Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), better known by his stage name
Marilyn Manson, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, actor, painter, author and former music journalist. He is known for his controversial stage personality and image as the lead singer of the band
Marilyn Manson, which he co-founded with
Daisy Berkowitz and of which he remains the only constant member. His stage name was formed by juxtaposing the names of two opposing American
pop cultural icons; actress
Marilyn Monroe and
cult leader
Charles Manson.
He is best known for his band's records released in the 1990s, most notably
Antichrist Superstar and
Mechanical Animals, which, along with his public image, earned him a reputation in the mainstream media as a controversial figure and an allegedly negative influence on young people.
[4][5] In the U.S. alone, three of the band's albums have been awarded platinum and three more went gold, and the band has had eight releases debut in the top ten, including two number-one albums. Manson has been ranked number 44 in the
Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by
Hit Parader, and has been nominated for four
Grammy Awards.
Early life and education[edit]
Manson and guitarist
Scott Putesky formed
Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids following conversations at the Reunion Room in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1989.
[14] The name was later shortened to Marilyn Manson. While with The Spooky Kids, Manson 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.
On November 10, 2014, Manson posted via his official
Facebook page that his ninth studio album,
The Pale Emperor, would be released on January 20, 2015.
On August 15, 2015, Manson had New Orleans brass ensemble
the Soul Rebels perform "Beautiful People" with him live in Japan at the Summer Sonic Music Festival.
Film and television[edit]
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."
He had been working on his directorial debut,
Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, a project that has been in
development hell 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.
[26]Production of the film had been postponed indefinitely until after the
Eat Me, Drink Me tour.
[27] In 2010, studio bosses shut down production on the project, reportedly due to viewers' responses to the violent content of clips released on the internet. The film was later officially put on "indefinite production hold".
[28] 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.
[29] In a June 2013 interview, Manson stated that he had "resurrected" the project, and that
Roger Avary would direct it.
[30] In a separate interview during the previous year, he said a small crew similar to what he used for his
Slo-Mo-Tion music video would be used, and would rather film the movie on an iPhone than not film it at all.
Manson appeared in the final season of the TV series
Sons of Anarchy portraying Ron Tully, a white supremacist.
[31] In January 2016, it was announced that Manson would be joining the cast for season 3 of WGN's
Salem. Manson will play Thomas Dinley, "the go-to man in Salem, from a shave and a haircut to being leeched, bled, sliced open or sewn up".
[32]
Manson stated 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".
[33] 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.
[34]
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 art gallery in Fort Myers, Florida. Forty 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, because of his makeup.
Manson revealed a series of 20 paintings in 2010 entitled
Genealogies of Pain, an exhibition showcased at Vienna's Kunsthalle gallery
[6] which the artist collaborated on with
David Lynch.
Video games[edit]
Other ventures[edit]
Manson launched "Mansinthe", his own brand of Swiss-made
absinthe, which has received mixed reviews; some critics described the taste as being "just plain",
[35] but it came second to Versinthe in an Absinthe top five
[36] and won a gold medal at the 2008 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
[37] Other reviewers, such as critics at The Wormwood Society, have given the absinthe moderately high praise.
[38]
In 2015, Manson stated he was no longer drinking absinthe.
[39][40]
Personal life[edit]
Manson was engaged to actress
Rose McGowan from February 1998 to January 2001. McGowan later ended their engagement over "lifestyle differences".
[41]
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, in 2001, she arrived with a bottle of absinthe and they became a couple. Manson proposed on March 22, 2004 and gave her a 1930s 7-carat 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 the Chilean
surrealist film director and comic book writer
Alejandro Jodorowsky.
[42] On December 30, 2006, Von Teese filed for divorce due to "irreconcilable differences."
[43] ET.com and
People claimed that Manson was having an extramarital affair with then 19-year-old actress
Evan Rachel Wood, who was featured in the video for his 2007 single, "
Heart-Shaped Glasses."
[44][45] The relationship was confirmed by Von Teese in an interview with the
Sunday Telegraph: "I wasn't supportive about his partying or his relationship with another girl, and as much as I loved him I wasn't going to be part of that."
[46] Manson's
alcohol abuse and distant behavior were also cited as cause for the split.
[47] A judgment of divorce was entered in Los Angeles Superior Court on December 27, 2007.
[48]
In 2007, attention was brought to Manson's love life again when a relationship with
Evan Rachel Wood was made public.
[49] 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.
[50]
In the March 2012 issue of
Revolver magazine, American photographer Lindsay Usich was referred to as Manson's girlfriend. The article referenced a new painting by Manson featuring Usich. She is credited as the photo source for the cover art of Manson's 2012 album,
Born Villain. It was later confirmed that the two were romantically involved.
[51][52] In February 2015, Manson told
Beat magazine that he is "newly single".
[53]
Religious beliefs[edit]
Manson has mentioned on at least two occasions that "Marilyn Manson" is actually a trademark, not a stage name. In an interview at the 2015
Cannes Lions Festival, he said "I trademarked the name "Marilyn Manson" the same way as Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse [
sic]. It's not a stage name. It's not my legal name ... Marilyn Manson is owned by Brian Warner, my real name."
