Originally Posted by
Toadflax
It's funny; I was thinking about whether I felt like anyone was missing, and I couldn't think of anyone who fits the bill quite as well as the nine guys on stage. I figured being an on-stage member of the band must be a prerequisite, or else someone like Alan Moulder could be in the mix.
But of course, of the on-stage people, many of them have just been hired guns. Even Aaron North, who gets mentioned a lot, was just a live member for one (albeit extended) tour cycle. Josh Freese lasted a bit longer, but Ilan, Alessandro, and (obviously) Robin have been around for 10+ years. And over those 10 years, NIN hasn't released a ton of music, so the live show has kind of taken precedence as the main Nine Inch Nails "experience" or whatever you want to call it.
And if you look at Wikipedia's live member chart, Danny, Charlie, Chris, and Jerome are the only ones with that kind of longevity. But then add to that the fact that Chris and Richard were there at the beginning, and Danny and Charlie were actively involved in helping to craft the actual music during their tenures.
So I think Jerome qualifies in both those regards, being a live member for a number of years and being involved in actually making the music (Ilan has yet to play a single note on a Nine Inch Nails record, right?), but you can also see how he maybe just falls short of the mark, neither being an original member nor a current one. Charlie's kind of in that same boat, but he's such a huge part of the sound of NIN during their most notable era, so he just feels a bit more on the essential side.