[youtube]http://youtu.be/nURHgx48AzQ[/youtube]
Well, this is a gut punch. This past weekend while performing at The Joint, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor took out an iPhone to facetime with someone. That someone was Andrew Youssef, a photographer and fan of the band that’s currently battling stage IV colon cancer. He’s seen Nine Inch Nails 44 times, and as chronicled by Stereogum, struck up a friendship with Reznor this past Summer after the frontman presumably read a column Youssef wrote about shooting the Outside Lands festival as a cancer sufferer. Soon, the two were texting back and forth, and he was invited to a release party for Hesitation Marks and to rehearsals for the tour. After being invited to the band’s performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and the LA Staples Center show, Youssef was set to attend the band’s show in Las Vegas, but found out recently that he has only weeks to months to live, and wound up in the hospital.
The column in which he wrote that his time was running out was titled “In This Twilight.” Detailing it in the OC Weekly, he wrote:
Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Nine Inch Nails and one of my favorite songs is “In This Twilight”. Throughout my diagnosis, the meaning of a lot of the songs I like has changed drastically. This particular song resonates with me during the lyrics “As the time is running out.. Let me take away your doubt.. We can find a better place.. In this twilight”
In calling Youssef, Reznor said he was going to “have a Bono moment,” when pulling out his phone. He spoke to him, turned up the house lights, and asked the crowd to say hi to him. Then of course, sent out “In This Twilight” to him. It must have been pretty heartwarming for Youssef to hear 3,000 fans chanting his name. There must be a lot of dust here in the Metal Insider offices, because there’s something in my eye…
