Terrible Lie

Album: Pretty Hate Machine (1989)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song is about someone going through a really bad time in their life and blaming it on God. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Aaron - Des Moines, IA

Comments: 4

  • Connor from Albany, NyYea seriously, trent wrote this song due to emotions of feeling betrayed by everything he loved, imagine the hate rushing through his veins. Trent was a drug addict, but that doesnt mean that he writes every song about drug abuse.
  • William from Rochester, NySee again I read these comments and I can?t help but to think how hopeless the human race is. You really think that it is all about drugs and all this other stuff when it is more a matter of life and death. He is trying to describe the feeling of being ?mentally fried? (as I like to put it) by a person who is so pissed off at everyone and everything including god himself that he found braking peoples minds is his mission in life. It is comparable to having gotten AIDS and being in a severe depression and coming to the conclusion that you need to give AIDS to everyone. And about the being raped mentally, ill let you use you imagination.
  • Jeff from Atlanta, GaTrent's Hatred expressed vividly to God!
    i mean thats what i get, if it is drug related, it still makes a good point. What i like about it is that you can use as a release to damn near anything!
  • Marius from LüneburgIn their Lollapalooza concert in '91 Trent Reznor added an intro called "Now I'm Nothing" which surely expresses the deepest feeling Reznor had while his cocain addiction this time. It goes like "I smashed myself to pieces, I am gonna f***myself up, I'm sifting through the ashes, Oh what I have become, I gave myself away - now I'm nothing..."
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Janis Ian

Janis IanSongwriter Interviews

One of the first successful female singer-songwriters, Janis had her first hit in 1967 at age 15.

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular Music

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular MusicSong Writing

Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.

Jimmy Jam

Jimmy JamSongwriter Interviews

The powerhouse producer behind Janet Jackson's hits talks about his Boyz II Men ballads and regrouping The Time.

Dar Williams

Dar WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

A popular contemporary folk singer, Williams still remembers the sticky note that changed her life in college.

Commercials

CommercialsFact or Fiction

Was "Ring Of Fire" really used to sell hemorrhoid cream?

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.