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.
Let’s find out more intriguing facts about him!
1. Brian Hugh Warner was born January 5, 1969, in Canton, Ohio.
2. His stage name, Marilyn Manson, was formed by juxtaposing the names of two opposing American pop cultural icons; actress Marilyn Monroe and cult leader Charles Manson.
3. He is the only son of Barbara Jo and Hugh Angus Warner.
4. Manson is of German and English descent.
5. In an August 12, 2015 interview, Manson claimed that his Appalachian family also has “Sioux” heritage.
6. In his autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, he detailed his grandfather’s sexual fetishes, including bestiality and sadomasochism.
7. As a child, he attended his mother’s Episcopal church, though his father was a Catholic.
8. Warner attended Heritage Christian School from first grade to tenth grade.
9. In that school, they tried to show children what music they were not supposed to listen to.
10. Warner then fell in love with “what he wasn’t supposed to do.”
11. He later transferred to GlenOak High School and graduated from there in 1987.
12. After relocating with his parents, he became a student at Broward Community College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1990.
12. He was working towards a degree in journalism and gaining experience in the field by writing articles for a music magazine, 25th Parallel.
13. He soon met several of the musicians to whom his own band were later compared, including My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, The Perfect, and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.
14. Manson and guitarist Scott Putesky formed Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids following conversations at the Reunion Room in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1989.
15. The name was later shortened to Marilyn Manson.
16. 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.
17. The band began to develop a cult following, which grew larger on the Downward Spiral Tour that featured Nine Inch Nails and Jim Rose Circus along with the release of Smells Like Children in 1995.
18. That EP yielded the band’s first big MTV hit with “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” a cover of the 1983 Eurythmics hit.
19. Antichrist Superstar was an even greater success.
20. In the U.S. alone, three of the band’s albums have been awarded two platinum and three more went gold, and the band has had seven releases debut in the top ten, including two number-one albums.
21. Manson first worked as a producer with the band Jack Off Jill. He helped name the band and produced most of the band’s early recordings, and also played guitar on the song “My Cat” and had the band open most of his South Florida shows.
22. Manson later wrote the liner notes to the band’s album Humid Teenage Mediocrity 1992–1996, a collection of early Jack Off Jill recordings. Manson has appeared as a guest performer on DMX’s album Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood and on Godhead’s 2000 Years of Human Error album- the only album released on his vanity label Posthuman.
23. In 2011 it was revealed that Manson was to appear on the singer Skylar Grey’s album Invinsible on the track entitled “Can’t Haunt Me”. Manson released his eighth studio album, Born Villain, in May 2012.
24. 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.
25. 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.
26. Shooter Jennings’ album “Countach (For Giorgio)” features Manson performing guest vocals on a cover of David Bowie’s “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)”. The album was released on February 26, 2016.
27. Manson was engaged to actress Rose McGowan from February 1998 to January 2001. McGowan later ended their engagement over “lifestyle differences”.
28. 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.
29. On his 32nd birthday, in 2001, she arrived with a bottle of absinthe and they became a couple.
30. Manson proposed on March 22, 2004 and gave her a 1930s 7-carat European round-cut diamond engagement ring.
31. On November 28, 2005, Manson and von Teese were married in a private, non-denominational ceremony in their home.
32. On December 30, 2006, Von Teese filed for divorce due to “irreconcilable differences.
33. “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.”
34. 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.”
35. Manson’s alcohol abuse and distant behavior were also cited as cause for the split.
36. A judgment of divorce was entered in Los Angeles Superior Court on December 27, 2007.
37. n 2007, attention was brought to Manson’s love life again when a relationship with Evan Rachel Wood was made public.
38. 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.
39. In the March 2012 issue of Revolver magazine, American photographer Lindsay Usich was referred to as Manson’s girlfriend. It was later confirmed that the two were romantically involved.
40. In February 2015, Manson told Beat magazine that he is “newly single”.
41. Manson is a self-identified fan of Anton Lavey, an honorary priest in the Church of Satan and also an advocate of the writings of Aleister Crowley and Friedrich Nietzsche saying “I also like Nietzsche and Crowley,” and quoting Crowley throughout his autobiography including the Thelemic anthem, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
42. Manson’s music was wrongly blamed as a factor behind the tragic 1999 Columbine High School shooting.
43. After the tragedy many turned to “violence in music” and the fact the two shooters apparently listened to Marilyn Manson as a reason for why they committed the massacre.
44. One of Manson’s signature looks is his two different colored eyes. Of course there have been many explanations for why he looks this way, one of them being he injected heroin directly into his eyeball. No, that didn’t happen.
45. Manson has admitted to doing drugs.
46. Many truly believed that Manson is a big enough weirdo to have undergone surgery to have at least three of his ribs removed in order to perform oral sex on himself. No, that didn’t happen either.
47. He did have a surgery but that was to fix his drooping ear lobes.
48. Due to his heavy makeup, many do not know what he looks like for real, so of course rumors started that he acted as Paul Pfeiffer on The Wonder Years. That actor was actually Josh Saviano.
49. He was then rumored to have been Kevin Owens from Mr. Belvedere but that was actor Rob Stone.
50. Manson does act. His film debut was in David Lynch’s Lost Highway in 1997 and most recently appeared on FX’s hit series Sons of Anarchy.
51. Manson is accused of some pretty horrific stuff and this one is pretty disturbing. A story circulated that Manson once threw a puppy into a jacked up crowd which then tore the animal to pieces. On the same note, word is Manson once bit the head off a live chicken while on stage Ozzy Osborne style.
52. Marilyn Manson has three dogs of his own, loves them very much and they all lived to tell the tale.
53. A chicken was on the stage in Dallas in 1995 and it DID get tossed into the crowd but it also lived and no one bit it.
54. There are many religious groups and right-wingers that are protesting Manson to this day.
55. Marilyn Manson has T-shirts with phrases like “Kill Your Parents.” However, he claims that it is only sarcasm and is meant for a joke.
56. His parents have never abused him and to this day, they still support him.
57. The cover of Manson’s popular 1998 album “Mechanical Animals” that featured the shocker rocker’s head on a naked alien body was deemed offensive by major U.S. retailers K-Mart, Wal-Mart and Target, and they refused to sell it.
58. Manson’s favourite movie of all time is 1971’s “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.” He was actually interested in playing Willy Wonka in the 2005 remake.
59. Depp stated that he used Marilyn Manson as part of his inspiration when playing the part.
60. Manson is also a pretty big video game fan. On previous tours, Manson has said he brought a Nintendo DS on the road with him to help pass the time.
61. He plays games like “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney” and “Mario Kart.”
62. Marilyn Manson has also appeared in a couple of video games.
63. Manson lent his voice to an alien named Edgar in 2005’s “Area 51.”
64. His likeness was also used in “MTV’s Celebrity Death Match” game from 2003.
65. Manson used to drink absinthe so much that he made his own brand of the potent green alcoholic beverage in 2007 called Mansinthe.
66. The label on the bottles features a self-portrait he painted of himself as an old man.
67. He actually won a gold medal for it at the 2008 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
68. Manson has a condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome that can cause him to have a rapid heart rate. It is due to an abnormal extra electrical pathway of the heart. Singers Jessie J and Meat Loaf, as well as actor Jeff Garlin, share the same condition.
69. Throughout his career, Manson’s late mother Barbara would always call him by his birth name, Brian, when they would speak. His father Hugh adopted his stage name and calls him Manson.
70. According to his book The Long Road Out Of Hell, Manson has more than 450 scars on his body. In his earlier days, Manson was known to cut himself on stage all the time.
71. Manson and his father did a photoshoot with Terry Richardson.
72. After Paris Jackson, daughter of Michael Jackson, attempted suicide, Manson reached out to her and said, “I hope you feel better. You will be on my guest list anytime you want.”
73. Manson’s song, Killing Strangers, is inspired by his father, who was a member of the air force. Manson and his family were in a household dealing with the aftermath of someone who had inflicted violence.
74. For his makeup, Manson uses Christian Dior foundation, Aquacolor for the blue, and a mixture of different things for the black.
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