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--Media
- NYrock.com - September 2000
MM:"I think the media treated me accordingly, especially because
I moved myself into a position where I was an easy target for
the media. I never expected the media to love me. I think I was
a thorn in the flesh of a lot of people and especially the media.
I did things nobody else dared to do and let's face it, America
is still conservative even if they don't like to hear it. I said
it before, all the little hypocrites will go and buy the magazine,
read about what evil weird people we are and will feel better
about themselves. People love to judge, as long as they have somebody
else to judge they don't have to concentrate on their own miserable
lives. They point at us instead of looking at themselves. In a
way we served as scapegoats, something they love to have."
-Mankind - Alternative Press Magazine - October 2000
MM:"I do have a backward sense of optimism, and my point is always
to try and better mankind. I’m not just a nihilist or some doomsayer.
I’m saying these things because they’re warnings, because I want
humankind to not let it happen this way."
-Journalism - NYrock.com - September 2000
MM:"I was once a journalist myself and I do understand how the
media works. I don't like the media, in general. But I don't have
a problem with most journalists. The journalists I usually meet
are people who are interested in what I've got to say. Most of
the journalists who write all the rubbish that I'm a devil worshipper
and stuff like that are people who don't know me, who never even
bothered to talk to me. I know a lot of people think I hate journalists.
I don't hate all journalists. There is just a certain kind of
journalist I hate. The ones who make up stories without bothering
to check the facts. The ones who don't care for the truth. The
ones who just want a cheap headline and never even bother to stop
and think for a minute. I hate the media. But I don't hate journalists
or journalism. That's a big difference. I don't mind talking to
people, answering questions about my work and explaining my motivations.
In a way, I feel it's something I have to do to explain what drives
me. I still see myself as some sort of journalist. We're both
doing the same job. You write articles to express your feelings
while I create music to express my feelings and try to express
what goes on in the world and in my head. That's another kind
of journalism."
-Shocking People - NYrock.com - September 2000
MM:"I am not trying to shock or enrage the people on purpose.
It's not some sort of plan. It's just my personality. It's just
the way I am. I can't be any different and I can't imagine being
different. It's pretty easy to shock people. Everybody can do
it. That's why I'm not really out to do it. It wouldn't be a challenge."
--Home Video - Official Website Webcast - Part 2 - September 18,
2000
MM:"A lot of people wanted to know would I talk about "Demystifying
the Devil." I wasn't bothered by it, I was just bored by it. I
thought that if they were going to demystify me they could have
done a much better job. They wouldn't sit around and listen to
a bunch of people who claimed that they knew me for two hours."
--Presidential Elections - Official Website Webcast - Part 2 -
September 18, 2000
MM:"It's really sad that they pretend to care about something
as part of their platform. They put down artists and people like
myself who genuinely care. Because when it comes right down to
it, I create my music for people to listen to, and those people
are the ones who they're pretending to protect, and those people
deserve to have an opinion, and deserve to have a choice to listen
to things. So, I don't think it matters who wins, because they
both hate me, and I don't think either one of them are going to
do anything about it. So there's no concern on my part."
--Did you go to High School prom? - Official Website Webcast -
Part 2 - September 18, 2000
MM:"No I didn't. Nobody wanted to go with me, and I probably wouldn't
have went even if someone did, because I don't like dancing and
smiling and things that go on at proms. But they can be fine,
I guess, if you want to do that."
--Eminem - Official Website Webcast - Part 2 - September 18, 2000
MM:"Last year my video was pulled from MTV because of Columbine.
It wasn't much for me to support, other than the fact that Eminem
had achieved such a great success. And I chose to work with him,
because, the fact that someone like him has the balls to do what
they do helps all of us. What people need to look beyond is whether
you disagree or agree with his opinions. The fact that he's allowed
to have his opinion is important for everyone. That's my feelings
towards him. I like what he does, and I like the fact that he's
allowed to do it. That doesn't mean I always agree with him, but
I think it's important that people like him, people like myself
are able to say what they think. And I think that it's important
that you say what you think as well, and hopefully this site and
the rest of the internet gives you that opportunity."
--Human Evolution - Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"I'm amazed to see how backward humans have gone on the evolutionary
chart."
--Bad Grammar - Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"One thing that offends me is bad grammar. That makes me more
pissed than anything in the world, as someone who respects the
educational system or someone who just respects the way things
are intended to be in America. We have the ability. There's no
reason that people cant simply use decent grammar."
