WHO: Marilyn Manson

SPIN
June 2003

Whether he’s embodying the Antichrist, morphing into an asexual alien drug advocate, or merely dressing like a dandyish goth vampire, Marilyn Manson never stops keeping it unreal. His own existence is his most singularly creative outlet: More than any other mainstream artist, Manson tries to live life as art itself -he sees no division between the characters he creates for entertainment an the lifestyle that is supposed to come with them; when Manson tells kids he likes to eat drugs and consort with freaks, he feels a social obligation to do exactly as he says. He persona is a fabrication he lives for real.

Spin: Is The Golden Age of Grotesque still moving your aesthetic toward nihilism, or are you moving away from that concept?

MM: This record spits in the face of nihilism. I feel like I’ve already directed and confronted my ideas against the outside world, and I think closing that chapter and trying to look at things in a different way is what I’m doing now. This album is meant to be about relationships, some of which are personal and some of which deal with the relationship between chaos and order. I took alot of influences from Berlin and decadence and censorship and fascism and Dada. It’s antiauthoritarian in a simpler sense.

Spin: Is the song "(s)AINT" about Rose McGowan? Everyone will certainly make that assumption.

MM: Some people will definitely assume that. I think there are pieces and shards of a lot of relationships in that song. It’s really more about me. I will no longer define myself by other people’s views of perfection. There have been alot of people in my life; she doesn’t deserve all the credit. And that song isn’t exclusively about women, either. It’s also about men I’ve come into contact with.

Spin: What is this "Grotesk Burlesk" thing you are doing in Los Angeles?

MM: That’s something I want to do in as many places as possible. We’re going to display collaborative work I’ve done with artist Gottfried Helnwein- large multimedia images. There is my painting. There are giant absinthe glasses with women inside them and conjoined twins and black elephants. Whatever I can find, really. And then there’s the music. I’m trying to leave people with a piece of my brain.

Spin: You mention absinthe - is it safe to say that TGAOG is the first "absinthe-fueled" album of the modern era?

MM: Well, it’s not the first record I’ve made while drinking absinthe, but this album does embrace the release of imagination that absinthe taps into. Listen to the title track: That song was completely written and recorded in 12 hours, on one bottle of absinthe. That song sounds like absinthe.

Spin: Would you say your life is less sleazy than it was five years ago?

MM: Well, I just finished watching a film I made of myself having a threesome with conjoined twins, so I would say no.

Spin: Was it real sex, or was it staged?

MM: I don’t know what "staged" means. When you have sex with anybody, it’s staged, isn’t it? You’re worried what they’re thinking; they’re worried what you’re thinking. But I had to worry what two people were thinking. And I had to film it.

Spin: At what point do things move from "dirty" to "sleazy"?

MM: It’s when you start to feel ashamed for yourself. Shame feels sleazy to me. Now, dirty is okay-but not in a Christina Alguilera sense. That’s not what I’m referring to. For the past three years, I’ve been involved in a relationship where there are no limits to the fantasy world that takes place in my home. And I’m not ashamed of any of it, and I’ll share it with anyone. Sleazy things are things you do when no one is looking. But some sleaze builds your character.

Spin: What is something the average person might classify as "sleazy" that you would classify as "character building"?

MM: When I made this album, I created a song called "Para-noir", and it has a lot of different women’s voices on it. I had and open audition, and I told the girls to say whatever they imagined might be a reason for fucking me over. And the people who didn’t know who I was- whether they were prostitutes or just nameless individuals -they were not aware of what I was doing. I wanted to see what their moral boundaries were, so I got them to do things that were somewhat sleazy. That whole experience made me feel like I had to take a bath, even though I didn’t touch any of them.

Spin: Who’s the sleaziest rock star you’ve ever partied with?

MM: If Courtney Love was still a rock star, I’d say her. She had razor bumps on her bikini line, and that almost made me vomit. She was always bruised and dirty, and at least in the beginning, there was alot of charm to it. To her credit, she probably wears the crown really proudly. I don’t dislike her.

Spin: Didn’t you and Trent Reznor live a deeply decadent lifestyle during the making of Antichrist Superstar, or was that exaggerated?

MM: It was decadent. I think he felt unable to deal with it, and it crumbled our relationship. I would go to bed at 7PM, wake up at 4AM., and then begin drinking and doing drugs. The funniest point-which is something I just watched a videotape of-was a day I only wore a blond wig, a Burger King crown, and a paper towel around my penis. I walked around broad daylight. To me, that’s true rock n’ roll, and I’m not afraid to go there again.

Spin: Who were sleazier: Black Sabbath at their craziest, or Marilyn Manson at their craziest?

MM: I gotta give it up to Ozzy. I was with him on New Year’s Eve, and I don’t think I can outdo him. Ozzy has snorted ants. I once snorted Sea-Monkeys. What’s the barometer on that? I have no idea

Spin: What would be harder for you: to never be able to have sex again or to never be able to consume drugs, alcohol, and red meat for the rest of your life?

MM: I’d shoot myself (Long Pause) I suppose I’d cut off my dick and smoke it. That’s the only thing I could do. Get the ultimate high and then bleed to death.