Interview:2014/12/15 Marilyn Manson KROQ Interview

Marilyn Manson KROQ Interview
Interview with Marilyn Manson
Date	December 15, 2014
Source	KROQ podcasts
Interviewer	Kevin and Bean

Interview begins at the 75 minute/(1:15:10hr) mark. Additional clarification of interview needed. There was two interviewers and it is difficult to tell sometimes which one is talking.

Bean: I love it when old friends come to visit ladies and gentleman, and I love this man, Manson, joins us in the studio.

Manson: Heeey.

Hey, how have you been brother?

M: Been good, been strange, many years.

Yea.

M: I don’t remember when last time we met, I think it was...

I think it’s been a number of years since we’ve seen each other in person, we’ve talked a few times since then, but yeah it's been a while.

M: Yeah.

Yeah.

M: I called in (and it’s always something defamatory)?

Yeah, and sometimes you come in and I’m in the other studio, the remote location.

M: I often come inside and visit him...

(Laughter)

Okay, yes.

M: ___ to visit.

So, you were telling me just when I said that, I was commenting that, you can see that we’re jeans and T-shirt guys. You are fancy, you look like you’re going to a photo shoot, you’re shooting a music video, you’re doing something, this can’t be how you walk around on a daily

M: (It’s not a daily,) well.

But, you got full hair and make up, you, you’re wearing a suit.

M: No, it’s not a suit. Look, I got jeans on and shirt.

Just fancy, you see, I’m just impressed.

M: I’m buttoned up, thank you.

You’re Mr. G Q.

M: I just buttoned my shirt all the way up to the top.

You have like seven rings, all of which could kill us.

(Laughter.)

M: Just this, these two, these two..

Just the two thumb rings?

M: Just the two thumb rings.

Umm, All right.

M: No, I wouldn’t kill you guys.

Yeah, what’s the weapon there, the weapon there on your chest?

M: Well because sometimes at night I tend to have a, I guess, maybe well, it’s a habit, we’ll just call it a habit.

Okay, a habit.

I go on Amazon and purchase things that aren’t necessary.

(Laughter.)

I do that, too.

M: Maybe I’m under the influence of pot and/or I don’t know.

Stuff shows up, and you go ‘I don’t remember ordering that.’ Or

M: This is what is called a gold plated- thumb assisted utility knife. But it’s good for eating caviar.

(Laughter.)

Caviar, all right.

(Laughter.)

M: You know, you got to

Do you eat so much caviar that you have to have a gold-plated utility knife on you full time?

M: I never eat caviar.

(Laughter.)

M: Maybe once but it was..

All right, we got some ground to cover with you, because it has been awhile. Do you want to start with talking about The Pale Emperor or do you want to start with talking about your friend, Mr. Tully, on Sons of Anarchy?

M: “You tell me where to go, baby”

Let’s talk about Sons, because that’s over now and then we’ll look ahead at 2015 and the new record.

M: Okay.

How did that, I know you’ve done a lot of acting on and off over the years, but how did that happen that you have such a major role on the season, the series finale, the whole last season of The Sons of Anarchy?

M: Well, it started with, uh, my father being a huge fan of the show and, of course, I was a huge fan of the show and somehow, Kurt Sutter came over with his kids and their friends to my house, to listen to the new album. And...

You have an inflatable pool or something? Why were they coming over?

To listen to his...

M: Because of the pageantry, of The Pale Emperor, you know?

All right.

M: No, he just wanted to... he was just, he was just, I don’t remember, I’m not really clear on how. I think it was actually through Shooter Jennings.

Great.

M: He’s a friend of mine, So, Kurt Sutter ended up at my house and I was telling him how my father loved the show and my mom died on Mother’s Day, thank you, mom.

Oh, I’m sorry, man.

M: Well, I’m sorry, too but so, I thought that the show was so much about that father/son relationship and I just wanted to do something to make my dad happy. And I just thought I was going to do a song on the show.

Oh really?

M: And I ended up having dinner with Katie, and Kurt, and ironically, my father, who if he’s listening, ha ha dad.

