Reznor Takes Bowie On A Hellish Ride
The thought of Nine Inch Nails‘ Trent
Reznor as a menacing taxi driver would be enough to strike
terror in the hearts of the calmest of men. All the more reason
he’s the absolutely perfect villain for David
Bowie’s new video, “I’m Afraid Of Americans,” which
premiered at 1 a.m. Oct. 28 on MTV’s “120 Minutes”
and went into heavy rotation on the channel that day.
“Trent is the personification of the foreigners’ idea of
paranoia in America,” says Bowie, with a charming laugh. “The
cipher is the (Robert) De Niro character in ‘Taxi
Driver.’ Trent offered to do it; he got quite off on the idea.”
The video was directed by the hot British team of
Dom&Nick. Bowie played the paranoid foreigner
in the clip, which features a few nice inside jokes for those
familiar with the music video community and New York taxis.
Despite his obvious fondness for Reznor now, Bowie says he
wasn’t instantly smitten when he first heard Reznor on Nine Inch
Nails’ 1990 album, Pretty Hate Machine. “I thought ‘Pretty
Hate Machine’ was interesting (but) fairly one-dimensional,” says
Bowie. “Then when I heard (1994’s) ‘The Downward Spiral,’ I thought
this was a really gifted musician.” The two finally met during
rehearsals for a 1995 tour in which Nine Inch Nails opened for
Bowie.