Did Marilyn Manson hide his abuse of women or did he get away with doing it openly because he was famous?
The decline of Marilyn Manson, between allegations of sexual abuse and terrifying stories
The musician, who was a leading alternative metal artist, was denounced by several women for physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse
There was a time when Marilyn Manson seduced a certain intelligentsia. Bright minds with twisted tastes, such as filmmakers David Lynch or Tim Burton, actor Shia LaBeouf, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore or advanced rock guru and leader of the group Nine Inch Nails, Trenz Reznor. Everyone admired the dark personality of Brian Hugh Warner, the real name of the 52-year-old musician from Ohio, United States. Lynch even said of him that he seemed "a sensational artist." Maybe it was, with records like Antichrist Superstar (1997) and songs like "The Beautiful People." Today no longer: to an artistic decline have been added the complaints of sexual harassment against the singer, including those of ex-partners such as actresses Evan Rachel Wood and Esmé Bianco, and model Ashley Morgan Smithline.
These days a very detailed report has been published in Rolling Stone magazine with some terrifying passages. The extensive report is titled Marilyn Manson: A Monster Hidden Before Our Eyes. In the article, several women narrate the alleged atrocities to which the singer subjected them. Many of them occurred in a dependency of his house in West Hollywood that they say the singer calls "the room of the bad girls." The lawsuits are already filed and the investigation is ongoing. Ten days ago the police broke into the singer's mansion in search of evidence.
The provocations of the musician during his 30-year career now take on a sinister tone. In 2009 he told the British newspaper The Guardian: "Fear is something that I instill in other people, mostly young girls." Nobody tore their clothes: it's Marilyn Manson, you know. His first album, Portrait of an American Family (1994), closes with the song "Misery Machine." At the end of the topic, a mocking voice message from a mother worried about her son is included in a mocking tone. At that time, Manson was starting his career and to keep in touch with his few followers, he asked them at the end of the concert for his address in order to send them photos and promotional material. The mother's message reads: “I want my son off his mailing list. I have contacted the post office about the pornographic material they are sending to my son. I don't want anything else sent to us. If I receive any more material from this band, I will go to my lawyer. Thank you and goodbye". Another plaintiff, model Sarah McNeilly, notes in Rolling Stone: “The physical violence was almost a relief. The my .... mental that makes you go through, that infects your brain, you just want it to stop. "
The success of Marilyn Manson was forged in the nineties in two directions: to gain a foothold in the new wave of metal that existed at that time (Pantera, Korn, Alice In Chain, Sepultura, Nine Inch Nails ...), and to project a gruesome and bloody image. The plan was to provoke and the videos that were shown on television allowed him to enter American homes. His attacks on religion, his messages about a population alienated by power, his taste for sadomasochism ... Too much for the most conservative families. In parallel, a group of respected artists were drawn to his murky image and his anti-establishment messages. Among others, Reznor, a figure claimed by David Bowie, who signed the group for his label; or Lynch, which includes his version of a Screamin Jay Hawkins song, "I Put a Spell On You", in his film Lost Highway (1997). The relationship with Lynch ran smoothly for a time: in 2010 they opened the joint exhibition Genealogies of Pain. Manson contributed pictures of deformed figures and Lynch accompanied them with videos.
And then there is his participation in the Michael Moore documentary, Bowling for Columbine (2002). There is a moment in this film that works as a thermometer of how popular Manson was at that time. Looking for an involuntary ideologue of that tragedy that ended with the death of 12 students due to the shooting of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (both 18 years old), the far right pointed to Marilyn Manson. Why? The killers were said to be followers of the rocker and that Manson's lyrics, statements and aesthetic had a bad influence on them. No evidence was provided. Michel Moore interviewed the musician for the documentary in a kind of hallway in a locker room, perhaps the makeshift dressing room of a concert by the star in a sports venue. As Manson explained why he had been chosen, Moore, then a scourge of the American right, was nodding continuously. Manson was convincing him. He was a talkative, intelligent guy, a perfect guinea pig who worked as a smokescreen to avoid blaming a country with large doses of violence and who allowed the sale of weapons in supermarkets. That was what Moore implied with his nod of agreement.
Musically, his two best works were Antichrist Superstar (1996) and Holy Wood (2000). Of the latter, critic Alec Chillingworth said in Metal Hammer magazine: "A gigantic artistic feat that will go down in history as Manson's defining statement." But perhaps the music most listened to in the world by this artist are recreations of his classics, such as “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics; "Personal Jesus", by Depeche Mode; "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell, or "Rock and Roll Nigger" by Patti Smith. Manson's music is understood in a specific period, from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, when heavy metal was modernized, picking up rhythms and sounds from electronic and industrial music. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, his popularity began to crash. This could be seen in Spain in 2009 with a disastrous concert at the Kobetasonik festival in Bilbao, and in December of the same year in the most soulless performance in memory at the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid (now WiZink Center). His bragging was no longer dangerous, and his erratic attitude brought his concerts down to the realm of caricature. Trenz Reznor had already turned away from him. "He is a malicious guy and will step on anyone's face to succeed and cross any line of decency," the leader of Nine Inch Nails told Mojo magazine.
The musician's attorneys do not stop "categorically" denying the harassment allegations. He wrote on his Instagram account: “My intimate relationships have always been completely consensual and with like-minded partners. That is the truth, regardless of how and why others now choose to misrepresent the past. " Actress and fashion designer Dita Von Teese, who had a relationship with Manson for six years, including marriage, has also spoken: "The details that have been made public do not coincide with my personal experience." As soon as the allegations were made public, his manager left him and his record label fired him. Marilyn Manson has no concerts scheduled for the next few months.
His last public appearance, on November 1, took place in a situation, to say the least, striking: all dressed in white, with a hood and a covered mouth, next to Justin Bieber and Kanye West, in one of the surreal musical masses that the controversial rapper offers quarterly. They are called Sunday Service. For West it is a "healing and Christian experience." And Marilyn Manson, the cornered messiah of darkness and adept of hell, was there.
