You might not know this, but Robert Patrick is the brother of Filter frontman Richard Patrick. Another fun fact: prior to founding Filter, Richard Patrick played guitar and provided backing vocals for Nine Inch Nails. And here’s another for you: Robert Patrick was such a massive fan of NIN at the time that he tried to convince James Cameron to use one of their songs in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. You’ll notice that this didn’t work out. So what happened there?
In a recent sitdown with us, Robert Patrick was asked about his various passions regarding music. When Nine Inch Nails was brought up, he picked Pretty Hate Machine’s “Head Like a Hole” as his favorite NIN track. From there, he said he chatted with Cameron about using it in T2. But it turned out that Cameron was far more into Guns ‘N Roses at the time and so went with “You Could Be Mine,” which was also going to be featured on Use Your Illusion II.
His respect for Filter, however, goes far beyond what he has for Trent Reznor and company. While he had some difficulty recalling the name of one particular song he picked as his favorite, a little digging found it to be “Surprise” off of 2013’s The Sun Comes Out Tonight. Of it, he said, “It’s a happier song and just a real loving song that I think he wrote for his daughter. It’s a really beautiful song.”
As for his favorite Filter album, Robert Patrick went with their 1995 debut, Shortbus, which led off with the single “Hey Man Nice Shot.” “Shortbus, to me, is one of the defining albums of the ‘90s in my opinion. I think it made hard rock popular…He wasn’t grunge and it was, you know, an offshoot of Nine Inch Nails. I don’t know if my brother would appreciate that but it’s in that vein Skinny Puppy, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. That album itself was one of the defining albums of the ‘90s.”
While Nine Inch Nails has delivered their first full score ever in the form of Tron: Ares, Filter has had their own soundtrack success, appearing on those for The Crow: City of Angels, The X-Files, and, most notably, Spawn, pairing with The Crystal Method for “(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do,” which fared quite well on the charts.
