Free Republic

Plus, Rick Rubin on how Cash "looked at me like I was insane" Remembering The Man In Black's stunning Nine Inch Nails cover 20 years to the day after his deathIt's 20 years to the day since we lost The Man In Black. The country star was one of the genre's defining stars throughout an uncompromising career that spanned half a century. "Having Johnny Cash, one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time, want to cover your song, that's something that matters to me" But for many (at the time) younger music fans, it was the Man In Black's remorselessly...

Williams and Reznor were trying to follow the lead of Radiohead by distributing music online without the backing of a label. Like the British supergroup, Williams made the album available for free in one version but he also offered the option of buying a higher-quality digital download for $5. The promotions were groundbreaking and plenty of people predicted that a profitable outcome would convince many musicians to drop their labels and use the Internet to distribute their own artistic creations. And then Reznor ended the hoopla last week when he reported on his blog that 154,449 people had downloaded NiggyTardust...