It is sad to think that the first few people on earth needed no books, movies, games or music to inspire cold-blooded murder. The day that Cain bashed his brother Abel's brains in, the only motivation he needed was his own human disposition to violence. Whether you interpret the Bible as literature or as the final word of whatever God may be, Christianity has given us an image of death and sexuality that we have based our culture around. A half-naked dead man hangs in most homes and around our necks, and we have just taken that for granted all our lives. Is it a symbol of hope or hopelessness? The world's most famous murder-suicide was also the birth of the death icon -- the blueprint for celebrity. Unfortunately, for all of their inspiring morality, nowhere in the Gospels is intelligence praised as a virtue.

A lot of people forget or never realize that I started my band as a criticism of these very issues of despair and hypocrisy. The name Marilyn Manson has never celebrated the sad fact that America puts killers on the cover of Time magazine, giving them as much notoriety as our favorite movie stars. From Jesse James to Charles Manson, the media, since their...

Q&A: Marilyn Manson
The shock rocker talks to TIME about love, loss and his eyeliner
By Lauren E. Bohn on May 26, 2009

TIME: Marilyn Manson is not exactly a conformist. From his music — a meat grinder full of electronica, metal and gothic grotesquerie — to his personal traits (because of his nocturnal habits, he was available to speak to TIME only after midnight E.T.), he's managed to confound his critics and fans alike. Is he the satanic Pied Piper of angst-ridden teen nihilists? Or a sly, self-promoting performance artist? Either way, he's long been a lightning rod for controversy, only fueled by his sold-out tours and multiplatinum-selling albums. Now, after taking a yearlong absence from an industry he'd grown to loathe, Manson is back with his seventh album, The High End of Low. He talked to TIME about the economic crisis, the contents of his makeup bag and how living alone for the first time in his life has made him a better person. Or at least, a better Marilyn Manson.

Marilyn Manson is currently on the receiving end of a right-wing backlash that includes condemnations and lawsuits of nearly every variety. Manson, it seems, has been accused of everything from provoking teen suicide to causing the planet Jupiter to stray from its rotational course (he’s obviously a very busy man).

NY Rock freelancer Gabriella recently had a brief conversation with Manson in which she discussed these topics and other matters with the controversial star. Gabriella started the interview off on a lighter note, Manson’s contributions to the David Lynch film Lost Highway...




NYROCK: You played a small part, together with Twiggy, in Lost Highway. How did that come about?

Marilyn Manson: We’ve known Lynch for a very long time and because we always got on, he asked us to participate in his movie and to write a song for the soundtrack.




NYROCK: How do you like the way the movie turned out?