Marilyn Manson’s Genius Shocks Interviewer in a Graveyard (1997, New Zealand)

Lord FX

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00:00Now, you thought Alice Cooper was weird? You thought Alice Cooper was out at the edge?

00:03Wait till you see this man, Marilyn Manson, 28 years old.

00:07His name is an amalgam of Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson, his two great opposites, you see.

00:12His band members are named after serial killers in the United States Senate.

00:16They're trying to have him banned, they're so disturbed by him.

00:18Young people flock to see him all around the world. He's a shock rocker.

00:21He calls himself the Antichrist Superstar.

00:23He invites the audience to spit on him, or has done in the past,

00:26there are chickens and blood everywhere on the stage.

00:29Marilyn Manson had a very interesting upbringing, very religious upbringing.

00:32He went to a Christian school. He got beaten up in the neighbourhood for going there.

00:35Then he went to a normal school, which he wanted,

00:36and then he got hell in the neighbourhood for having gone to the Bible school.

00:39The Christian imagery, he says, gave him nightmares as a child.

00:42He describes his childhood as one of isolation and fear.

00:46And I met him today at an old graveyard.

00:48Come and take a seat down here, Marilyn.

01:08This is a very nice cemetery, a very old cemetery.

01:10They thought you'd be happy in a cemetery.

01:11Reminds me of New Orleans, where I spent this past summer.

01:17That's right, and you dug up, you went robbing graves there.

01:19Did you rob graves there?

01:20We didn't rob them.

01:21See, in New Orleans, the ground is very deteriorated,

01:25so you just find bones sticking out of it.

01:28So we just plucked them.

01:31So we didn't actually rob them.

01:32So should mums and dads be worried about you?

01:35I think the best thing that could happen is if parents are afraid of me,

01:39they will take more time to raise their children to be more intelligent

01:43so that they can decide whether or not and how music, art, and film

01:50is going to affect their lives.

01:52Parents are afraid of losing their youth,

01:54and there's a bit of a jealousy sometimes

01:56when they see their kids identifying with something

01:58that they can no longer relate to.

02:00What do your mum and dad think of this?

02:02They're big fans now.

02:05I don't think they always were,

02:07but they see that I enjoy what I do.

02:11I think that's what they want more than anything.

02:14You would have struck some controversy with the name Manson

02:17in the States particularly?

02:20Well, one of the points of the name was almost a mockery of controversy,

02:25a mockery of the phoniness of show business.

02:30But I thought it was interesting to take those two because of their history

02:35and popular culture, how America has put them on the same status.

02:40They're equally memorable for their own separate reasons.

02:44But in that too, on those two names,

02:45there's also that opposites that you're constantly talking about.

02:47Yes.

02:48All right.

02:48So it was a perfect metaphor for me.

02:51Yeah.

02:51It scares the heebie-jeebies out of the middle classes too, doesn't it?

02:54Out of the Bible group too, I would imagine.

02:56Manson.

02:56Yeah, it seems like the people who are open-minded enough to understand

03:03will find something enjoyable out of what I do,

03:06whether it's entertainment or whether it's something to believe in

03:09or whether it's something to tap your foot to.

03:12And the other people who aren't open-minded enough,

03:15I guess, really deserve to be scared

03:17because the fear is what's, you know,

03:21keeping them from understanding it.

03:22The fear of themselves, usually.

03:32Now, what about the other business too?

03:34I understand there's a bit of the other business on the stage,

03:37the sex.

03:39Do you have sex on stage?

03:40Uh, not on a regular basis.

03:44There was one occasion that the media likes to, you know,

03:49continually gravitate to it.

03:51Yeah.

03:52Well, it's something exciting to mention for them.

03:54That's the extent of the sex.

03:56I mean, the show has a lot of sexual overtones

04:00and I rarely perform in much clothing,

04:04but I don't necessarily have sex on stage.

04:07But I'm open to suggestions

04:11if you're willing to come on stage

04:13and do some sort of duets.

04:14Personally, no.

04:15I would find that I don't think I could perform

04:17in that kind of arena.

04:18I don't think so.

04:19It's too public.

04:21Is this all a game, do you think?

04:23Well, it's not a game,

04:24but it's definitely something that keeps me entertained.

04:31You know, I'm quite,

04:31I'm as entertained by the way the world reacts to me

04:35as the way, you know...

04:38The world is entertained by you.

04:39The world is entertained by me.

04:40Well, you don't seem particularly scary at all,

04:42if I may say so.

04:43Is that disappointing?

04:45Well, I think the scariest thing about me

04:48is that there are different sides to what I do.

04:53You know, that, you know,

04:55I'm sure if you were,

04:56if there were a devil and you were to meet him,

04:58he'd be quite charming, I'm sure.

05:00I don't think he would, you know,

05:03set you on fire right there on the spot.

05:05Fascism doesn't always wear jackboots.

05:09Personally, at the moment, I'm afraid

05:10because I don't know if you and I

05:13will be able to stand up

05:14after sitting for so long on this concrete grave.

05:19But if you'd like,

05:20we could try and dig up some bones,

05:21but I've got to go eat lunch at some point.

05:24Well, that's right, I've got to get back.

05:25That's right, that's right.

05:27I'm sure it'll be fun to do.

05:28Well, good luck.

05:29Thanks.

05:30Enjoy it.

05:37Well, I'm sure he'd hate my saying it,

05:38but he seems very pleasant

05:39and a very thoughtful man.

05:41Marilyn Manson plays the power station

05:42in Auckland tonight.

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