The Soundwave 2014 lineup was announced last Friday, with Green Day and Avenged Sevenfold topping a bill of around 50 bands for next year’s edition of the hard rock, punk, and metal festival.

There was one act however who were heavily rumoured as a headliner but were conspicuously absent from the Soundwave 2014 lineup: Nine Inch Nails.

Ahead of Friday’s lineup announcement, Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah tweeted that it was the first of two lineup reveals, with only two of three of the festival’s headliners announced.

This information led some to believe that Maddah had a Nine Inch Nails-sized ace still up his sleeve, but comments from the outspoken promoter on his favourite social media outlet made it clear that Trent Reznor and his revitalised lineup would not be appearing at Soundwave 2014.

But despite not gracing the festival bill, word from the Nine Inch Nails frontman himself reveals the band are still planning on making the trip to Australia as part of their world tour prompted by the release of next month’s new album Hesitation Marks.


Reznor’s turning down of Soundwave’s offer was not something that Maddah took lightly. The Soundwave honcho has shown his talent for public scorn in turning down bands before, and in fielding a series of queries about the Soundwave 2014 lineup announcement following its reveal, Maddah made it clear that negotiations with Nine Inch Nails had turned particularly sour.

He told one disappointed fan about the band’s omission: “Sadly Trent wants to be mainstream now and reach Justin Timberlake’s audience;” while telling another fan that the band had disappeared “up their own arse sadly,” when asked where Nine Inch Nails were on the lineup.

Replying to another NIN query, Maddah wrote: “I’m no longer interested in working with them. I happen to like their existing fanbase.” While further tweets from Maddah revealed that Reznor had rejected Nine Inch Nails on the basis that they were after a more “sophisticated audience” than that of Soundwave.

Maddah was responsible for Nine Inch Nails’ last visit to Australia, for Soundwave 2009, which led many to believe he’d booked the band and their new visually ambitious live show to Australia for their comeback album, Hesitation Marks. 

Fans have already heard four tracks from the new album ahead of its release on 3rd September, including ‘Came Back Haunted’, and its David Lynch-directed, epilepsy-inducing music video, the sleek ‘Copy of A’, the upbeat synth-pop of ‘Everything‘, and most recently ‘Find My Way‘, amongst comments from Reznor praising Kanye West as the most “dangerous entertainer of 2013.”

Reznor and the new live lineup – featuring Robin Finck, Allessandro Cortini, Ilan Rubin, and Josh Eustis – continues their global trot, winding up visiting the European music festival circuit this month before starting an extensive North American tour with a run of dates through to November – freeing the band up for other territories next year, including Reznor’s promise for an Australian tour.

Despite missing the industrial rock titans, the Soundwave 2014 lineup still features the likes of Green Day, Avenged Sevenfold, Stone Temple Pilots (with Chester Bennington replacing the fired Scott Weiland), Megadeth, Alice In Chains, Baroness, and nearly 50 more bands on its bill as it treks across the country in February, 2014.

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine