Some people paint and some people sculpt, but when Marilyn Manson wants to create art he throws semen-filled condoms at a mirror. I wish I was kidding. He talked all about it — and so much more — in a recent interview with SPIN.
I was going to email you a photograph I just took. It’s of a new piece of modern art I created. Let’s call this work my Jack-off Pollack, of sorts. I had two condoms — alien things to me, I haven’t seen them in 25 years — and I threw them on the mirror, and they stuck, and they formed this piece of modern art. And I can’t decide what to call it. I’m thinking about calling it “I Don’t Want You to be Cursed With My Retarded Child,” or “It’s Not Just Love, It’s a Lifestyle,” because they were Lifestyle condoms.
Would the name be different if they were Magnum or Trojan condoms?
I suppose. I was just curious what I could do with a condom filled with my semen, other than the obvious damage that one could do.
Well, you know, you could be sanitary and throw it away?
It was like a piñata of disease and babies and confusion. It’s literally just dripping down as we speak, two of them. I just wanted to make sure that you know that I can perform. I want to make sure that my sexual prowess is established here. I’d love this photo to be on the cover of SPIN.
When Manson isn’t occupied with creating his sperm-covered home furnishings or managing his $200,000 cocaine habit — yes, he admitted that too — he grapples with self-mutilation and daily homicidal thoughts.
It sounds like the period after you and Evan Rachel Wood broke up was really tough. What was your lowest point?
I sing about it on “Into the Fire.” I say, “If you want to hit bottom, don’t bother trying to take me with you.” My lowest point was Christmas Day 2008, because I didn’t speak to my family. My walls were covered in scrawlings of the lyrics and cocaine bags nailed to the wall. And I did have an experience where I was struggling to deal with being alone and being forsaken and being betrayed by putting your trust in one person, and making the mistake of that being the wrong person. And that’s a mistake that everyone can relate to. I made the mistake of trying to, desperately, grasp on and save that and own it. And every time I called her that day — I called 158 times — I took a razorblade and I cut myself on my face or on my hands.
I look back and it was a really stupid thing to do. This was intentional, this was a scarification, and this was like a tattoo. I wanted to show her the pain she put me through. It was like, “I want you to physically see what you’ve done.” It sounds made up but it’s completely true and I don’t give a shit if people believe it or not. I’ve got the scars to prove it. I didn’t want people to ask me every time I did an interview, “Oh, is this record about your relationship with your ex-girlfriend?” But that damage is part of it, and the song “I Want to Kill You Like They Do in The Movies” is about my fantasies. I have fantasies every day about smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer.
Evan Rachel Wood should be heaving a huge sigh of relief right now, though I really hope she has some sort of security. Because Marilyn Manson sounds almost nuts enough to do her in.
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