The Return of Marilyn Manson — Let's Talk About It

The rock music world has seen its fair share of reunions and returns over the last year or two, but none have more question marks than that of Marilyn Manson – returning to the stage for the first time in half a decade, with a new album on the horizon four years after the release of his previous studio effort, fans and detractors alike have the controversial rock star’s comeback in their sights with anxious anticipation.

The news of Manson’s comeback yielded a mix of reactions, ranging from elation to outrage to simple curiosity as to where he’s been. As a fan who will be attending his concert in Silver Spring, Maryland, I have my own questions and curiosities regarding his upcoming tour and album release, and for anyone who hasn’t been aware of what’s caused his time away from music, that will all be addressed here as well. There’s a lot of ground to cover and I’m going to try to keep things brief by focusing on just a handful of the main points of this situation, so buckle up, because this will take a while.

The Absence

Having not performed live since 2019, Manson’s last musical project arrived in September 2020 in the form of his eleventh studio album We Are Chaos, a project that saw him collaborate with country standout Shooter Jennings and turned out to be one of his strongest releases to date. The album was unfortunately unable to be supported on the road due to the COVID pandemic putting a pause on all touring activities across the world. If that wasn’t enough, the promotion of the album came to a grinding halt in February 2021, when actress Evan Rachel Wood accused Manson of sexual assault during their on-and-off relationship in the late 2000s. Following her allegations, a handful of other women, some anonymous, also came forward and told their stories of abuse suffered at the hands of Manson, including Manson’s former assistant Ashley Walters, actress Esme Bianco, and model Ashley Morgan Smithline. These allegations resulted in Manson being dropped from Loma Vista Recordings, his record label at the time, along with his talent agency, Creative Artists Agency, and his longtime manager Tony Ciulla. Additionally, his roles in upcoming films and television series installments at the time like Creepshow and American Gods were removed. In the midst of these allegations and civil lawsuits that followed, Manson was also battling a misdemeanor/simple assault charge in court for spitting at a videographer during a concert in New Hampshire during the summer of 2019, to which he pled no contest and was sentenced to 20 hours of community service and a small fine.

In March 2022, a two-part docuseries titled Phoenix Rising was released to HBO Max, which featured Evan Rachel Wood discussing the alleged abuse she faced during her relationship with Manson, with supplemental interviews coming from her immediate family and friend Illma Gore.

Since these allegations first went public, Manson has kept a low profile and maintained his innocence, with a social media post made in February 2021 stating, “Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality. My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how – and why – others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.”

Manson's next, and at this time final, public statement on the matter came in March 2022 when he filed a defamation lawsuit against Evan Rachel Wood and Illma Gore. Attaching a PDF of the court documents on his social media, Manson wrote, “There will come a time when I can share more about the events of the past year. Until then, I'm going to let the facts speak for themselves.” In the 28-page lawsuit, Manson accuses Gore and Wood of impersonating an FBI agent by creating a fake letter stating that Wood was a prime witness in connection to a nonexistent criminal investigation in LA against Manson, hacking into his email and social media accounts to steal personal data/information and impersonate him online, having his house swatted in February 2021 under the guise of a wellness check to intentionally cause emotional distress, slandering him further by spreading false rumors regarding an unreleased short film of Manson's, Groupie (1996), and coercing the previously mentioned group of women to fabricate the allegations against him as a group by giving them "a checklist twenty-one fabricated acts of abuse to ensure that their public claims against Warner would mirror each other and create the false perception of a pattern of wrongful conduct.”

Manson's lawsuit against Wood and Gore has yet to go to trial, with the original date of May 1, 2024 being delayed due to Manson's attorneys appealing the judge's decision to throw out a large amount of the defamation part of the lawsuit. However, several of the other civil suits and complaints, including those of Ashley Walters and Esme Bianco, have been settled or dismissed in some way.

