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Group Members: John 5, Gidget Gein, Gidget Gein And The Dali Gaggers
All Music Guide:
Love him or hate him, the self-proclaimed "Antichrist Superstar" -- Marilyn Manson -- was indisputably among the most notorious and controversial entertainers of the 1990s. Celebrated by supporters as a crusader for free speech and denounced by detractors as little more than a poor man's Alice Cooper, Manson was the latest in a long line of shock rockers, rising to the top of the charts on a platform of sex, drugs, and Satanism. Though widely dismissed by critics, his brand of metal nevertheless struck a major chord with the youth market, and he became a mainstream anti-hero on the strength of a masterfully orchestrated marketing campaign, much to the chagrin of conservative politicians and concerned parents. Such attention pushed many of his songs -- including "The Dope Show," "The Beautiful People," and a cover of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" -- into the upper reaches of the modern rock charts during his heyday.
Born Brian Warner, Manson was raised in Canton, OH. At the age of 18, he relocated to Tampa Bay, FL, where he worked as a music journalist. In 1989, he became friends with guitarist and fellow outsider Scott Mitchell; the two soon decided to form a band, with Mitchell rechristening himself Daisy Berkowitz and Warner adopting the name Marilyn Manson. With the addition of bassist Gidget Gein and keyboardist Madonna Wayne-Gacy, the group -- originally dubbed Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids -- began self-releasing cassettes and playing gigs, their gothic stage show notable for Manson's elaborate makeup and homemade special effects. Jettisoning their drum machine in favor of one Sara Lee Lucas, the band's sound began taking on a harder edge, and by 1992 they were among the most popular acts in the south Florida area. In 1993, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor came calling, offering both a contract with his Nothing Records label as well as the chance to open for NIN the following spring; Manson accepted both offers, and the group's debut LP, Portrait of an American Family, appeared during the summer of 1994. With new bassist Twiggy Ramirez replacing Gein, the group's notoriety began to soar. Most infamously, during an appearance in Salt Lake City, Manson ripped apart a copy of the Book of Mormon while on-stage. The Church of Satan's founder, Anton LaVey, also bestowed upon him the title of "Reverend."
While some onlookers dismissed Manson's behavior as crass audience manipulation, his cult following -- comprised almost entirely of disaffected white suburban teens -- continued to swell, and the band broke into the mainstream with the release of 1995's Smells Like Children EP, propelled by their hit cover of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." Berkowitz quit a short time later and was replaced by guitarist Zim Zum, and the revised group saw their next LP, 1996's Antichrist Superstar, debut at the number three spot on the pop album charts. As Manson's popularity grew, so did the furor surrounding him. His concerts were regularly picketed by civic groups, and his music was the subject of widespread attacks from the right-wing and religious fronts. Again, however, his quick embrace of the media spotlight called into question the true sincerity of his revolutionary aims. With a cover story in Rolling Stone and the timely release of a best-selling autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, some onlookers doubted whether Manson had sold his soul to Satan, or just sold his soul, period. The glam-inspired Mechanical Animals followed in 1998, with the resulting tour yielding the live Last Tour on Earth a year later.
Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) came out at the end of 2000, and the band toured to support the album in 2001. During a July show in Michigan, Manson was charged with criminal sexual conduct after performing an alleged offensive act on a security guard. Another charge followed before the year's end, when an additional security guard filed a civil suit alleging that Manson had rubbed his pelvis on the guard's head. Manson's version of "Tainted Love" appeared on the Not Another Teen Movie soundtrack that December, and the July 2001 sexual conduct charges were lowered to a misdemeanor one month later. The civil suit was dropped soon after.
May 2003 saw the release of The Golden Age of Grotesque, which spent a week atop the album charts and ended up on several critics' year-end Top Ten lists. The following year, former member Daisy Berkowitz released Lunch Boxes & Choklit Cows, a compilation of demos and unreleased tracks that was credited to Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids. Berkowitz had obtained the rights to the material in a lawsuit against Manson, who subsequently fought the release and court-ordered some artwork to be removed. At the end of September, Manson released his own compilation, a greatest-hits affair titled Lest We Forget. The collection covered the highlights of Manson's career and included a new cover version of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," whose success helped push the album to gold status in multiple countries.
Late in 2005, the band announced that a new album was nearly finished; however, it wasn't until 2007 that Eat Me, Drink Me was released. The record was largely written, performed, and produced by Manson and guitarist/bassist Tim Skold, who left Marilyn Manson's lineup shortly thereafter and was replaced by returning member Twiggy Ramirez. Manson and Ramirez then began writing material for the band's seventh studio album, The High End of Low, which arrived in spring 2009.
