an alleged story of the pair abusing two women together, was “a complete fabrication.”

In the passage from the 1998 book, which has been making the rounds this week, Manson describes plying the women with full glasses of tequila while the two men pretended to do the same but drank beer instead. When one woman passed out, Manson says, the two “poked our fingers into the birth cavity” of the other, who was heavily inebriated.

Reznor’s statement, released to Pitchfork, reads in full:

“I have been vocal over the years about my dislike of Manson as a person and cut ties with him nearly 25 years ago. As I said at the time, the passage from Manson’s memoir is a complete fabrication. I was infuriated and offended back when it came out and remain so today.”

Reznor joins Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland, who played in Manson’s band for a period in 2008 and 2009, as high profile musicians to speak out against the shock rocker in light of the allegations that have come to the forefront this week.

On Monday, February 1, actress Evan Rachel Wood wrote a post on Instagram in which she said that Manson, her former fiancée, “horrifically abused me for years.” While she has implied in the past that Manson abused her, this was the first time she explicitly mentioned his name.

Later in the day, Wood shared the stories of three more women who all also say that Manson abused them. She also shared testimony of two of Manson’s former assistants, one of whom says she was abused by Manson, and the other who says he witnessed Manson’s abusive behavior towards others firsthand.

In a statement, Manson called the accusations “horrible distortions of reality.”

Shortly after Wood’s story broke, Manson’s label, Loma Vista, promptly dropped the singer and scrubbed their website of his likeness and merchandise. He has since been fired from acting roles on the TV shows American Gods and Creepshow, and his agency, CAA, has severed ties with him as well.

Manson’s ex, Rose McGowan, yesterday released a video statement in which she praised Evan Rachel Wood for coming forward and leveling accusations of abuse against Marilyn Manson.

Love Bailey, a filmmaker, alleged that Manson pulled a gun on her in 2011 when she got to his house for a gig as a photoshoot stylist, reporting that an unnamed Hollywood actor who was there with him appeared to be drugged.

[via Metal Injection]