Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, who for months has been experimenting with different ways to use the Internet as a means to connect with fans and distribute his music, is now leveraging its philanthropic potential.
Shortly before midnight (5/20), Reznor began selling via NIN's website special VIP-experience packages for NIN's current co-headlining tour with Jane's Addiction. Proceeds will benefit a Nevada man who needs a heart transplant, and has apparently been unable to get on a transplant list.
"
This is for something important,"
Reznor wrote in a letter to fans announcing the fundraising effort. "
Eric De La Cruz is dying and needs a heart transplant. He keeps getting turned down for a transplant list because he's on Nevada Medicaid, and there are no transplant centers in Nevada."
For $300, fans who already have tickets for an upcoming show on the NIN/JA tour can attend soundcheck and meet the band. Already-ticketed fans who pony up $1,000 get to hang out with Reznor and his Nine Inch Nails bandmates before the show, watch soundcheck, eat dinner backstage with the group, take pictures, get autographs and watch the show from the side of the stage; for fans who don't yet have tickets, the same package is available for $1,200, and includes two tickets. Complete details are available at NIN's website.
One-hundred percent of the money collected will go directly to De La Cruz's heart-transplant fund, according to Reznor.
In a message posted to his Twitter page this afternoon, Reznor said that the fundraiser was a resounding success so far.
"I am truly blown away by the response to this," he wrote. "Over $260,000 in less than a day. Thank You."
Thanks for the report to Livedaily.com.
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