Trent Reznor turns down rock festival because he wants a “more sophisticated fanbase”

AJ Maddah, promoter for Soundwave Festival and one of the most influential people in the Australian music industry, has hit out at Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor on Twitter, claiming that the frontman refused to perform at his festival because he wishes to court a “more sophisticated fanbase”.

Soundwave Festival announced its line-up for 2014 last night, which sees Green Day alongside the likes of Avenged Sevenfold and Alice In Chains. As Consequence of Sound report, fans on Twitter were disappointed that Nine Inch Nails were missing from the bill after rumours tying them to the festival.

Maddah then responded to some tweets, claiming that Trent Reznor turned them down because he “wants a more sophisticated fanbase” and “wants to be mainstream now and reach Justin Timberlake’s audience”. When another fan asked where they were, he responded with “up their own ass, sadly”.

Nine Inch Nails recently premiered two songs from new album Hesitation Marks earlier on this week on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show. ‘Everything’ dropped on Monday and ‘Find My Way’ debuted yesterday.

Hesitation Marks will be released 3 September and the band will be playing at Reading and Leeds Festival this weekend.