--Profanity - Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"I don't generally use profanity just for the sake of it. If
I do it, I'm generally being sardonic, or it's the legitimate
or only way to express an angry thought. If you use too much of
anything, it becomes watered down. If every other word is 'fuck'
then whats the barometer of fuckness? It's like, if everyone was
cool, what would the point of cool be?"
--About Rap Music - Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"The larger portion of it is not technically music. Music is
defined by a melody and by lyrics. Most contemporary rap, by contrast,
is base, simple, lowest-common-denominator noise that consists
of people spending three and a half minutes bragging about how
much money they don't really have, and about how many cars they
don't really have the money to buy, and how many bitches and ho's
they've been slapping around, to a drum-machine beat. It's not
really advancing any sort of art form."
--Bad Entertainment - Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"The more bad movies, bad TV shows, and bad music I hear, the
dumber I think it's making America."
--Parents - Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"I talked to my mother today, in fact. They're very proud that
I'm doing something that I enjoy. My mom was always a big Elvis
fan, so it works out. I'm kind of her version of Elvis."
--NBA Basketball Championship Los Angeles Riot - Talk Magazine
- November 2000
MM:"I watched these people setting a police car on fire, and no
one doing anything about it. A lot of people were discussing the
event and saying it was a symptom of, or a reaction to, poverty.
I watched it, and every single person that I saw smashing that
car or lighting it on fire was wearing a very expensive L.A. Lakers
jersey. I don't think it was a poverty issue. I think it was a
mob mentality."
--Prosthetic Limbs - Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"I have just scores of legs and arms of all sorts, the most
interesting one being a small one from a one or two year old child.
A guy came up to me after a show and he had a prosthetic leg and
hip. He took it off and gave it to me and walked away on crutches.
He said, 'I want you to have this.' Which was really moving."
--Bill Clinton - Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"There began a new area of political correctness with Hillary
and Bill Clinton. When you start encouraging people to protest
or complain about superfluous things, it begins to be annoying
to me and it begins to be damaging to peoples creativity and behavior.
Everyday I see a new thing. You've got these people complaining
about gays in the Boy Scouts. You've got people complaining about
not enough black television programs. You've got people complaining
about not enough women priests. I'm thinking about complaining
about not being able to be a Girl Scout. It's crazy. I believe
strongly, more than anybody, of course, in civil rights, because
that's part of my stance. But I think in the Clinton years the
door got opened a little too far, and a lot of nonsense has been
let in. People will stir up shit just for the sake of stirring
it up. Eventually everybody's going to be complaining about something."
--Teenage Years - Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"There is no support group for kids like this. There is no
one marching in front of the democratic convention saying, 'What
about the outcast, pimply-faced white teenager who gets beat up
in school everyday?' That's what I was. There was no one there
to stick up for me. Teenagers aren't considered human beings in
some ways. Until you turn 18, you dont really have any rights,
so in a sense you dont really have a soul. You're not really a
real person. I think thats how a lot of teenagers feel in America."
--The Music - Sonicnet.com - October 27, 2000
MM:"I just try and make music political in its own way. I think
kids, in the end, care more about what someone like me is saying
than what Al Gore/George Bush is saying because they know that
I'm not lying to them. America has become very cynical, and people
don't care about it anymore. Who knows where it will end up?"
--Eminem - Sonicnet.com - October 27, 2000
MM:"In some ways, I opened up a door for him, and now he's created
an even bigger doorway for me, as far as pushing the boundaries
of what you can do or say on a record."
--Concert Outfits - Sonicnet.com - October 27, 2000
MM:"I wanted to make clothing from things people found useless
or ugly. I try to add a new beauty to things like horses' tails,
goat skins, ostrich spines and things like that. It's kind of
exotic. It's not really that grotesque. It does have a bit of
road-kill element to it."
--Making a Point - Sonicnet.com - October 27, 2000
MM:"You can take things to a complete extreme, but unless you
do them right, it's going to be the thing that people single out
and say, that's disgusting, that's offensive, that's going too
far. There's a matter of figuring out ways to get your point across,
to be provocative but not just for the sake of shock. That's what
I've always tried to do."
--Personal Evolution - Sonicnet.com - October 27, 2000
MM:"What you end up finding is you can only change yourself. The
thing that motivates me is seeing my own faults finally, rather
than seeing what's wrong with the world. And seeing what can I
do to make it a better place, even if it's just a better place
for me."
