When he’s not busy trolling Justin Bieber over T-shirt royalties, Marilyn Manson has found some time to rattle the music press corps. In freshly published interview with the Guardian, ostensibly to promote his new album Heaven Upside Down, Manson went full tilt on interviewer Alexis Petridis from the terrifying comfort of a Berlin hotel room.
The whole episode begins with Manson hiding behind a door with a fake gun, in an almost pitch-black room with the air conditioning on full blast. As Petridis writes:
But I’ve not been warned that Manson will be hiding behind his hotel room door, from where he will jump out – black-clad, in full slap – pointing a gun at the back of my neck. Not, it transpires, a real gun, but a realistic enough replica for me to greet him with a startled bark of, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” rather than the more traditional “hello”. Manson laughs, shakes my hand and asks if I’d like a beer.
This is fine, right? Maybe, considering Manson reveals he pulled a box cutter on guitarist Tyler Bates during the 2015 album cycle for The Pale Emperor. But on the subject of guns, Manson goes even further, telling Petridis that his fans would be better off buying firearms than they would getting a censored copy of his album.
“It denies the legitimacy of it. If your parents give you money to buy a clean version of my record at Walmart, you might as well go there, buy a gun instead, take it into your own hands, do whatever you want.”
Definitely a normal line of thought. Speaking of guns, Manson also apparently harbors some resentment about one of the most horrific events in U.S. history, namely the mass shooting at Columbine High School, for which he was pilloried as an inspiration for the shooters. He tells Petridis that “Columbine destroyed my career,” but takes it a step further in saying that the perpetrators of that mass murder would have been better off with his records:
“Give them the money and let them make their own choice: guns or records. If [the Columbine killers] had just bought my records, they would be better off. Certain people blame me for the shootings at schools – I think my numbers are low, and hopefully they go up on this record.”
But none of this holds a candle to the interview’s most bizarre plot point: Manson inexplicably leans over at some point and whacks Petridis in the testicles. He writes:
This comes as quite a surprise: I have encountered a lot of unusual things as a journalist, but have thus far managed to get by without an interviewee touching my genitals. More surprising still is that leaning over and flicking my testicles appears to form part of his answer to a question about whether he has ever felt consumed by the character he created a quarter of a century ago, in the same way that Bowie struggled to separate himself from Ziggy Stardust or the Thin White Duke. Certainly, the way he says: “That’s the difference!” immediately afterwards suggests it is, but I’m not sure.
And there you have it, folks. Marilyn Manson has gone full-on Marlon Brando-meets-Father John Misty to promote his new record. Read the full interview at the Guardian and watch the video for Manson’s “We Know Where You Fucking Live” right here. Heaven Upside Down is out October 6.
