NINE INCH NAILS mastermind Trent Reznor has officially confirmed in an online posting that the much-hyped TAPEWORM project — which was to feature contributions from A PERFECT CIRCLE/TOOL frontman Maynard Keenan and PANTERA's Phil Anselmo, among others — will probably never see the light of day. Asked by a fan for an update on the project, Reznor wrote on nin.com, "TAPEWORM is dead for the foreseeable future. Let me try to explain as honestly as possible.

"TAPEWORM wound up being about Maynard, Danny [Lohner], Atticus [Ross] and me working collaboratively together. I provided some music I'd been working on as a starting point and we began. Atticus and I would work on music, Maynard and Danny would show up when Maynard could around TOOL's tour. We worked on a number of tracks and had Josh Freese [A PERFECT CIRCLE] play drums.

"Eventually, however, things got in the way. Managers, lawyers, record companies, [A PERFECT CIRCLE] needs and frankly my own enthusiasm for the material came into play to work against the project seeing the light of day. The bottom line is this: If the music had been great, all of this probably could have been worked out.

"Maynard is a dear friend and a great singer and writer. I'm sure we will work together in some capacity, but the planets were not aligned for that project. My apologies for getting people excited about it — but I was, too."