“Passive” by A Perfect Circle

"Passive" was the second single A Perfect Circle pulled from eMOTIVe in 2004, but its bones are older. It began life in 1999 as "Vacant", a song for Tapeworm, the side-project Trent Reznor had started with Maynard James Keenan, Danny Lohner and others. Lohner wrote the music, Charlie Clouser reworked it, Keenan supplied the words and melody and Reznor the chorus and backing vocals. Tapeworm bogged down in clashing schedules, creative fights and label lawyers, and the song found a new home just as that project was dying.

Billy Howerdel produced it, with Lohner co-producing and playing bass and guitar, and Howerdel mixed it with Andy Wallace. Josh Freese locks the drums down tight, Paz Lenchantin adds piano, and Keenan sings with a cold, coiled menace the band keep threatening to unleash. It climbed to 14 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart in 2005.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.