After a poor European reception opening for Guns N ' Roses , the band returned to America amid pressure from TVT to produce a follow-up to '' Pretty Hate Machine '' . After finding out they were hindering control of his project , Reznor criticized the labeling of Nine Inch Nails as a commercially oriented band and demanded his label terminate his contract , but they ignored his plea . In response , Reznor secretly began recording under various pseudonyms to avoid record company interference . Involved in a feud with TVT , he signed a record deal with Interscope Records and created Nothing Records : We made it very clear we were not doing another record for TVT . But they made it pretty clear they were n't ready to sell . So I felt like , well , I 've finally got this thing going but it 's dead . Flood and I had to record '' Broken '' under a different band name , because if TVT found out we were recording , they could confiscate all our shit and release it . Jimmy Iovine got involved with Interscope , and we kind of got slave-traded . It was n't my doing . I did n't know anything about Interscope . And I was real pissed off at him at first because it was going from one bad situation to potentially another one . But Interscope went into it like they really wanted to know what I wanted . It was good , after I put my raving lunatic act on . In 1992 , Nine Inch Nails relocated to 10050 Cielo Drive , Benedict Canyon , Los Angeles ( renamed " Le Pig " by Reznor ) , the site of the Tate murders , when Charles Manson 's " family " murdered Sharon Tate , wife of noted film director Roman Polanski , and four of her friends . The band used it to record '' Broken '' , an extended play ( EP ) that was the first Nine Inch Nails release distributed by Interscope Records and reached the top 10 on the '' Billboard '' 200 . In the liner notes , Reznor credited the 1991 Nine Inch Nails touring band as an influence on the EP 's sound . He characterized '' Broken '' as a guitar-based " blast of destruction " , and as " a lot harder ... than '' Pretty Hate Machine '' " . The inspiration for the harder sound came from the way the live band played during concerts such as Lollapalooza . Songs from '' Broken '' earned Nine Inch Nails two Grammy Awards : a performance of the EP 's first single " Happiness in Slavery " from Woodstock ' 94 , and the second single " Wish " . In reference to receiving the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for " Wish " , Reznor joked that " Wish " became " the only song to ever win a Grammy that says ' fist fuck ' in the lyrics . " Against touring of the brand new material , Reznor began living and recording full-time at Le Pig , working on a follow-up free of restrictions from his record label
Tate murders
Tate murders
Nine Inch Nails