(Laughter.)

M: My first article as a, well my first real cover story when I was 19 in Florida, I did an interview with Katie Sagal.

Oh really?

You interviewed her.

M: Yeah, and I gave it to her as a gift and she said, ‘Oh, do you want to act?’ And I said, yeah, that would be amazing and, uh, and then I went to, that was earlier, in the meeting with them and that’s when I was sort of worried about my father, because he was also ill. And I was trying to cheer up my dad, this was before my mother died.

So I went to Ohio, and, because my mother died, and I got the phone call, that I was going to be on the show. I said, dad, guess what? I’m going to be on the show. Guess what, I’m going to play the head of the Aryan brotherhood, guess what? I’m going to get paid for it. Guess what? I'm in every episode every episode that I know of, I’m with Charlie Hunnan. And that made my dad happy, because I have a strange picture of my father riding a Honda, with me on the back, riding, Bitch (____).

(Laughter.)

How much did you enjoy as a fan of the show actually getting in to be a part of that world?

M: I loved it and I hated it.

Well... What do you mean?

M: Spoiler alerts. I knew what was going to happen.

Yeah.

M: So, I would only try to read my part, but it was, I walked in and Paris Barkley, the director, and I said, ‘Do I need to change my look or anything?’ and he said ‘no you’re good.’ And I said ‘What are you trying to say?’

(Laughter.)

You're the perfect white supremacist already, Manson!

(Laughter.)

M: The Supremes were not white, they were a black singing group, okay?

Laughter.

Ah, they added a few tattoos.

M: Yeah.

And put you in the prison jumpsuit.

M: They actually put a bunch of tattoos on me and then I buttoned up my shirt, you couldn’t see them.

Aha, right.

M: I was, no I was really sad, because the day that I had to do that Juice scene, which I said that they should have done a marketing time with Capri Suns of Anarchy, because I was stabbing the juice box.

(Laughter.)

Yeah, and you’re positive that that would have gone. Yep.

M: No, it would not have gone, but I just thought it was a great idea.

Oh yeah! All the best ideas. That’s uh, I mean, I guess...

M: it could happen on TV.

Yeah.

M: I’m watching it and they made me...

It’s real.

M: And they made me do it twenty times, not because I got it wrong, I think it was just that they...

They enjoyed watching that happen to Juice?

M: Maybe, I don’t know.

That’s cool.

M: But we hugged afterwards, that was the most awkward moment.

Does that whet your appetite for more serious acting because that was a real long term character?

M: Yes. I enjoyed it, and it added more to the way that... you know, this was happening while I was making the album, and it just added to my whole schedule, first of all being awake during the day, like now, which is just awkward.

Hmm, yeah. I, I understand. We just hate to get you out of the crypt to come in, but we...

M: No, I’m not so much the crypt keeper anymore.

Hmm. All right.

M: But sometimes, you know, it really just depends, you know, I obviously have to sleep for seven to eight hours to keep this pageantry in my throat working.

(Laughter.)

M: But other than that, I can adopt to any situation.

You were great on the show and Mr. Anarchy out here will agree with me, we were intrigued by the casting and then when we saw you, we thought that’s such a great role, because it’s so, such a quiet role but the guy is so powerful, and he’s pulling strings and he’s just making these things happen, he had such extreme confidence.

(Interviewer 2) He almost didn’t even have to say anything, almost.

M: That’s what, thank you, that’s why I kept this for you.

Yeah, the scrubs.

(Interviewer 2) The scrubs.

It’s a good look.

Yeah, well it was good times.

Marilyn Manson is here, it’s been a while since we seen him, we’re going to take a quick break and when we come back we’re going to talk about The Pale Emperor, what that’s all about. We heard a little bit a while back on ‘Third Day of a Seven Day Binge’ but we have some new music to play some of for you, also, which I think is awesome by the way and you won’t want to miss it, it’s next right after this from KROQ.

M: Thanks.

(Pause.)