[62] Warner also mentioned this in a 2013 interview with
Larry King.
[63] In both interviews, Manson reports using these trademark registrations in order to secure a
cease and desist order to silence media who were wrongly blaming him for the
Columbine High School massacre after one journalist erroneously reported that the shooters were “wearing Marilyn Manson makeup and T-Shirts.” Although the reports were soon
debunked, Manson stated, "once the wheels started spinning,
Fox Newsstarted going."
[62]
Lawsuits[edit]
In September 1996, former bassist
Gidget Gein negotiated a settlement with Manson where he would receive
US$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.
[68]
Former guitarist and founding member
Scott Putesky (a.k.a. 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."
[69][70] By October of that year, the suit had been settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
[71]
On 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,
[72] 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 Marks' 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 1999 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
US$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 [he] has been subjected to great shame, humiliation and indignity."
[73] As for the Poughkeepsie incident, Manson apologized and offered to make financial restitution.
[74][75]
In a civil battery suit, David Diaz, a security officer from a concert in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, on October 27, 2000, sued for
US$75,000 in a Minneapolis federal court.
[76] The federal court jury found in Manson's favor.
[77]
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,
[78] but the judge reduced the latter charge to misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
[79] Manson pleaded
no contest to the reduced charges, paid a
US$4,000 fine,
[80] and later settled the lawsuit under undisclosed terms.
[81]
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.
[82] After attending a party at Manson's house, Syme was given a lift home;
[83] Manson claims she was taken home by a designated driver.
[82] After she got home she got behind the wheel of her own vehicle and was killed when she crashed it into three parked cars. Manson is reported to have said there were no alcohol or other drugs at the party. St. John's lawyer asked "[if] there were no drinks, no drugs, why would she need a designated driver?"
[82] The suit alleged Syme was returning to the party at Manson's request. The case was dismissed on May 29, 2003.
[citation needed]
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.
[84][85] 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.
[86] 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.
[87] 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.
[88]
Charitable causes[edit]
Marilyn Manson has supported various charitable causes throughout his career. In 2002, he worked with the
Make-A-Wish Foundation to collaborate with a fan who had been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. 16-year-old Andrew Baines from
Tennessee was invited into the band's recording studio to record backing vocals for their then-upcoming album,
The Golden Age of Grotesque. Manson said on his website, "Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with Andrew, who reminded me the things I create are only made complete by those who enjoy them. I just want to simply say, thank you to Andrew for sharing such an important wish with me."
[89][90] He contributed to
Oxfam's 2013 "Rumble in the Jumble" event, which raised money to aid victims of domestic and sexual abuse in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
[91] He has supported various organisations – such as Music for Life and Little Kids Rock – which enable access to musical instruments and education to children of low-income families. He has also worked with Project Nightlight, a group that encourages children and teenagers to speak out against physical and sexual abuse.
[92]
Discography[edit]
James Hillier Blount (born 22 February 1974),[2] better known by his stage name James Blunt, is an English singer-songwriter and former reconnaissance officer for the British Army. He originally signed to EMI Music Publishing and is currently signed to Custard Records and Atlantic Records.
United Kingdom
British Army
Captain
Blunt extended his military service in November 2000,[21] and was posted to the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in London, as the Queen's Guard.[6] During this posting, he was featured on the television programme "Girls on Top", a series highlighting unusual career choices.[22][23] He stood guard at the coffin of the Queen Mother during her lying in state and was part of the funeral procession on 9 April 2002.[24]
Blunt had piano and violin lessons as a child, but was introduced to the electric guitar aged 14 at Harrow by a fellow student.[6][26] His dissertation at Bristol University was entitled The Commodification of Image – Production of a Pop Idol. One of his sources was Simon Frith, a sociologist and rock critic, and chair of the Mercury Music Prize panel of judges since 1992, who later undertook a lecture tour entitled "The unpopular and unpleasant thoughts inspired by the work of James Blunt".[27][28] While still in the army Blunt would write songs during his time off. A backing vocalist and songwriting collaborator suggested he contact Elton John's manager, Todd Interland, with whom she used to share a house.[29] Interland told HitQuarters that he listened to Blunt's demo while driving home and, after hearing the track 'Goodbye My Lover', pulled over and called the mobile number written on the CD to set up a meeting.[29]
Blunt left the British Army in 2002 so that he could pursue his musical career.[20] He started using the stage name "Blunt" in part to make it easier for others to spell; "Blount" is pronounced the same way, and remains his legal surname.[30] Shortly after leaving the army he was signed to EMI music publishers and to Twenty-First Artists management.[31]A record contract remained elusive, with recording label executives pointing to his posh speaking voice as a barrier in class-divided Britain.[26] Linda Perry, who was just launching her own Custard Records label in early 2003, heard Blunt's promotional tape when visiting London, and soon after heard him perform live at the South by Southwest Music Festival. She made an offer to him the same night,[32] and within a few days he signed a recording contract with her. A month later, he travelled to Los Angeles to meet producer Tom Rothrock.[31][33]
