Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has shared a cowboy-inspired reaction to his first ever Country Music Association Award win.

The industrial metal icon and acclaimed film score writer (along with collaborator Atticus Ross and YoungKio) shared in the glory of Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus‘ runaway hit ‘Old Town Road’ taking home the prize for Musical Event of the Year at the CMA Awards on Wednesday – as the track features a short banjo composition sampled from NIN’s 2008 track ’34 Ghosts IV’.

To celebrate the news, Reznor took to Instagram to share Photoshopped images of himself and Ross and Country And Western stars, complete with cowboy hats and the usual outfit. “New world, new times,” he captioned one image, adding “Thank you CMA Awards” to the other.


“At first when you hear your stuff turned into something else, it always feels awkward because it’s something that intimately came from you in some way,” said Reznor last month, discussing his music being sampled for ‘Old Town Road‘. “You feel a little bit violated, you know? And then you get over that and you realise it’s become something else and the [2002] Johnny Cash [cover of ‘Hurt’] is incredible. It’s very flattering.”

He also called Lil Nas X’s single “undeniably hooky,” and, while he didn’t explicitly admit whether he liked the track or not, he added that “it’s been stuck in my head enough.”


As for other awards, , Nine Inch Nails are featured on the longlist of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 2020 nominees – alongside the likes of Depeche Mode, Notorious B.I.G., and Whitney Houston. Having previously said that he “couldn’t give less of a shit” about being snubbed in previous years, Reznor said last month that he had “changed his opinion” about the Hall, following his experience of inducting The Cure in 2019.

Nine Inch Nails released the acclaimed ‘Bad With’ EP/mini album in 2018.