Revision as of 21:54, 2 September 2019

Drummer Jason Sutter Talks Landing the Gig With Marilyn Manson, Recalls Strange 1st Requirement
Marilyn Manson (left); Jason Sutter (right)
Interview with Jason Sutter
Date	August 19, 2019
Source	Ultimate Guitar
Interviewer	Steven Rosen

UG exclusive: "Dude, Manson's drummer just got fired."

Not many drummers can lay claim to the fact that they’ve played with both Marilyn Manson and Cher but Jason Sutter can. He has chops for days and beyond all that, he is one of the coolest dudes to ever walk the planet. Here he talks about some of the gigs he’s landed over the years.

You got your first touring gig with Juliana Hatfield.

I got a call from a friend from Potsdam. My friend was telling me about this drummer from Boston named Stacy Jones who is now Miley Cyrus’ music director and killer drummer and was also the frontman of a band I played in with him called American Hi-Fi. My friend said I’d be perfect for the gigs going on in Boston because everybody loves this Stacy Jones kid but he already has his own band called Letters to Cleo. There were a bunch of bands he was subbing with but if you came to Boston, you’d join those bands right away.

You moved to Boston and got the gig with Juliana?

My friend sent me the Letters to Cleo record so I could listen to it. The band was great but the drumming was like, “Oh, yeah. This is exactly how I play.” I got two auditions with Tracy Bonham and Juliana Hatfield. The management flew me up and put me up and by the time I got back to L.A., they were like, “We want you to do this gig.”

What kind of kit were you playing?

I got a DW kit. I got a white marine pearl finish and nobody had that because it wasn’t hot yet. Nobody had it but I did. We did the Conan O’Brien Show and Max Weinberg had the same kit. When I rolled in and set up my kit, he looked over at me like, “You motherfucker.” It was pretty funny. He was a snot and was definitely not cool with the fact we both had cutting edge finishes.

He was seriously pissed off?

Oh, yeah. He was a bitch.

What was the Marilyn Manson gig like?

That was a unique one. I was on tour with Foreigner and one of the production assistants was a dear friend of mine and she had worked with Manson years before and she was going back to Manson. I said, “Hey - if the Manson gig ever opens up, keep me in mind.” Two years later, the guitarist who had played guitar in Ashes Divide, who opened for the Bravery who opened for Chris Cornell who opened for Linkin Park on their Projekt Revolution Tour was a guy called Andy Gerold, he and I became pals. Years later he was playing bass with Manson and we were at Download around 2009 shooting the shit and I said once again, “If a gig ever opens up, keep me in mind.”

From those two contacts, you got the Manson gig?

I toured with the New York Dolls through November 2010. I was looking for my next gig and got a text from Andy Gerold. It said, “Dude, Manson’s drummer just got fired. Call them.” I call Tracy, the girl who was tour manager. She doesn’t answer but sends me a text right back, “Put your name in the hat yesterday. Management will call.”

What happened then?

I was able to get management to look at my resume and pictures of me to make sure I’m not fat. Seriously somebody said that. Like, “Oh, what’s he look like?” They said, “Oh, he’s not fat. He looks cool.”

Making it to the first step meant not being fat? That’s funny.

That was the criteria for the first step. Meanwhile the drummer had been let go and his drums were still there ‘cause they were in mid-production and sure enough, this guy was a nut job and a ding dong and didn’t learn his parts. He was worried about his girlfriend trying to come to the shows and it turned out he was talking shit on Manson’s band. ‘Cause he became pals with Manson and was partying too much with him and had this false sense of power like showing up late and whatever. It’s none of my business and I could give a shit. I’m just glad the guy was a ding dong.

Did you audition for Manson?

I was literally painting with Louis Waldon who was one of the actors in all of Andy Warhol’s films. I was painting a giant 40 x 40 Marilyn Monroe with one of Warhol’s assistants. I’m painting and I have this smock on. I’m in Hollywood and I get a call from Tony Ciulla, the manager, and he’s like, “Dude, Manson can see you tonight at eight” and it’s like three in the afternoon. He said, “You need to learn these five songs.”

Were you going to play with the band?

He said, “You’re gonna play along to the record version and they’re gonna watch you play these songs and you need to bring drums. We already have production set up so we’re gonna have you miked and you’ll hear the tunes on your in-ears but you’ll just play along to a record.”

Did you even know any of the songs you were to have to play?

Mind you a week earlier, I started learning YouTube versions of the tunes, which are live versions and totally different than the record versions. I now realize the record versions are way longer or a whole other verse or in some cases way shorter. I had learned the classics like “Dope Show” and “Beautiful People” but now I had to learn the new versions and I had to learn three other tunes they gave me and one was a new tune.

You had to do all of that in like four or five hours?

I have to play this in front of Manson and the manager. I have to relearn those songs to the record, tear down drums, show up early so they can be miked and be ready to audition for Manson in like three hours. I’m scrambling and literally run out the door and say, “Later, Louis.” I’m learning new tunes and tearing down these drums and then it’s like, “What am I gonna dress like? What am I gonna look like?”

Which is an important question in a Marilyn Manson audition, right?

I threw on a black V-neck t-shirt, black boots, and black pants thinking, “OK, that’s safe.” But that’s all I could do. I thought, “I don’t have a Mohawk. I don’t look like a creepy creep. I don’t have any eyeliner.” I roll down, set up my drums at this rehearsal place and in walks Twiggy who had played bass three years in a row on all this stuff.