Veteran bassist Eric Avery announced that he is stepping down from Nine Inch Nails. This comes less than a year after Trent Reznor revamped the band after a four year hiatus and included Avery as part of the current lineup.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

In a statement posted on his Facebook page, he said the following:

its with very mixed emotions i tell you all that im pulling out of NIN. i know. its been a tough call and i don’t know if its the right one. but i really want to focus on my musical life here in la, on film work in particular. as the tour dates kept growing… i just got overwhelmed. i just got home from a year of heavy travel with garbage, the idea of leaving town for another year and a half, and with all the intensity that nails demands… fortunately my friend Trent understands all this and appreciated my pulling the plug now instead of deep into 2013 and 14. go get em gentlemen.

Avery has a solo record LIFE.TIME which is slated for release this year, and previously was part of Garbage’s touring lineup. He is also slated to taking part in Giraffe Tongue with Ben Weinman of Dillinger Escape Plan, Brent Hinds of Mastodon and former Mars Volta and current Queens of the Stone Age drummer Jon Theodore.