--Playing at Theaters - Wallofsound.go.com - October 26, 2000
MM:"There is something much more powerful acoustically and visually
about theaters. The type of performance I put out is very theatrical.
Plus, with so many bands touring right now, it becomes gluttony.
And I wanted ours to be special."
--Starting the Band - Metal-is.com - November 2000
MM:"I still feel like I'm a fan of Marilyn Manson in a way. That's
why I started the band, because I was a fan of it and I tried
to put myself outside of it. I was thinking, 'What would be everything
I wanted in a band?', and I tried to provide that."
--Protesters - Guardianunlimited.co.uk - November 4, 2000
MM:"I don't think the people I am attacking will ever understand
the satire or the irony in my work. They will react to the surface
in the same old knee-jerk way and hate me, and probably want to
kill me again. And that really does fuel my fire. See, I guess
I need them like they need me. They don't have a living breathing
devil and I am more than happy to play that role."
--The Name - Guardianunlimited.co.uk - November 4, 2000
MM:"I wanted a name that said it all, almost a brand name. I took
a celebrity martyr and a celebrity killer and put them together.
If you want to understand America, you have to look at the celebrity
process. It's sick and its utterly revealing about our need to
celebrate even the worst aspects of our culture."
--Personal Evolution - Guardianunlimited.co.uk - November 4, 2000
MM:"Well, I don't see it that way. Regret is a negative emotion,
like guilt. Plus, I attract outsiders and misfits because I am
one. I think I voice a lot of their alienation because for a long
time I felt it. Still do, to a degree. That said, there is evolution
and character growth in everyone, and things I did even a year
ago, or five years ago, I wouldn't do now. It was, how shall I
put it, a voyage of discovery. I had to go out there and experience
it all."
--Protesters - Guardianunlimited.co.uk - November 4, 2000
MM:"That kind of reaction is kinda boring now. It's like so preprogrammed
and one dimensional and dumb in a particularly American way. The
thing that bugs me most about Christians is their assumption they
have a monopoly on morality; the premise they start from is that
they have a literally God-given right to impose their belief systems
on everyone else. It's like, those people in Africa are heathens,
we need to convert them to God. I mean, c'mon, in this day and
age. It's almost too easy to get them going but, in a way, it
needs to be done because they do have real power, and they'd like
to be able to silence anyone who differs. Religion is big business
in America and it's not taxed. How morally wrong is that? I kinda
see myself, among other things, as a fighter for freedom of speech.
I plead the First Amendment every time."
--Media - Dazed & Confused - September 2000
MM:"America is a breeding ground for mass murderers and serial
killers because the media encourages it."
--1960 - Dazed & Confused - September 2000
MM:"I think the '60s were such a strange time in history and ended
in such a brutal way, which I think was appropriate and well-deserved.
With Altamont and the Manson murders, the way 1969 came to a close
couldn't have been scripted any better. And the '60s began with
Kennedy and Aldous Huxley. The fact that they represented such
extreme opposites and died on the same day created some kind of
schism or strange gateway."
--Prosthetic Limbs - Dazed & Confused - September 2000
MM:"I've always had an affection for prosthetic limbs, I don't
think it's a sexual thing. But I do find myself drawn to amputeesarebeautiful.com,
which is a strange website. I don't know what it is but I am attracted
to deformity and things of that nature. I like to find beauty
in that, and not in an exploitative way. I like flaws. I think
they're the most exciting part about humans. I think that difference
is what keeps us from being like machines and the things that
we create."
--Imagination - Dazed & Confused - September 2000
MM:"I have an over-active imagination, I can't write a song without
thinking about a video or a story or a character or a painting,
whatever it might be. I don't ever think on only one level. That
can be overloading to some people. Sometimes I'll just keep it
to myself until the appropriate time."
--Chaos - Dazed & Confused - September 2000
MM:"That's what I've learned over the years. Now, I've come full
circle because I've leart how to fight the fight. And do it because
I think it needs to be done for no other reason than to cause
chaos. That's part of my existence. I think anyone can write songs,
but I genuinely create chaos. And I like to do it."
--American Dream - Dazed & Confused - September 2000
MM:"I'm at a point in my life right now, where I've actually been
able to, in a way, fulfil the American Dream and be whatever I
wanted to be. So I can die a happy man. If the word happy and
my name can be used in the same sentence."