Wikipedia:
Marilyn Manson (born Brian Hugh Warner; January 5, 1969) is an American musician, artist and former music journalist known for his controversial stage persona and image as the lead singer of the eponymous band Marilyn Manson. His stage name was formed from juxtaposing the names of two 1960s American cultural icons, namely actress Marilyn Monroe and convicted multiple murder convict Charles Manson as a critical and, simultaneously, laudatory appraisal of America and its peculiar culture. The seemingly outrageous styles for which he models and the controversy surrounding his lyrics have led to his public appeal.
Early life
Marilyn Manson was born in Canton, Ohio. He is the only child of Barb (born Wyer) and Hugh Warner. Manson is of Polish and German descent on his father's side, and is a fourth cousin twice removed of Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan. In his autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, he detailed his grandfather's sexual fetishes (including bestiality and sadomasochism) which led to the forming of Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids.
As a child, he attended his mother's Episcopalian church, though his father was Catholic. Warner attended Heritage Christian School from first grade to tenth grade. He later transferred to Glenoak High School Canton and graduated from there in 1987, and later became a student at Broward Community College in 1990. He was working towards a degree in journalism and gaining experience in the field by writing music articles for a South Florida lifestyle magazine, 25th Parallel. He would soon meet several of the musicians to whom his own band would later be compared, including My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, The Perfect, and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.
Career
Music
Manson formed together with guitarist Scott Putesky, Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids in Florida in 1989 (the name was shortened to Marilyn Manson in 1992). While with The Spooky Kids, he was involved with Jeordie White (also known as Twiggy Ramirez) and Stephen Gregory Bier Jr. (also known as Madonna Wayne Gacy) in two side-projects: Satan on Fire, a faux-Christian metal ensemble where he played bass guitar, and drums in Mrs. Scabtree, a collaborative band formed with White and then girlfriend Jessicka (vocalist with the band Jack Off Jill) as a way to combat contractual agreements that prohibited Marilyn Manson from playing in certain clubs. In the summer of 1993, the band drew the attention of Trent Reznor. Reznor produced their 1994 debut album, Portrait of an American Family and released it on his Nothing Records label. The band began to develop a cult following, which grew larger with the release of Smells Like Children in 1995. That EP yielded the band's first big MTV hit with "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)," a cover of the 1983 Eurythmics hit. Antichrist Superstar (co-produced by Trent Reznor) was an even greater success.
In the US alone, three of the band's albums have been awarded platinum certification, three more gold, and the band has had five releases debut in the top ten, including two number-one albums. Manson first worked as a producer with the band Jack Off Jill. He helped name the band and produce most of the band's early recordings, and also played guitar on the song "My Cat" and had the band open most of his South Florida shows. Manson later wrote the liner notes to the band's album Humid Teenage Mediocrity 1992-1995, a collection of early Jack Off Jill recordings. Manson has appeared as a guest performer on DMX's album Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood and on Godhead's 2000 Years of Human Error album — the only album released on his vanity label Posthuman. In 2011 it was revealed that Manson was to appear on the singer Skylar Grey's album "Invinsible" on the track entitled "Can't Haunt Me".
Film and television
Manson made his film debut in 1997, as an actor in David Lynch's Lost Highway. Since then he has appeared in a variety of minor roles and cameos, including Party Monster; then-girlfriend Rose McGowan's 1999 film Jawbreaker; Asia Argento's 2004 film The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things; Rise; and The Hire: Beat The Devil, the sixth instalment in the BMW Films series. He was interviewed in Michael Moore's political documentary Bowling for Columbine discussing possible motivations for the Columbine massacre and allegations that his music was somehow a factor. He has appeared in animated form in Clone High and participated in several episodes of the MTV series Celebrity Deathmatch, becoming the show's unofficial champion and mascot; he often performed the voice for his claymated puppet, and contributed the song "Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes" to the soundtrack album. In July 2005, Manson told Rolling Stone that he was shifting his focus from music to filmmaking – "I just don't think the world is worth putting music into right now. I no longer want to make art that other people — particularly record companies — are turning into a product. I just want to make art."
Johnny Depp reportedly used Manson as his inspiration for his performance as Willy Wonka in the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Manson himself expressed interest in playing the role of Willy Wonka in the film.
He had been working on his directorial debut, Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, since 2004, with Manson also set to portray the role of Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Initially announced as a web-only release, it was later decided to give the estimated $4.2 million budget film a conventional cinema release, with a slated release date of mid-2007. The film was to have an original music soundtrack with previously unreleased songs. Production of the film had been postponed indefinitely until after the Eat Me, Drink Me tour. In 2010, studio bosses shut down production on the project, reportedly due to viewers responses over the violent content of clips released on the internet. The film was later officially put on "indefinite production hold". However, according to an interview with co-writer Anthony Silva about the hold, the film was still on and the talk of it being shut down was just a myth.
