A DAY IN THE LIFE OF..

Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson, 32, has spent the last three months promoting his latest album Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death) with his band on the worldwide Guns, God & Government tour. He spends his days sleeping in hotels, dreaming of revolution. His waking hours are spent creating merry hell as the self-styled God Of Fuck. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his collection of stuffed animals.

"IM NOT normally a break-fast person I usually proceed straight to lunch, especially because by the time I wake up breakfast has long gone. "Lately on tour, Ive been going to bed about seven and waking up around four, four-thirty, just in time for soundcheck. After that we generally commence the drinking, play the show and start all over again. Some nights I drink more than others before we go on but Im not usually completely out of my mind, although there have been a few occasions which I suppose were down to misery and self-destruction. Generally I like to be conscious so that I can enjoy the interaction between the crowd and myself.
"Sometimes on tour I like to read, if I have time. At Christmas I was given a signed copy of American Psycho, but the author, Brett Easton Ellis, managed to spell my name wrong. He f**ked up. Yesterday I actually did some writing.
Im working on a piece that Im not sure what Ill do with or how itll turn out, but its called The Suicide Batteries. Its a story thats based on a dream that I had on the plane flying to the UK, about an attempt to return to the womb through a murder/suicide by eviscerating someone and drowning in their insides. It was a bizarre dream so I had to write it down.
"I also spend a lot of time watching movies, either on the TV or on the tour bus. At the moment its a tradition of the band to watch The Big Lebowski every day in the dressing room. Its always play-ing and for whatever reason were all familiar with the dialogue, so its often repeated.
"For this tour Ive tried to create a stage-show that looks like how Holy Wood... sounds, and obviously there are elements of communist imagery because of the revolutionary ideas I talk about on the record, plus theres religious imagery and celebritarian imagery, Its always very difficult for me to describe a Manson show because I wish that I could sit down and watch it, something Ill never be able to do. Sound-wise things are really raw right now. Its the best and the longest set that weve done. We can now play for an hour and 40 minutes each night whereas there used to be a time where wed struggle to play for 45 minutes because we were so hell-bent on destroying ourselves and everything onstage. That element is still there, though. This tour reminds me a lot of the Smells Like Children tour, but it still has the grandness, the theatrics and the bombastic qualities of our Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals albums.
"Before we flew to Europe, I managed to spend a couple of free days in Los Angeles with Joey Jordison from Slipknot, who has just done a remix of The Fight Song. Its definitely one of the best mixes weve ever had done. After this tour finishes in Japan we are going to be playing the Ozzfest and Im real happy that Slipknot are on the bill too. Were doing the entire US tour. Then after that we hope to be back to play some of the festivals in Europe.


"Aside from that Im also spending some time trying to finalise the arrangements for the Holy Wood... book. so that I can put it out soon. The movie has to be done with the right people. Right now I feel like life is pretty short and I want to enjoy whats in front of me and worry about the rest later."