--Freedom of Speech - Guardianunlimited.co.uk - November 4, 2000
MM:"I'm still angry but I'm happy too. I'm happy so long as I
can express myself without being censored, if I can fight back,
tell people they don't have to be sheep, that it's all right not
to conform, not to compete, not to fit in. There's an added dimension
because everything is shifting so fast - technology, information
- and the powers that be are afraid because they sense that their
kids are way smarter than them. When people are afraid, they run
to religion, to the right. That's what's happening in America,
that's why it's so easy - and so dumb - to put the blame on someone
like me."
--Ozone Layer - Guardianunlimited.co.uk - November 4, 2000
MM:"Despite everything that's happened, I feel strangely optimistic.
I have a strange sense of idealism and even altruism. At the same
time, I might just get up in the morning and spray a gallon of
hairspray into the air just to destroy the ozone layer because
I really believe mankind deserves nothing more than to end itself
because we have behaved so idiotically for so long."
--Columbine - Alternative Press Magazine - October 2000
MM:"These kids 'Klebold and Harris' were mad because they felt
like they didn’t fit in and they wanted to show the world. And
the world, in return, gave them exactly what they wanted-they
put them on the cover of Time magazine. Twice. That was disgusting
to me. I said this same thing 10 years ago when I created Marilyn
Manson, there’s a very fine line between an artist and serial
killer or a mass murderer. They’re both trying to get out the
same feelings, and they’re doing it because they know that America
is gonna put ‘em on the news-they enjoy the fame of it."
--Columbine - Alternative Press Magazine - October 2000
MM:"I didn’t physically leave my house for three months, and one
reason why I didn’t leave was, I genuinely believed that there
was a realistic possibility that I could be poisoned at a restaurant,
or shot in a Mark David Chapman style."
--Columbine - Alternative Press Magazine - October 2000
MM:"It was a time when I was trying to decide, in some ways, if
I was going to continue. And if so, how? There was a bit of trepidation,
deciding, ‘Is it worth it? Are people understanding what I’m trying
to say? Am I even gonna be allowed to say it?’ Because I definitely
had every single door shut in my face after Columbine, more than
most people would imagine. At the time that it was happening,
there were not a lot of people who stood behind me."
--Columbine - New Music Monthly - November 2000
MM:"We [the band] were united against the whole world. Other people
will never know how poorly we were treated. On Antichrist Superstar,
I enjoyed being vilified or being a scapegoat. But in this situation,
when you're being blamed for something that has so many people's
emotions wrapped up in it, it's not a winning battle you can fight.
I couldn't even go to a restaurant without someone looking at
me like they hated my guts, like they wanted me dead or I was
resposible for something I didn't do."
Columbine - Sonicnet.com - October 27, 2000
MM:"People said to me: What would you say to these kids who act
this way? My answer is: I wouldn't say anything. I'd listen. Because
no one was listening, and that's why it happened."
--Columbine - Metal-is.com - November 2000
MM:"It was a fight about belief. When Columbine happened, it became
a situation where a lot of emotions were involved. People needed
a quick and simple answer for why their kids would do something
like this. It was something they couldn't believe happened and
they couldn't understand. They didn't realise that they raised
these kids and that was ultimately their responsibility and ultimately,
it was the kids' responsibility. I feel sorry for everyone involved,
not just the victims, but the people who did it as well, and that
America is a breeding ground for this type of behaviour, because
they raise kids that feel like they are dead already. In other
situations, they raise kids to feel that, if you're not old enough
to be a consumer or you're not of voting age, in some ways, your
opinion doesn't matter. In some ways, you're treated as if you
don't even have a soul. So it comes as no surprise whatsoever
that something like that would happen. For it to be blamed on
entertainment is absurd to me. First, because I think that people
like myself are writing music for people like that as an escape,
to make them feel like 'You're not alone, I grew up feeling the
same thing.' In some cases, that's probably the only thing that
gets a lot of kids through their teenage years. When I was a kid,
music was the only thing I had to hide with, if you don't like
the world around you. For me, I hid in books and I hid in music,
and that was what made me feel better about myself."
--Columbine - Metal-is.com - November 2000
MM:"When Columbine happened, I had every door shut in my face.
