Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor Claims Kanye West & The Weeknd 'Ripped Off' His Band's Live Show

6/26/2018 by Rania Aniftos

Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails performs on stage at TSB Arena on March 20, 2014 in Wellington, New Zealand. 

Trent Reznor wants everyone to know Nine Inch Nails started the whole immersive concert experience thing.

Reznor sat down with BBC 6 Music's Lauren Laverne, explaining that NIN has taken a turn back to old time concert simplicity after years of being in an "arms race" for the most technologically advanced show. While discussing his interest in a scaled-back performance, the singer mentioned Kanye West and The Weeknd, claiming that their concerts look all too familiar.

"I remember us watching a string of bands on Coachella from the comfort of our couch, you know, and every band has a video playing behind them, and every band is sunk up with a convenient, polite lighting package, you know?" he said. "And I saw Kanye West blatantly rip off, and the Weeknd rip off, our tours, with production-wise, which I’ll say without any hesitation."

"And they know. And I thought what would be exciting to me is just to see — when I think back to the Cure, when I saw them the first time or Jesus And Mary Chain when we opened for them, all I remember of that was smoke, maybe a color, a little bit of someone’s hair and real, real loud guitars," he continued. "That’s exciting, and I don’t see that happening much."

See the full clip below.