Musician, singer, actor, artist, Marilyn Manson.

M: Icon

I forgot Icon,

(Laughter.)

Is with us right now on the Kevin/Bean Show. The new record will be called The Pale Emperor.

M: (In a low deep voice) Yes, sir.

Which will be coming out January the 20th, 2015. A lot has changed since the last time you put a record out in the world of rock music.

M: Except my underwear.

Okay.

(Laughter)

M: Nah, I’m just kidding, but go ahead.

Uh, no need to go there. Uh, we were talking to, not to drop names but your old friend Bill Corgan over the weekend, and...

M: Yeah.

He seemed depressed and bummed out how difficult it is to make an impact with a new record anymore compared to how it used to be.

M: I don’t feel the same way, but I just saw him and, uh...

I hear you guys played together.

M: Uh, yeah we did, we did, actually he liked my song, "Third Day of a Seven Day Binge", so much that he wanted to do it as an encore, and I did "Ava Adore" which was the song where it was the last time I saw Billy, it was probably about fifteen years ago and, he said you need to be more musical, when I did Mechanical Animals, and I said you need to wear more makeup.

(Laughter.)

M: No, true story

So you improved each other?

M: Well, yeah, we, we had a thing and it really, we had a great, great friendship and I think it was severed by some strongly worded letter he said about Rose McGowan at the time.

Hmmm.

M: Whoever she is.

(Laughter.)

M: But, no, and so,

(Laughter.)

M: So, so we ran into each other, and it was almost as if, it was almost as if no time had passed.

But, it’s nice to bury those hatchets, there’s no reason to carry them around.

M: There was no hatchet.

No, but I mean, I’m just saying there’s no reason to carry around a grudge for something that’s someone said for twenty years.

M: But, no, I never had a grudge, it was just...

You did.

M: No, I didn’t. You know when you’re with someone you sort of have to defend them.

Sure.

M: You know, that’s just the way if you’re macho.

Yeah.

M: But, but, I never had a grudge, but I just haven’t really explained it to him.

Did you have that knife back then? Did you have that knife?

M: I did not have the gold shovel... thumb-assisted, thumb-assisted, sorry, utility knife.

So why are you more optimistic than he is about unleashing new music into the world? Because it seems like back when you.

M: I didn’t know that he was.

When you and I were growing up though, it was a big deal when a new album came out by a band that you loved, and you got it and you bought it and you played it a lot.

M: Yeah.

And now, the music just comes and goes so fast, it’s so fleeting there’s just a million other things right behind it,

M: Yeah.

It just seems like nothing really settles like it used to.

M: Yeah, I agree, I think it’s, I think it’s because people empty the bucket of mystery, as I call it with Instagram and Twitter and they’re just constantly telling you things you don’t really need to know. When we were growing up there was none of that, there was not, obviously there wasn’t an internet. But, also there was the interest in hearing the, the, if you loved the artist, or even just the music affected you, you would listen to it, you didn’t think about what did they do that day, or what kind of relationship they were in or who, what was going on in their life or what scandal. It was way before celebrity existed, even though in essence Marilyn Manson is a commentary on celebrity with Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson and all that, it sort of has a way of making itself come full circle, but at the same time, I think it evens the playing field, I think it’s a better time to put out a new record.

It evens the playing field, but it makes people who don’t have your career almost equal to you and...

M: Well, if, if you have the attitude where you think...when I, when I meet people I don’t expect them to know what I did yesterday, let alone ten years ago. I don’t even expect people to know... when people start to think that I wrote "Sweet Dreams’" which I didn’t obviously, Dave Stewart did,

Right.

M: I didn’t expect anyone after that...

(Interviewer 2) Great version of that.

M: Well, thank you. I never, never expected people to remember "The Beautiful People" or "Dope Show", or anything like that, when I meet somebody, I say hello, they know me, obviously, probably my greatest hits, Columbine, and just being known.

Right.

M: In a, in a different way.

Are you telling me, that you’re starting from scratch every time you put out a new record, then?