There were a lot of Judases, a lot of people did not stand behind
me, and I'll always remember the ones that did stand behind me
and supported me. 'Rolling Stone' magazine was kind enough to
give me the opportunity to respond in an unedited essay. Every
single media source across the entire world wanted to take a piece
of me and they wanted me to be part of the circus. What they didn't
understand, for the very same reason I started Marilyn Manson
and the name Marilyn Manson itself is a comment on this exact
subject, is that you encourage this type of behaviour, because
you glamorise it. You glamorise villains as much as you do movie
stars. The kids that did the shooting were on the cover on 'Time'
magazine twice, but the victims weren't. That right there is a
simple statement on the way that America behaves."
--Columbine - Metal-is.com - November 2000
MM:"It was a matter of my perception that I felt that the entire
world was against me, which, in a lot of cases, wasn't necessarily
true. But I felt that everyone wanted to see me fall for this.
What I did was, I just stayed out of it and waited for everyone's
emotions to not be involved any further. People were upset and
they needed some explanation, and I was the first explanation.
Eventually, as the story unfolded, these people who committed
the crime weren't my fans. If they were, it still doesn't justify
that, because there's no film more violent than the super 8 film
of Kennedy being assassinated, which we all saw on the news growing
up. There's no book more violent or filled with more sex and depravity
than the Bible. There's no image more, well, beautiful to me,
shocking and sexual, than the crucifixion of Christ. He, in fact,
is the first celebrity. That's an image of death, and we grew
up watching that. How do you expect children to understand all
of this when you make them feel guilty for being who they are?
At that point, it could have been a complete career-destroying
moment for me, depending on if I had strength enough to go on.
In America, all the doors were shut and I had no allies. MTV refused
to put on our videos, radio stations no longer played any of my
songs, venues would not allow us to play there until the whole
thing sort of cleared itself up. It became very frustrating, and
I literally locked myself into my house, into my attic, for three
months and did not leave the house. I left the room, but I really
had to put it into something, or else I was probably going to
explode one way or the other. At that point, I refocused on where
I was with the concept of 'Holy Wood' and what it represented.
I wanted to respond in an artful and a thoughtful way. 'Holy Wood',
for me, on one level, was a reaction, but at the same time, this
situation is no different than some of the things that were happening
ten years ago when I started the band. Some of the comments that
I was making… even on our first record, there's a song, 'Get Your
Gunn', that was talking about the hypocrisy that someone would
assassinate an abortion doctor because they believed in pro-life.
I mean, it's such a ridiculous contradiction. There's nothing
new under the sun. Kids have behaved like this since Cain and
Abel, and it took no entertainment to inspire that for them. I
had to either give up or come out fighting. When I left that room,
so to speak, three months later, 'Holy Wood' was born. We sat
down and as a band, this was the most creative and prolific period
ever in my entire career. We probably wrote 100 pieces of music,
30 which were turned into songs and 19 ended up on the record."
--Columbine - Guardianunlimited.co.uk - November 4, 2000
MM:"I saw it happen live on TV and I said immediately, 'They're
going to blame me for this.' Five minutes later, I heard the reporter
say, 'The killers were wearing white make-up and Marilyn Manson
T-shirts.' All completely untrue, as it turned out. I mean, they
didn't even like me. I looked into it after it happened: they
weren't wearing make-up, they weren't goth kids. These were white,
urban kids, pretty well-off, with no apparent reason to go on
a killing spree. They weren't white trash nor ghetto kids, and
I think that was difficult for America to take. It raised some
hard questions about our society but, of course, the knee-jerk
response prevailed - 'Who's to blame? Let's get the weirdo.' The
way I see it, the mass psychology is - as long as America can
find a bad guy, everyone can feel safe. It's that simple."
--Columbine - Guardianunlimited.co.uk - November 4, 2000
MM:"I was approached by every media outlet in America, but I refused
to be part of the charade. Then, when things died down a bit,
I thought, I have to respond to this. I mean, I was upset like
everyone else by what happened. I'm not some emotionless creature.
I thought it was horrendous and sad. But, mostly, I was disgusted,
I mean, these guys got exactly what they wanted - fame. They were
on the cover of Time magazine. To me, it was grotesque. And, I
was disgusted by the media sitting back there, judging and blaming
everyone else for what they had helped create. I threatened to
sue any media outlet that associated my name with the Columbine
killings. There was no way I was going to be the fall guy for
a nation."
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