Somewhere in a parallel universe, Richie Kotzen is tearing up riffs onstage with Nine Inch Nails. But in this one, Poison happened—and that was enough to kill the deal.
Kotzen recently told Hot Metal he was in the mix to join NIN after a personal invite from then-bassist Jeordie White (a.k.a. Twiggy Ramirez). He auditioned, jammed at Third Encore, and left with Trent Reznor’s blessing. “You’re by far the best guy that we’ve tried,” Reznor told him. The next step was supposed to be a call from management. It never came.
Turns out, it wasn’t the playing. It wasn’t the vibe. It was the Poison thing.
According to Kotzen, Reznor baulked at the idea of seeing “Nine Inch Nails hires former Poison guitarist” in Rolling Stone. To him, image mattered a lot more than ability.
And sure, on paper, Kotzen’s résumé doesn’t exactly scream Downward Spiral. He played in Poison from 1991 to 1993 long after their peak on Native Tongue. But that was enough to make Reznor second guess the optics. Never mind that Kotzen’s solo work is a genre-hopping masterclass in taste and restraint. The association with teased hair and neon spandex was too much.
Kotzen even joked about playing under an alias just to dodge the baggage. “I wasn’t doing anything at the time,” he said. “I think [Trent’s] a genius and I would have loved to work with him.”
It’s a strange what-if. But Kotzen’s not exactly mourning the missed opportunity. He’s been prolific ever since, including his latest project Smith/Kotzen with Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith—but still, it’s wild that a footnote from a short stint in the early ’90s could block one of the most left-field collaborations in rock.
Then again, Reznor’s always been ruthless about curation. So none of it comes as any real surprise.
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