M: Yeah, I think it’s, I think it’s less arrogant to be, I mean it’s arrogant to be very ignorant in this era, I think you put out music that you think is great for the same reasons you did when you put out your first record.

Right.

M: And without that era of everybody loves to put out a new record and talk about how great it is and how they made a change and this is their whatever. And I’m aware of that, painfully aware of it, because of being a journalist prior to this musical endeavor. But this record was simpler for me, because I finally figured out what rock and roll was about. The blues, which goes back to Elvis that goes back to Robert Johnson and that’s why it has the whole Faustian theme to it.

And you said this is the first time you really kind of explored the blues background of rock and roll.

M: It’s the first time, well, going back to talking about David Lynch, "I Put a Spell on You", is very much the blues, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and C.C.R. and a lot of people had done that and I lived in New Orleans and I lived in Florida, I haven’t lived in Mississippi or Kentucky, but I think I covered the general vicinity of it.

Sure, you got the area of it.

M: But I never really got the, first of all, the musicality of it, how to play it. And I never got the point of it, it’s one person telling a story that everyone can identify with. It’s the same chords, it’s the same thing, it’s just how you say it. So you, it’s almost like Dewey Cox, Walk Hard. You just simply do what everyone else is doing but you do it looking better and you do it with confidence. And you do it without disowning who you are.

Yeah,

M: You own it.

And there are a lot of people who do the blues great, you look at The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and bands like that who were essentially just blues bands but they’re making it their own, certainly.

M: Yeah, and I wasn’t even trying to like... there was no point where I said, I’m going to make a blues record.

Gotcha.

M: I went into the studio with Tyler Bates which... I’ve always tried to make a record that was cinematic sounding and via Californication, I met Tyler Bates who has scored the biggest, soundtrack of the year with Guardians of the Galaxy, 300, The Watchman, many other things and we just sat down about as arm and touched our fingers far away and he had a guitar and I sat down and started singing and just happened, and anyway I describe it, it’s going to sound like a homosexual, pornographic film. So I'm not going to go into it.

(Laughter.)

Well, ...

M: It seemed to just, it seemed to just there was a connection that was just different.

Did you touch penises?

M: No.

(Laughter.)

Okay, well then you’re fine.

M: No, I mean, well that doesn’t necessarily make a homosexual, pornographic film because no one was filming.

Well, then I misunderstood how pornographic films are made.

(Laughter.)

M: There was no cameras.

Okay.

(Laughter.)

... We’re talking to Marilyn Manson here on KROQ, his new album is called The Pale Emperor, coming out on January 20th. The emphasis on tracks or streaming tracks or singles vs a whole album, did that have any impact on how you put the thing together? Or is it still a cohesive message from start to finish like you do sometimes?

M: No, this one was very concisely a story and the The Pale Emperor comes from a book that was a biography of Antonin Artaud and I’m saying it in the most American accent I can possibly say because I don’t want to sound pretentious although I can sound redneck.

(Laughter.)

M: I just want to get the word ‘red’ tattooed on my neck.

(Laughter.)

M: A French writer wrote about Heliogabalus.

You don’t have to tell Kevin.

(Kevin) I don’t know what you’re talking about.

M: No matter, no matter, it was pre-Caligula.

Okay.

M: Not the movie, the Roman...

It was the real thing.

M: It was the first Roman Emperor, youngster, youngster.

You’re going to have to dumb it down for me.

M: I’m dumbing it down.

Was it Beavis? Or was it Butthead?

(Laughter.)

M: The first guy who denied God, he used to cut up the peasants in the middle of the street and have wine poured on it and said, ‘Here, drink from it’. And he was very pale, they called him The Pale Emperor so I said, ‘Well, that sounds pretty appropriate’.

We have learned a little something here.

M: Bingo!

(female voice) That’s interesting.

M: Google it.

We don’t have to now. You’re smart, Manson, you know that?

M: I got a little bit.

I want to hear a little piece of "Deep Six". What’s the deal on this? It’s the new single, right? It just came out this morning and available tomorrow on iTunes.