Manson will portray metalband lead singer Lars in the upcoming slasher Splatter Sisters, for which he will also contribute an original soundtrack.
Art
Manson claimed in a 2004 interview with i-D magazine to have begun his career as a watercolor painter in 1999 when he made five-minute concept pieces and sold them to drug dealers. On September 13–14, 2002, his first show, The Golden Age of Grotesque, was held at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions Centre. Art in America's Max Henry likened them to the works of a "psychiatric patient given materials to use as therapy" and said his work would never be taken seriously in a fine-art context, writing that the value was "in their celebrity, not the work". On September 14–15, 2004, Manson held a second exhibition on the first night in Paris and the second in Berlin. The show was named 'Trismegistus' which was also the title of the center piece of the exhibit – a large, three-headed Christ painted onto an antique wood panel from a portable embalmers table.
Manson named his self-proclaimed art movement Celebritarian Corporation. He has coined a slogan for the movement: “We will sell our shadow to those who stand within it.” In 2005 he said that the Celebritarian Corporation has been "incubating for seven years" which if correct would indicate that Celebritarian Corporation, in some form, started in 1998.
Celebritarian Corporation is also the namesake of an art gallery owned by Manson, called the Celebritarian Corporation Gallery of Fine Art in Los Angeles for which his third exhibition was the inaugural show. From April 2–17, 2007, his recent works were on show at the Space 39 Modern & Contemporary in Florida. 40 pieces from this show traveled to Germany's Gallery Brigitte Schenk in Cologne to be publicly exhibited from June 28 – July 28, 2007. Manson was refused admittance to Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral), when he was in the city to attend the opening night. This was, according to Manson, due to his makeup.
Manson revealed a series of 20 paintings in 2010 entitled Genealogies of Pain, an exhibition showcased at Vienna's Kunsthalle gallery which the artist collaborated on with David Lynch.
Other
Manson made an appearance in the video game Area 51 as Edgar, a Grey Alien. His song "Cruci-Fiction In Space" is featured in a commercial for a video game, The Darkness. His likeness is also featured on the Celebrity Deathmatch video game for which he recorded a song for the soundtrack (2003). The song "Use your fist and not your mouth" was the credits score of the game Cold Fear as well as Spawn: Armageddon. The song "Four Rusted Horses" had an alternate version used in trailers for the video game Fear 3. A remix of the song "Tainted Love" appears in the debut trailer for the game, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.
Personal life
Manson launched "Mansinthe," his own brand of Swiss-made absinthe, which has received poor reviews from critics who compared the drink's odor to sewage water and described the taste as being "just plain" to coming second to Versinthe in an Absinthe top five and winning a gold medal at the 2008 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
After media comments from Manson that he wears his signature black leather pants 24 hours a day, animal rights group PETA added Manson to its "Worst-Dressed Celebrities of 2008".
Relationships
Manson was engaged to actress Rose McGowan from February 1999 to January 19, 2001.
Manson and Dita Von Teese first met when he asked her to dance in one of his music videos. Though she was unable to, the two kept in contact. On his 32nd birthday they became a couple. He proposed on March 22, 2004 and gave her a 1930s-era, 7 carats (1,400 mg), European round-cut diamond engagement ring. On November 28, 2005, Manson and von Teese were married in a private, non-denominational ceremony in their home. A larger ceremony was held on December 3, at Gurteen Castle, in Kilsheelan, County Tipperary, Ireland, the home of their friend, Gottfried Helnwein. The wedding was officiated by surrealist film director and comic book writer Alejandro Jodorowsky. On December 30, 2006 Von Teese filed for divorce due to "irreconcilable differences." ET.com and People claimed that Manson was having an extramarital affair with then 19-year-old actress Evan Rachel Wood, who is to co-star in his horror film Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, and was featured in the video for his 2007 single, "Heart-Shaped Glasses." The relationship was confirmed by Von Teese in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, "I get the impression he thinks I was unsupportive, but the truth is I wasn't supportive of his lifestyle, and someone else came along who was." Manson's alcohol abuse and distant behavior were also cited as cause for the split. A judgment of divorce was entered in Los Angeles Superior Court on December 27, 2007.
In 2007, attention was brought to Manson's love life again when a relationship with actress Evan Rachel Wood was made public. Manson and Wood reportedly maintained an on-again off-again relationship for several years. Manson proposed to Wood during a Paris stage performance in January 2010, but the couple broke off the engagement later that year.
