Eric Avery Quits Nine Inch Nails

Eric Avery has parted ways with Nine Inch Nails, announcing his departure two months before the band had a chance to kick off its 2013 tour with the new lineup. The bassist, who had recently been on the road with Garbage, blamed his tour schedule and “the intensity that Nails demands.”

In February Trent Reznor broke the news that Nine Inch Nails would tour again with plans for summer gigs, a U.S. arena tour in the fall “and lots of other dates worldwide to follow through 2014.” The NIN frontman explained the band was “reinventing itself from scratch” with a lineup featuring Reznor and Avery along with Adrian Belew, Alessandro Cortini, Josh Eustis and Ilan Rubin. Avery is best known for co-founding Jane’s Addiction with Perry Farrell in 1985.

Nine Inch Nails last took the stage in 2009. Reznor had told fans earlier that year it was “time to make NIN disappear for a while” and that the August/September 2009 gigs were the “new final NIN dates.”

Well, NIN’s lineup is going to be switched up once more.

Here is the announcement Avery posted on his Facebook page today:

“its with very mixed emotions i tell you all that im pulling out of NIN. i know. its been a tough call and i don’t know if its the right one. but i really want to focus on my musical life here in la, on film work in particular. as the tour dates kept growing… i just got overwhelmed. i just got home from a year of heavy travel with garbage, the idea of leaving town for another year and a half, and with all the intensity that nails demands… fortunately my friend Trent understands all this and appreciated my pulling the plug now instead of deep into 2013 and 14. go get em gentlemen.”

As of the time of this post Nine Inch Nails hadn’t responded to Avery’s departure on its website or Facebook page. A look at the band’s Twitter page shows that NIN simply retweeted Avery’s announcement via the bassist’s personal Twitter page.

Nine Inch Nails’ next upcoming show is a July 26 appearance at Fuji Rock Festival in Niigata, Japan, followed by the band’s Aug. 2 set at Chicago’s Lollapalooza.

Update: A Pollstar.com reader pointed out that Reznor updated his own Facebook page Wednesday with a note about Avery’s news. He shared the bassist’s Facebook status and wrote, “I / we get it and love you, Eric. While we’re sure going to miss having you along for this adventure I personally cannot wait to hear more great stuff from you…”