Bill’s dog and wave hello to family friends, but then he leaves again.
The Sharon mills closed in 1987 after a decade of industrial disinvestment throughout the region. A way of life ended in Mercer as a generation of young people found that a century’s tradition of working-class employment was over. Many were forced to leave the area to find work. Today the borough is graying. Folks in town say it’s a nice place to retire or to raise kids. But kids often feel differently.
In a corridor leading off the main hall of the Mercer Area Jr/Sr High School hangs the “Academic Hall of Fame.” A photo behind a locked glass case shows Reznor, a 2006 inductee, smiling with an L.A.-tanned face and crisp suit. It was taken during his first return to the school in 23 years, on the invitation of his former band director Dr. Hendley Hoge. Hoge founded the Community Band (in which Trent played), built the band shell in the park, and is now theprincipal of the school. After the induction ceremony the
Sharon Herald
ran a complaint that the school shouldn’t honor someone who makes what pop critic Ann Powers has called “nasty” art, 35 work that bucks social norms and explores the underbelly of society and the mind. One of the Community Band’s members responded:
I am a member of the Mercer Community Band and have often seen Reznor’s grandfather wearing a NIN hat and belt buckle. How shocking that he can enjoy the music we play as well as support Trent Reznor’s music career. Oh, wait. He’s proud of the accomplishments made by a family member. Could it simply be that Mercer is proud of its native son’s fame and talent? It is my belief that Mercer has every right to be proud of Mr. Reznor’s accomplishments. From a county whose best-known products are rusted steel plants and the air pollution of two interstate highways, Reznor’s extraordinary talents deserve recognition. 36
That may well be true, but the Mercer County Historical Society has no Nine Inch Nails file, and indeed, they consider Trent just another part of a long line of influential Reznors who have called Mercer home. Trent didn’t even make the Top 10 Famous Mercer Countians as listed in the
Herald
. 37 Those more famous natives included John Armor Bingham, who drafted the 14th Amendment; Fred Houser, who worked on the Manhattan Project; and Š tefan Bani č , inventor of the parachute.
Head Like a Hole
David, 42, Youngstown, Ohio
David responded to a flyer I passed out at Blossom, a venue in Akron, Ohio, the area where Nine Inch Nails played during its summer of 2006 Inconvenient Truth tour. We met at a Denny’s in Austintown, and over coffee he shared his story. He also brought and showed me his most prized NIN show souvenir: a broken synth key.
My mom was from the south side of Youngstown. After high school she went to San Francisco, got married, had me, got a divorce, and moved back. When I was 12, she remarried. My stepfather was born in Youngstown and was a schoolteacher in Canfield. But when he met my mom, he was in his 20s and out of work because it was the late seventies and there were no jobs. He went to Texas to work for an overseas construction company called Brown & Root. 23 My mom went down there and called to say, “Hey, I got married.” I liked the guy, but it was shocking.
That was a difficult time in my life. We moved all around and I went to 12 different schools. My junior year, my step-dad took a job in Indonesia, so I went to California to live with my father. Things were going well when his wife—she was the woman he was cheating on my mother with—took me to McDonald’s and told me, “You’re the reason I’m getting a divorce.” She hated kids. She left my father, and then he dated a girl I was in high school with.
I had a breakdown shortly after that. I had hallucinations, hospitalizations, and was diagnosed as bipolar. I was 16—I was set to go to college—and everything came falling down. You know how in New York
The Sharon mills closed in 1987 after a decade of industrial disinvestment throughout the region. A way of life ended in Mercer as a generation of young people found that a century’s tradition of working-class employment was over. Many were forced to leave the area to find work. Today the borough is graying. Folks in town say it’s a nice place to retire or to raise kids. But kids often feel differently.
In a corridor leading off the main hall of the Mercer Area Jr/Sr High School hangs the “Academic Hall of Fame.” A photo behind a locked glass case shows Reznor, a 2006 inductee, smiling with an L.A.-tanned face and crisp suit. It was taken during his first return to the school in 23 years, on the invitation of his former band director Dr. Hendley Hoge. Hoge founded the Community Band (in which Trent played), built the band shell in the park, and is now theprincipal of the school. After the induction ceremony the
Sharon Herald
ran a complaint that the school shouldn’t honor someone who makes what pop critic Ann Powers has called “nasty” art, 35 work that bucks social norms and explores the underbelly of society and the mind. One of the Community Band’s members responded:
I am a member of the Mercer Community Band and have often seen Reznor’s grandfather wearing a NIN hat and belt buckle. How shocking that he can enjoy the music we play as well as support Trent Reznor’s music career. Oh, wait. He’s proud of the accomplishments made by a family member. Could it simply be that Mercer is proud of its native son’s fame and talent? It is my belief that Mercer has every right to be proud of Mr. Reznor’s accomplishments. From a county whose best-known products are rusted steel plants and the air pollution of two interstate highways, Reznor’s extraordinary talents deserve recognition. 36
That may well be true, but the Mercer County Historical Society has no Nine Inch Nails file, and indeed, they consider Trent just another part of a long line of influential Reznors who have called Mercer home. Trent didn’t even make the Top 10 Famous Mercer Countians as listed in the
Herald
. 37 Those more famous natives included John Armor Bingham, who drafted the 14th Amendment; Fred Houser, who worked on the Manhattan Project; and Š tefan Bani č , inventor of the parachute.
Head Like a Hole
David, 42, Youngstown, Ohio
David responded to a flyer I passed out at Blossom, a venue in Akron, Ohio, the area where Nine Inch Nails played during its summer of 2006 Inconvenient Truth tour. We met at a Denny’s in Austintown, and over coffee he shared his story. He also brought and showed me his most prized NIN show souvenir: a broken synth key.
My mom was from the south side of Youngstown. After high school she went to San Francisco, got married, had me, got a divorce, and moved back. When I was 12, she remarried. My stepfather was born in Youngstown and was a schoolteacher in Canfield. But when he met my mom, he was in his 20s and out of work because it was the late seventies and there were no jobs. He went to Texas to work for an overseas construction company called Brown & Root. 23 My mom went down there and called to say, “Hey, I got married.” I liked the guy, but it was shocking.
That was a difficult time in my life. We moved all around and I went to 12 different schools. My junior year, my step-dad took a job in Indonesia, so I went to California to live with my father. Things were going well when his wife—she was the woman he was cheating on my mother with—took me to McDonald’s and told me, “You’re the reason I’m getting a divorce.” She hated kids. She left my father, and then he dated a girl I was in high school with.
I had a breakdown shortly after that. I had hallucinations, hospitalizations, and was diagnosed as bipolar. I was 16—I was set to go to college—and everything came falling down. You know how in New York
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