Biography
Arguably one of the most polarizing and controversial music acts of the '90s and 2000s, Marilyn Manson - led by the eponymous singer and anchored by a large and rotating cast of players - thrilled music listeners and terrified parents and moral watchdogs with its mix of Gothic/metal brutality, alarming videos, a seemingly indestructible appetite for hedonism, and a savvy grasp of self-promotion and hot-button topics. The singer was born Brian Hugh Warner in Canton, Ohio on January 5, 1969, he attended a Christian school from first grade to mid-high school before completing his studies at a secular school and then attending Broward Community College in Florida with the intention of becoming a music journalist. Assignments for a local magazine introduced him to many of the musicians that would become a primary influence on his own career, including Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. In 1989, he befriended Scott Putesky, who suggested that the pair form their own band, which anchored its image and sound around a central concept: the idea of good and evil existing in every person. To that end, the members - a constantly rotating lineup which included, at various times, film composer Tyler Bates, Chris Vrenna, Jeordie White/Twiggy Ramirez of A Perfect Circle, Timothy Linton/Zim Zum and John Lowery/John 5 - each adopted monikers that combined the names of celebrities famous for their beauty or sex appeal and notorious serial killers, with Warner borrowing from Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson for his stage name, Marilyn Manson. The band, initially known as Marilyn Monroe and the Spooky Kids, quickly earned a following in the South Florida club scene for its sonic mix of Gothic rock, glam and metal, and a stage show that featured elaborate costumes and transgressive imagery, including blood, nudity and homemade pyrotechnics. After dropping the "Spooky Kids" aspect of their name, the band's reputation caught the attention of Reznor, who signed them to his label, Nothing Records, and produced their debut LP, Portrait of an American Family (1994). Manson's propensity for cultivating shock value theatrics - he was christened "Reverend" by Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey and destroyed a Book of Mormon onstage in Salt Lake City - and an opening slot on Nine Inch Nails' 1994 tour, as well as live dates with Danzig and Korn, helped to propel the record to No. 35 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Manson quickly returned to the studio with Reznor for an EP, Smells Like Children (1995), which peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard, thanks to an unnerving cover of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" and its accompanying video. But it was the EP's follow-up, Antichrist Superstar (1996), that propelled Marilyn Manson into the mainstream. The album's thunderous, martial-sounding lead single, "The Beautiful People," cracked the Top 30 on the U.S. singles chart, while a mix of curiosity, revulsion and fear over the band's image and perceived moral decay helped to send Superstar to No. 3 on the albums chart. A near-constant stream of attention from the media and religious/political groups - the latter of which culminated in congressional hearings to determine the harmful impact of the band's lyrics on listeners - helped to make the subsequent "Dead to the World" tour a major success. Though their off-stage lives echoed the chaos of their music - in his critically praised autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell (1998), Manson detailed his sex- and drug-filled existence in no-holds-barred language, while members continued to drop in and out of the lineup with alarming frequency - the band remained determined to spread its arresting musical message. For their third LP, Mechanical Animals (1998), Manson adopted a look and sound that drew upon David Bowie's icy, androgynous glam rock period; the album - which featured Manson as an androgynous alien on its cover - debuted at the top of the albums chart, cementing Manson's position at the forefront of mainstream rock. The subsequent tour with Hole, however, was plagued by conflict between the two acts as well as accusations that the band's music had influenced the Columbine High School shootings in 1999. Manson and his bandmates took off much of 1999 and 2000 to regroup and work on a new album. Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) (2000), which Manson described as part of a thematic trilogy with Animals and Antichrist, continued his obsession with the morbid side of fame (or infamy), but fell somewhat short of its predecessor's chart success, and was actually overshadowed in many territories by the band's cover of "Tainted Love," which topped several international charts. Having completed their trilogy, Manson and the band drew inspiration from a new source - the cabaret scene of Weimar-era Germany in the 1920s and '30s - for The Golden Age of Grotesque (2003). Critical response to the new sound was near universal in its acclaim, and the album itself became Manson's second No. 1 on the Billboard 200. A subsequent tour, featuring sets and costuming that echoed the axis of severity and decadence of the period; the album's release - the band's last for Nothing Records, which had dissolved due to legal conflicts between Reznor and a business partner - preceded a period of prolific songwriting but relatively scant recording, with Manson busying himself with other projects, including art and a long-gestating featuring film based on the works of Lewis Carroll. The film never materialized, but Eat Me, Drink Me (2007), recorded for Interscope Records and featuring featured just Manson and ex-KMFDM guitarist/bassist Tim Skold on every track, was a Top 10 album and cemented Manson's continued grip on the rock scene. Outside of the studio, however, Manson's personal life was unraveling: his marriage to neo-burlesque performer Dita von Teese had disintegrated, and a tempestuous relationship with actress Evan Rachel Wood - which informed much of Eat Me - had also unraveled, sending the singer into a spiral of depression and self-harm. Manson poured that energy into the band's next album, The High End of Low (2009), which debuted at No. 4 on the albums chart but saw relatively mild sales figures. More disconcerting was Manson's behavior while promoting the album - he publicly criticized Interscope and its then-CEO, Jimmy Iovine, which drew the ire of Reznor, a longtime friend to both men, and the music video for the single "Running to the Edge of the World," which featured Manson beating to death an actress who resembled Wood, drew widespread criticism. Manson withdrew from the public eye for the next two years, surfacing only for occasional projects, including a surreal, explicit short titled "Born Villain" (2011), which would lend its name to the band's next album. The Grammy-nominated lead single, "No Reflection," proved to be one of Manson's most successful with a 26-week run on the Mainstream Rock chart, while Born Villain itself would enjoy two weeks at the top of the albums chart. After playing a fictionalized version of himself on the Showtime series "Californication" (2007-2014), Manson teamed with the show's composer, Tyler Bates, to record The Pale Emperor. Like Villain, its lead single, "Deep Six," was a substantial hit, reaching No. 8 on the Mainstream Rock chart, while the album - inspired by the death of Manson's mother after a long illness - was the band's most successful since Eat Me, Drink Me with a debut at No. 8. A tour with Smashing Pumpkins in 2015 re-ignited Manson's connection to Billy Corgan, who had been instrumental in influencing the band's turn towards glam on Mechanical Animals; that team-up failed to come to fruition, but Manson and Bates reunited for Heaven Upside Down, the band's tenth studio album. It continued Marilyn Manson's streak of successes with positive critical response and a debut at No. 8 on the Billboard albums chart.