M: Yes, this song, well, the term "deep six", I think off, I mean it was a navy term in some sense, but it also refers to your garden, for example my back yard. I just, I had not lived in a house in, I don’t know, four years or so. I lived in a strange apartment with none of my belongings in it. But I purchased a new home and it did have a incinerator in the back yard and a garden, now that I said deep six, it’s with a shovel, it’s an implied threat.

Right. All of Manson’s stories, you feel like there’s another thousand pages behind it, that you want to hear, don’t you?

M: And that’s what I used for making the song. I think if you explain a song too much, it let’s that person tell that thousand pages

If you’re like us... and complain that there’s just not enough music that rocks, get a load of this.

(A portion of "Deep Six" is played .)

That sound great.

M: Thank you.

Very a good clean production, too. Crisp.

M: Okay.

(Interviewer 2) Idk what he means by that, either.

M: I don’t know.

(Laughter.)

I mean everything sounds sharp and, uh, in focus

When Manson talks, I’m confused. When Bean talks, I'm confused.

(Laughter.)

Well, I have a concussion.

(Laughter.)

M: Well, I have a broken toe.

You have a broken toe.

M: Maybe...

We’re playing Hurt here, fellas.

M: Sorry. It could have been related. I did not...

We don’t know, man.

You could have..

M: Who knows what happened, but as far as the production, it went, the guy who makes the records, Robert, he has won four Latin Grammy awards, but more importantly, he’s an astrophysicist. This was just before he started mixing the record

Well, of course he is. (Laughter.) Why wouldn’t he be?

M: Well, why would you not want that guy?

... Latin Grammies, man, you know what you’re doing!

M: I don’t really know what that really applies, too?

We don’t, either.

M: I didn’t know that, but when he said he was an astrophysicist, we started speaking about things in a esoteric or whatever sense.

(I 2) I bet you have the best dinner parties.

M: Dinner parties?

(I 2) I bet you do.

M: How do you have a dinner table.

I bet he has.

He didn’t even have any stuff in his apartment for over four years!

Yeah. But no, that’s insane.

I be the same group of people that you bring together for dinners or parties, I bet it’s fascinating conversation.

M: You’re trying to get me to name drop, that’s what you’re trying..

No, no, I’m not at all, (I) No, he’s trying to get invited.

M: Well, you know what I try to do, and you’re making me do it, because this is a Talk Show in a sense,

Yeah.

M: Is try not to talk too much at dinner parties. Because I tend to, uh, to tell, talk too much during dinner parties. But I have a hard time eating in public, because I’m talking too much. That’s also what keeps me soberish.

Soberish?

M: Well, yeah, because I’m talking too much to drink so I forget. I need, I need an IV drip,

... sober is...

M: ... just so I can talk.

You make it sound like soberish is a complete word and ish doesn’t really go with sober.

(Laughter.)

M: Yeah. Practicing.

All right, ...

M: Is it because I’m Polish? Because I’m Polish?

We’re out of time.

(Laughter.)

Ever?

Manson, we’re out of time.

M: See how he gets that?

... is your ninth album. Did you ever? Before we say good bye did you ever imagine that you’d have this kind of career? Or did you think, hey, I’ll be lucky to get a record out and I’ll probably have to get a real job?

(wow)

Because you have staying power at this point

M: Yes, I’m very, I have stamina.

Yeah? Yeah!

M: Uh, yeah well, I, I that, let’s put it simply, this record is sticking to the story which is very Robert Johnson, Faust, whatever... Selling your soul to the Devil to become famous as a rock star, I think there’s been a few years where... Me... (Sound of knocking.) ... not answered the door to pay the devil his due, this is my payment, this record to the fans, to me, to whatever’s inside that led me to whomever, it’s, it’s my payback for what may be. I got arrogant to think that I did not have to pay back the devil for whatever is his due, and this is payment. Check’s in the mail.

(Laughter.)

Well, let me say, welcome back, my friend.

M: Thank you.

Great to see you.

(Outro music.)