Manson has recently been romantically linked to American photographer Lindsay Usich, who is credited as the photo source for the cover art of his most recent album, "Born Villain ". Usich was referred to as Manson's girlfriend in the March 2012 issue of Revolver magazine. In the article a reference is made to a new painting by Manson featuring Usich as well.
Lawsuits
In September 1996, former bassist Gidget Gein negotiated a settlement with Manson where he would receive $17,500 in cash, 20 percent of any royalties paid for recordings and for any songs he had a hand in writing and his share of any other royalties or fees the group earned while he was a member. Furthermore, the settlement allowed him to market himself as a former member of Marilyn Manson. This settlement was not honored, however.
Former guitarist and founding member Scott Putesky (aka Daisy Berkowitz) filed a $15 million lawsuit in a Fort Lauderdale court against the singer, the band and the band's attorney, David Codikow in January 1998 after his forcible departure from the group in the spring of 1996. Berkowitz claimed he was cheated by the band out of "thousands of dollars in royalties, publishing rights, and performance fees." He also filed an attorney malpractice suit against Codikow, alleging that "Codikow represented Warner's interests more than the band's and that he gave Warner disproportionate control over the band's name, recordings, merchandising, and touring proceeds." By October of that year, the suit had been settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
In November 30, 1998, a few days after the band accumulated "[a] total [of] more than $25,000" in backstage and hotel room damages during the Poughkeepsie, New York stop of their Mechanical Animals Tour, SPIN editor Craig Marks filed a $24 million lawsuit against Manson and his bodyguards for allegedly assaulting his person and threatening to kill his family. According to Mark's interview with the New York Post, the issue stemmed from Manson's displeasure with the magazine's decision to renege on a promised cover story of the band for their January 1998 cover. According to Marks, the last-minute change was made because Manson's record wasn't "performing." The Post described the editor as "bruised and battered." Manson for his part issued a statement saying, "I had a conversation with Craig Marks expressing I was tired of Spin's immature business behavior and the series of deals they had broken with me. I told him that I didn't care what he prints or whether or not I'm on the cover. I simply no longer wanted to work with him or his magazine that obviously has a lack of respect for musicians and their fans." On February 19, 1999, Manson counter-sued Marks for libel, slander and defamation. The singer was seeking $40 million in reparation, claiming that Marks' statements were false and "were made ... with actual malice, hatred and personal ill will." According to the counter-suit, Marks' allegations have "greatly damaged and injured [Manson's] reputation and standing in the music profession, in the music and entertainment industries, in his community and in the general public, and has been subjected to great shame, humiliation and indignity." As for the Poughkeepsie incident, Manson apologized and offered to make financial restitution.
In a civil battery suit, David Diaz, a security officer from a concert in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on October 27, 2000, sued for $75,000 in a Minneapolis federal court. The federal court jury found in Manson's favor.
In a civil suit presented by Oakland County, Michigan, Manson was charged with sexual misconduct against another security officer, Joshua Keasler, during a concert in Clarkston, Michigan, on July 30, 2001. Oakland County originally filed assault and battery and criminal sexual misconduct charges, but the judge reduced the latter charge to misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Manson pleaded no contest to the reduced charges, paid a $4,000 fine, and later settled the lawsuit under undisclosed terms.
On April 3, 2002, Maria St. John filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing Manson of providing her adult daughter, Jennifer Syme, with cocaine and instructing her to drive while under the influence. After attending a party at Manson's house, Syme was given a lift home; Manson claims she was taken home by a designated driver. After she got home she got behind the wheel of her own vehicle and was killed instantly when she crashed it into three parked cars. Manson is reported to have said there were no drugs or alcohol at the party. St. John's lawyer asked "[if] there were no drinks, no drugs, why would she need a designated driver?" The suit alleged Syme was returning to the party at Manson's request. The case, BC271111, was dismissed on May 29, 2003.
On August 2, 2007, former band member Stephen Bier filed a lawsuit against Manson for unpaid "partnership proceeds," seeking $20 million in back pay. Several details from the lawsuit leaked to the press. In November 2007, additional papers were filed saying that Manson purchased a child's skeleton and masks made of human skin. He also allegedly bought stuffed animals, such as a grizzly bear and two baboons and a collection of Nazi memorabilia. In December 2007, Manson countersued, claiming that Bier failed to fulfill his duties as a bandmember to play for recordings and to promote the band. On December 28, 2009, the suit was settled with an agreement which saw Bier's attorneys being paid a total of $380,000, of which Manson's insurance company paid $175,000, while the remainder was paid by Bier's former business managers, according to Manson's lawyer Howard King.
