Jake Brennan (35:19)
It was the only way to kill Brian. And to possess the power necessary to create what you knew you had in you. A culture changing album. The type of record that separated you not only from the conformists, but from your peers as well. Well, head and shoulders above Al Jorgensen and anyone else from the industrial scene. A whole other thing too big for the underground. A modern day David Bowie fronting Lead fucking Zeppelin powered by a fresh new record deal with the devil. And as far as Trent fucking Reznor was concerned, he could hammer a nine inch nail into his two inch cock and fuck off back to Courtney Love's bed. You weren't as protege like they said you were. He was a creative wench. A bitchy, egomaniacal mile marker on the lost highway to superstardom. But right now, hardly any music was being made. So once again, you turned to sex. Sex with rank, vile drug addicts and filthy public bathrooms. You degraded them so violently in one instance that I'm not even going to repeat it here, but let's just say it involved a clip. Toro Ring. And you projected the degradation. But really, you were the target. Well, Brian was the target. And yet nothing worked. Brian lived. And your art suffered. Your band was dying in the studio in a haze of bad sex, worse drugs and no rock and roll. In an effort to destroy your humanity, you destroyed yourself as an artist. Because humanity is at the core of all great art. You were too smart not to finally realize this. And when you did, you snapped too. If humanity was indeed needed to survive too, in some twisted, ironic way, to give birth to your greatest artistic endeavor yet, the Antichrist Superstar, then fuck it, Brian could stay and you'd get clean. Ish. Knock down the drug and alcohol intake and focus yourself on your band, on the task at hand. And you'd relegate Brian to the basement of your soul, where he was comfortable, and put him to work whenever necessary. After all, you had a job to do. To make the most shocking mainstream rock album of all time. And fistfuck the American youth out of their catatonic, conformist state. Celebrity is its own drug. When all the famous people in Hollywood want to get up close to your own personal freak show and experience what it's like to breathe the same air as you, it's intoxicating. As intoxicating as the drugs you take and the drugs that you're on right now. You're so high, it's hard to remember what you even took. It's hard to remember where you even are. You're at a table in public and Billy Corgan is sitting at this table across from you. He's either arguing with or coming on to Rick Rubin's beard. Rick Rubin, the famous producer, he's at the table, too. You're in a restaurant or club or a bar, and everywhere you look there are famous people, but they're looking at you like you're the attraction. And there's the dudes from ZZ Top. Oh, no. Are their beards gonna want to fight Rick Rubin's beard? You hope not. Your. Your mind, it turns away from them. It turns to your date. Your lost date. You lost your date, Fiona Apple, long ago in the night. It's too bad. You really liked her. But now you have another date and she's sitting at the table with you and Rick Rubin and Billy Corgan. She's next to you, and your jacket is on her lap. Your hands are down her pants under the table. She's famous, too, and she's also married. She's a porn star. Jenna Jameson. You just met her and you're pissed off that she isn't. Tracee Lords, the Beautiful People, your smash single from the excellently produced, performed and presented album Antichrist Super Superstar comes on loud over the speakers. You feel people's eyes on you. You don't care. Most artists would feign embarrassment, not you. You welcome the attention. It's about fucking time. You deserve it. Making Antichrist Superstar nearly killed you and your band, but not Brian Warner. He's still in there. And the album debuted at number three on the Billboard charts. Rolling Stones said the album is responsible for the death of Grunch. And they ought to thank you. Someone had to do it. And those whiny, flannel clad pussies had it coming. You hate grunge. Not the music, the label. You hate all labels. And that's in part why you're here. Sitting at the table with your finger inside America's most famous porn star, at your rightful seat at the table with all the other rock stars. You Made it. And the rest of the world is pissed. Pissed at you, pissed at your music, pissed at your band. You're an affront to everything normal and decent in this country is what they say. To which you reply, ain't that the fucking point? You tear up the pages of a Bible on stage. You literally wipe your ass with the American flag. You strut around in a back brace with a G string and a ball gag like some fascist dominatrix dictator. And parents, priests and Paul, politicians are apoplectic. What they said about you was wild. Marilyn Manson is the son and daughter of Charles Manson. Marilyn Manson had one of his ribs removed so he could give himself a blowjob. Marilyn Manson isn't really Marilyn Manson at all. He's Paul from the Wonder Years and he got Winnie Cooper pregnant and then he killed her and then he had sex with her and then he had sex with a pig on video. He's actually black for real. He just bleached his skin like Michael Jackson. He and Michael have a sex cult and Corey Feldman is their own personal. Manson dug up a body and smoked the bones. He stole Courtney Love from Billy Corgan, who stole it from Trent Reznor. No, that was actually Twiggy. Manson tattooed his entire dick. Solid black breast implants. They're just really small. He's Anton lavey's son, Don Henley's niece. Marilyn Manson is a vegan. His grandfather built him a torture chamber that he brought to his boy Scouts meeting for show and tell. Marilyn Manson. Marilyn Manson is the most real. Marilyn murdered his best friend, Brian. Marilyn Manson is. Brian Warner is dead. Marilyn Manson lives. What was true, what was false. Who even knew anymore for a minute there in the 90s, after the release of Antichrist superstar, Marilyn Manson owned the Zeitgeist. His album painted a grotesque image of American society and presented it as a mirror. And America did not like what it saw. Most of America that is. The teenage record buying public being the exception. Manson's record sold millions of copies, as did his next album, Mechanical Animals, which went platinum on the strength of the monster singles, Dope show and the excellently titled I Don't like the Drugs but the Drugs Like Me. Throughout the early 2000s, Manson enjoyed his celebrity, waltzing through the spotlight with beautiful high profile girlfriends Rose McGowan and Dita Von Teese, who he briefly married before beginning a relationship with 19 year old Evan Rachel Wood. From there we can start to track the downfall of Marilyn Manson, at least as it relates to the abuse that he has been accused of by Wood and others, which he denies. And perhaps less seriously, Marilyn Manson was accused back then of not only corrupting America's youth with the music on Antichrist Superstar, but of also being a fascist and a racist. Due to the David Bowie inspired fascistic imagery Manson incorporated into his live shows. Manson is on record stating that Bowie got away with it because Bowie claimed he was playing a character. Manson said, that's a cop out. The Antichrist Superstar concept was not a character, it was his art. Yes, but it was also him. In his autobiography, Manson wrote that when people ask is it an act or isn't it? Manson says, quote, it's both. I mean, my whole life is an act, but that's my art. Unquote. Allegations of abuse, allegations that Marilyn Manson vehemently denies, allegations that did not stick, are also part of Marilyn Manson's life. And what are we to make of them? Were they the result of behavior that was just part of the quote, unquote act? Or were they part of something deeper, darker and far more disgraceful? I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgrace. All right, thanks for hanging with me through some of the more gnarly parts of this most gnarly episode. Apple Podcast listeners, please make sure you have auto downloads turned on so you don't miss any episodes. This week's Question of the week, guys, is was Marilyn Manson the most subversive artist of the 1990s? If not, who was? Let me know. Hit me up 617-90-66638 Leave me a voicemail, send me a text here. Answer on the After Party bonus episode coming up right after this one. You can also also send your answers to me disgracelandpod on Instagram X and Facebook. Leave a review for the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and win some free merch. Alright, here comes the credits. Disgraceland was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page@gracelandpod.com if you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate, appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to Disgracelandpod.com membership. Members can listen to every episode of Disgraceland ad free. Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month. Weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelandpod.com membership for details, rate and review the shop and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook. Disgracelandpod and on YouTube@YouTube.com Disgracelandpod Rocka Rolla. He's a bad, bad man.