Nine Inch Nails

Martin Huxley Nine Inch Nails (1997)
This is the sort of rock star biography for which the writing process presumably entailed the author sat in a room with a laptop surrounded by towers of magazines and music papers; and perhaps unsurprisingly, he's also published books about AC/DC, Eminem, and Aerosmith. All the same, I never read any of the magazines from which Trent Reznor and others are quoted at considerable length, and almost everything here was news to me and accordingly fascinating. I fucking love Nine Inch Nails without reservation, and although this biography could have gone horribly wrong given Reznor's completely bewildering admiration for panto-metal and scary face acts such as Ministry and -ugh- Skinny Puppy, Huxley gets the balance absolutely right, picks up on the subtleties of the man's art, and gives duly respectful testimony without kissing ass. Even the term industrial is used relatively sparingly, and usually with a disclaimer. Good job, all things considered.