The Man That You Fear

Childhood

On January 5, 1969 a seemingly innocent baby boy named Brian Warner was born in Canton, Ohio to Barb and Hugh Warner. His desire to rebel and test boundaries would develop throughout his childhood as he metamorphosed into one of the most scandalous icons in not only the music industry, but the entire world. However, before this self-proclaimed Antichrist decided to trample all morals, he was just a freckle-faced kid growing up in your typical suburban neighborhood.

The majority of Manson’s childhood was spent in Canton, where he frequently stayed with his grandparents while his parents worked. His cousin, Chad, also spent a significant amount of time there and the two were quite good friends. Much of their time was spent secretly investigating the eerie cellar of their grandparent’s house. Jack Warner, Manson’s grandfather, had transformed the basement into his own personal chamber, and the two boys were utterly fascinated with what went on in that cryptic room. They were strictly forbidden to go down there, however curiosity got the best of them.

What they found intrigued and repulsed them all at once; some sort of psychotic concoction of obscene, pornographic paraphernalia, women’s clothing, and toy trains. Mason developed a fascination with the secrets his grandparent’s basement harbored, and it would even influence his music, particularly the song Kinderfeld. (When he turns the trains/on he makes it go away/the hands are cracked and dirty and/the nails are beetle wings/when he turns the trains on/he unties all of the strings)

Manson’s experiences in school were less than enjoyable. He attended Heritage Christian School until high school. Manson hated his school, feeling shunned and unwelcome. Every Friday his school would hold radical seminars preaching about the upcoming apocalypse, which they believe to be in the near future. They went to irrational extremes to terrify their students into becoming devout, religious human beings. One of their ridiculous tactics for accomplishing this was to degrade and demean rock music as being satanic. They played Queen songs backwards to reveal "satanic messages"and scrutinized bands like Kiss to attempt to scare kids, however the harder they tried to push rock music away, the harder Manson fought to learn more about it.

Manson wasn't the only one who was drawn to rock music, other kids in his school were as well, and he capitalized on this fact. Manson would acquire various rock albums and sell them to kids at his school secretly. However, he would then steal them back from their lockers and resell them again. The other students couldn’t tell on him, because they would also be punished for listening to rock music. Was that behavior immoral? Possibly. Was it clever? Definitely.

As much as Manson tried, he simply couldn’t get himself expelled from Heritage Christian School, due to the fact that his parents actually paid his tuition and the school liked the money. Eventually, he walked out on his own to attend public school, and he graduated from Cardinal Gibbons High School in 1987.

Meet The Spooky Kids

Upon graduating, Manson moved to Fort Lauderdale in Florida where he attended Broward Community College to study journalism. He wrote for the magazine 25th Parallel where he interviewed multiple bands, the most prominent being Nine Inch Nails, and wrote music-related articles. He also worked at a record store. Manson greatly enjoyed writing, and tried his luck at open mic nights reading poetry at the Squeeze Club. Someone told him that he had a nice voice, and he should consider forming a band. He took this advice, and shortly there after met up with Scott Putesky. After sharing some of his lyrics, the two formed a band with Scott on guitar and Brian Tutunick on bass.

Each member developed a special stage name. Marilyn Manson was derived from Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson. Scott chose the name Daisy Berkowitz, which was inspired by Daisy Duke and David Berkowitz.. Lastly, Brian’s name was a combination of Olivia Newton and Ted Bundy; Olivia Newton Bundy. Later, Marilyn met a man named Stephen Bier in a local punk bar. He was wearing a suit solely for the purpose of agitating all the punks, and he and Manson got along quite well. Manson asked him to join the band and he accepted the offer. His stage name was Madonna Wayne Gacy, however he is more commonly known as Pogo among fans. Prior to joining Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids, he had no experience playing keyboards, which is the instrument he was put on. The band began recording mediocre demos and playing shows at local clubs and bars. Their first bassist was less than talented, and was replaced by Bradley Stewart (stage name Gidget Gein). During the early days of the band, members seemed to come and go quite frequently, but this was all part of emotionally rattling formation of what Manson wanted the band to become. As their live shows became more popular, they began upping their antics to continually surprise their fans. They didn’t have a pyrotechnician, so they set their own equipment on fire. They had elaborate props, some of which were actual humans. They raced closer to this goal of challenging traditional morality. They tackled everything from individuality (or the lack of it) to religion.

They began promoting self-released singles, the most popular being Lunchbox. In 1992 the band agreed to shorten their name to just Marilyn Manson and drop “the spooky kids”, seeing as how that’s what everyone referred to them as anyway. In July of 1990 Marilyn Manson opened up for Nine Inch Nails, and backstage Manson handed Trent a demo tape and evidently he was pleased with what he heard. When Trent formed his own record label (Nothing Records) he asked Marilyn Manson if he would be interested and signing, as well as touring with Nine Inch Nails.

The first album produced by Trent was Portrait of an American Family. Recording of this album began in August of 1993. The lineup of band members consisted of Daisy Berkowitz, Madonna Wayne Gacy, Gidget Gein and newcomer Sara Lee Lucas on drums. However, Manson’s relationship would become very strained with Gidget Gein. Throughout 1994 his severe substance abuse issues were hindering the band and tampering with the image and sound that Manson was so vehemently trying to create. On Christmas Eve of 1993, his drug addiction landed him in the hospital after he overdosed on heroin ( for the fourth time). In Manson’s autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, he made it quite clear that he has no issues with drug use, but he cannot tolerate drug abuse. Gidget's overdose crossed the line and he was kicked out of the band, to be replaced by Twiggy Ramierez.

Manson began touring vigorously to promote Portrait of an American Family. The first was a 14-week tour opening for Nine Inch Nails. During this time period, Manson also developed a close friendship with Anton LeVey, founder of the Church of Satan. Although Marilyn Manson isn’t a Satanist, he was offered the title of Reverend and accepted. Manson says that he was quite close with LeVey and had a lot of respect for him. It felt as if he had lost a “father figure” when he passed in 1997.

After touring with Nine Inch Nails, Manson went on to tour with Korn and Danzig. Ginger Fish replaced Sara Lee Lucas for this tour . This tour’s purpose was to promote Portrait of an American Family, something Manson was tired of doing. He had new ambitions and as far as he was concerned Portrait of an American family was dead. However, in good time, they would conclude the Portrait of an American Family era, and move on to something bigger and better; Antichrist Superstar.