Drummer Jerome Dillon said that when he's up on stage cranking out some funky rhythms and hearing the crowd scream, suddenly it will hit him — "I'm in Nine Inch Nails!"
"It happens all the time," Dillon said during a phone interview from Las Vegas. "The thought will pass through me when I'm on stage, when I'm in bed, when I'm in the bathroom."
Nine Inch Nails — vocalist/keyboardist/founder Trent Reznor, Dillon, guitarist Robin Fink and multi-instrumentalists Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser — will play the E Center in West Valley City on Saturday, June 17. Show time is 7:30 p.m. A Perfect Circle, featuring Tool front man Maynard James Keenan, will open the evening. Tickets are available at the E Center box office and all Smith'sTix outlets.
The last time NIN (as it is known by its fans) was in town was 1994, at the Delta Center. During that show, Reznor voiced his unhappiness that opening act Marilyn Manson was banned from going on stage.
So, Reznor, took matters into his own hands and asked Manson to come on stage and voice his opinions.
"He loves me. He loves me not," Manson said as he ripped pages from a Book of Mormon. And after a few choice words, he tossed the religious text into the audience.
"I wasn't in the band when that happened," confessed Dillon. "And, to be honest, I didn't know anything about that incident. But if you were to come backstage, you would see that those kinds of antics are past. I mean, Trent, and all of us for that matter, have become such computer geeks. We just check out e-mail until we have to go on stage. And when it's over, we go back to checking the e-mails."
Dillon joined NIN back in early 1999. That is, after he passed two auditions that pitted the Ohio native against 30 or 40 other drummers.
"I joined the band knowing that I was basically a hired gun," Dillon said. "I'm still a hired gun, but the other guys, including Trent, have made me feel as if I am actually a part of the band. I've been in decisionmaking discussions and have been treated like I'm part of this family."
Dillon, who actually began his musical training on the piano when he was 5, said he started playing drums when he was 13.
"I found myself in a lot of (crappy) bands in high school and college," he said. "They were never on the level of this band. Even when I was in Howlin' Maggie."
Howlin' Maggie was Dillon's rude awakening into big-label politics. "We kind of signed our own death note. We were so close as a band and as friends that we didn't manage things well. We had no cohesive idea of what we were supposed to do as a band."
Then he got a call about a job in Nine Inch Nails. "I packed up my stuff and headed down to New Orleans where the band was getting ready to record 'The Fragile.' "
After the first audition, Dillon was asked back. "The second audition was basically me sitting down and talking with the other guys in the band. It was more like how I would get on with them and how they would get on with me. After it was over, I was asked to be in the band."
The drummer even found himself part of the recording process for the new NIN album, "The Fragile."
"I'm still not sure how many songs I played on, but I do know that I was on the track, 'We're In This Together,' " Dillon said with a laugh.
Dillon made his debut with NIN on the MTV Music Awards in August. Before that, he had some time to prepare for the tour and made use of it by listening to everything he could by former NIN drummer Chris Vrenna.
"I did feel the pressure," Dillon said. "Chris did a great job of playing the music live. But we're so different stylistically. I've seen videos and heard what he can do. And I've been given the freedom to add what I feel fits. By the time the band began rehearsing in the Bahamas, I had a pretty good handle on the band's back catalog. And playing live has really shaped my playing a lot."
Dillon hopes this experience will come in handy in the future.
"I would like to work with the guys again and record more records with Nine Inch Nails," he confessed. "But no one knows what the future holds.
"I am, however, working on a couple of soundtracks for upcoming films. And those are going to be fun."
E-MAIL: scott@desnews.com