Robin Finck (born November 7, 1971 in Georgia) is the lead guitarist of Nine Inch Nails. He is so far the only member who has left the band for an extended period and then later returned as a full-time member. His appearance, particularly during The Downward Spiral era, with his intimidating tall stature, tied back dreadlocks and over-the-top makeup have arguably made him one of the most iconic members of NIN other than Trent Reznor. On November 7, 2020, Finck and NIN were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Career
Finck began his career by playing for many local Atlanta bands, such as Prowess (who later changed their name to Bat Your Lashes and then Sik Dik), The Hookers and Heroin (also known as Impotent Sea Snakes {ISS} when in drag). He audtioned for Nine Inch Nails in 1993 and joined for the Self Destruct Tour. During this time, Finck was part of a one-off band (which also included Twiggy Ramirez) called Sick Mutha Fuckers, which was essentially a Twisted Sister cover band that was conceived when White and Finck were playing Twisted Sister songs together for fun during soundchecks. They asked Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snyder to sing with them, he agreed, and the band played a single show in New York City.[1][2] Finck also appeared on 1997's Closure.
Following touring with NIN he took a job playing for Cirque du Soleil and in late 1996 was recruited by Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses to replace Slash. Finck later rejoined NIN as part of the live band for the Fragility Tour and appears on the accompanying album/DVD, And All That Could Have Been. Shortly after the NIN tour ended in late 2000, he returned to GN'R and remained in the line-up for almost 8 years, even turning down an offer to re-join NIN in 2005. There was apparently some animosity between he and Reznor around this time, as Trent discussed in the New Zealand Herald shortly before the release of With Teeth: "Robin Finck [was] getting paid loads of money to hang out with Axl Rose and his house was getting paid for. You know what, fuck you." [3] The grudge didn't last; on April 4, 2008 Finck's return to the touring lineup was announced via www.nin.com. He also remained in the lineup for the Wave Goodbye Tour in 2009. On May 17, 2013, Trent Reznor announced via Twitter that Finck was back in NIN, stating that, "It just didn't feel like Nine Inch Nails without Robin Finck. Now it does."[4]
Finck is a noted bird enthusiast, and his website discusses his fascination with them. Many NIN fans have noted after hearing of his avian fascination that many of his changes to NIN songs during the Fragility tour stems from his bird-sound-inspired choice of guitar tones and sounds. This is especially notable on the pre-solo section to "The Wretched" and "Just Like You Imagined." Finck appears in the NIN music videos for "March Of The Pigs", "Hurt" (live), "Eraser" (live), "Wish" (live) and "Into The Void". In 2017, he appeared as part of Nine Inch Nails (in this case consisting of Trent Reznor, Finck, Mariqueen Maandig, Atticus Ross, Alessandro Cortini and Joey Castillo of Queens Of The Stone Age) in an episode of the reboot of Twin Peaks. In 2020, Finck got his own signature guitar model, made by Reverend. In 2021, Finck co-founded game studio Eyes Out.
Body Of Work
Nine Inch Nails
- Closer To God
- Further Down The Spiral
- Quake Soundtrack
- Closure
- And All That Could Have Been
- Still (Performance credit on "The Day The World Went Away")
- The Slip
Other
- Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar - 1996
- Ghosts of Mars soundtrack - 2001
- Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy - 2008
- Gary Numan - Splinter - 2013
- Noct soundtrack - 2015
- Danny Elfman - Big Mess - 2021
External links
- Official website
- robinfinck on Twitter