Mark Chaussee
From MansonWiki
Mark Chaussee is a professional musician. He was the live guitarist of industrial metal band Marilyn Manson while the band performed in John 5's absence.
[edit] Career
[edit] In music
Chaussee's first known involvement with a band was in a local band called World of Hurt. Early in his career he also played with James Mecherle in The Coup de Grace. He would later join Rob Halford's post-Judas Priest band Fight, after being discovered through a tape sent to Rob Halford's management. Chausee joined the band as a replacement for the recently-departed Robby Lochner, though he subsequently was involved in the recording of A Small Deadly Space and the 1995 tour. He played live guitar in Glenn Danzig's band Danzig from June to September 1996, and participated in the recording of two songs ("Sacrifice" and "Serpentia") on the 1996 album Blackacidevil. He left the band a few days before the Ozzfest '96 tour started. Following his leaving Danzig, Mark Chaussee rejoined his The Coupe de Grace. He participated in the recording of a demo and a Midwest USA tour in 1999.
In early 2000, an outsider suggested that newly formed Missouri band Killswitch work with Mark Chaussee, but that union wasn't meant to be. Bassist Pitch said, "There was this guy, Mark Chaussee. He played on the Small Deadly Space album with former Judas Priest singer Rob Halford in Fight, and he also played on Danzig's Blackacidevil. We went out to Minneapolis for a week and jammed with him for a while, and then he came down here for a week, but we just weren't on the same page... The Chaussee experience taught us to never try to recruit someone who has already been there. He was a really cool guy, but he's opened up for Metallica and been on the Metallica tour. He's done the arena with 70,000 people, and we're a bunch of country boys from Kansas City, here in the midwest, and didn't really have anything going for us."
After unsuccessful audition in Killswitch, Mark joined Stereomud in the summer of 2000, but it also did not bring any results. "After rehearsing for a few days we recorded our first demo in Atlanta and all agreed we had something special going on. The band was formed, almost... Once we had about 10 songs, the band decided that we could use another guitarist to augment the sound. I called up my friend Mark Chaussee who came in and played with us for about two months. Things didn't work out with Mark and we tried out a bunch of other guys," said vocalist Erik Rogers.
In 2003, Mark Chaussee returned with James Mecherle, now known as Jimmy Coup, to work on a "full-on metal" album with ex-The Coup de Grace guitarist Steve Wresh and drummer Brett Degendoffer.
Mark Chaussee joined Marilyn Manson in autumn 2004 as a replacement for the recently-departed John 5, as a temporary live guitarist from 2004 to 2005. He participated in the Against All Gods world tour in support of Marilyn Manson's greatest hits collection Lest We Forget (The Best Of), where tours proceeded from October 27, 2004 till August 31, 2005.
Mark Chaussee's style of play featured an original and exotic heavy sound, similar to an "old-school" heavy metal – crude and not polished, and contrasted with glam-rock influences of former guitarist John 5 and former style of the band as a whole. Mark lent a more rigid, gloomy and aggressive sound to the band. "I thought Mark added something great and different to the tour. We haven't had the opportunity to write songs together," said Marilyn Manson. However, because of Chaussee's manner (and fan's disappointment with the departure of John 5), obscurity, inexpressive appearance and concerning passive behaviour on stage, he was not received well by fans of the band. Upon the completion of the tour, Chaussee left Marilyn Manson.
[edit] Trivia
- In an interview with Jeff Brinn for Schwegweb.com, Jimmy Coup has named Mark Chaussee "the most killer lead player I've ever known."