One of the most shocking revelations to come out of the situation arrived on February 23, 2023, when Ashley Morgan Smithline, one of the more prominent accusers, recanted her statements and admitted to having “succumbed to pressure from Evan Rachel Wood and her associates to make accusations of rape and assault against [Manson] that were not true,” further stating, “Eventually, I started to believe that what I was repeatedly told happened to Ms. Wood and [others] also happened to me.” In a remote interview with YouTube channel Popcorned Planet, Smithline also admitted to being forced to fake an American accent instead of using her authentic British accent during the press tour that resulted from her sharing the allegations that were given to her, along with not being in the most coherent frame of mind during this process due to an addiction problem she was battling at the time.

As far as my opinion goes in regards to this situation as a fan of Marilyn Manson’s music, I’ve always had the mentality of separating the art from the artist – at the end of the day, I don’t know Manson personally and none of us will ever really know the truth behind this messy situation, so these allegations never really tainted my view of his work. Having grown up as a young fan of other shock rock artists like Alice Cooper, pursuing Manson’s discography was a natural progression, and I confidently believe that strictly as an artist and songwriter, Manson is one of the most interesting creative minds in all of rock music. The way he’s been able to blend social commentary with narrative storytelling and worldbuilding in his music, along with simply provoking the listener to think about their beliefs and values in a different light is something that very few other artists have achieved, particularly at the level that Manson reached – the Tryptich series, consisting of the albums Antichrist Superstar (1996), Mechanical Animals (1998), and Holy Wood: In the Shadow of the Valley of Death (2000) is one of the most compelling three-album runs in metal history in my opinion for this exact reason, especially when you consider how strong of a statement Holy Wood was in response to the media attempting to blame him for the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. At the end of the day, the best way I can put it is that I became a fan of his music long before these allegations came to light, and his music has meant too much to me and made too big of an impact for me to just ignore it over a bunch of rumors with little to no merit behind them as far as I’ve been able to notice.

Additionally, it’s not exactly a hot take to say that the behavior and actions that Manson’s accused of are disgustingly reprehensible. No rational individual would condone such actions, and as someone who has known people in my inner circle that have fallen victim to similar kinds of abuse, it’s not something that I take lightly. However, I’ve also been brought up to believe in the notion of “innocent until proven guilty,” because it’s also common knowledge that people are capable of lying for any reason they see fit, whether it’s for attention or revenge or simply for the fun of it. That being said, after the research that I’ve done over the course of this case, I have been led to believe that Manson is not guilty of what he’s being accused of. 

Aside from the materials of Manson’s lawsuit against Wood and Gore being an eye-opener, another groundbreaking resource related to this situation has been the YouTube channel of Colonel Kurtz, who has explored the case since the beginning and has also been able to interview several people that have worked and had close personal relationships with Manson over the years. Some of these interviewees include Pola Weiss, the actress from the Groupie short that Gore claimed was a minor at the time of filming (she was 22 years old) and was dead, possibly killing herself after the acts she was subjected to during filming (she’s very much alive and stated that the short was an acting job for her, going on to appear in more music videos after the short film), Vanessa Alexandra, a friend of Manson and Wood while they were dating and a background actor in the music video for Manson’s song “Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand),” the set of which Wood claims she was intoxicated and raped on (Alexandra asserts that Wood was sober and had shared creative control with Manson, having written the treatment together and helping direct people on set), and there was even a roundtable discussion between several of Manson’s exes and a former personal assistant that described their experiences with Manson over the years. There’s no shortage of videos on the subject on Kurtz’s channel, but I find the interviews to be some of the most intriguing aspects of her coverage because we get to hear from more people who were actually in Manson and Wood’s inner circles during this time. There’s also an added sense of credibility in the fact that Kurtz wasn’t a Manson fan before these allegations came out, making it feel like she’s not a blind worshiper who feels as if Manson can do no wrong.

I also feel that it is important to take the words of Manson’s ex-wife Dita Von Teese and ex-fiancée Rose McGowan into consideration, with both of them insisting that they had never faced any abuse during their relationships with him. MeToo founder McGowan had written an entire chapter on Manson in her 2018 memoir Brave, with nothing but positive things to say about him and their relationship, and while she had also originally stated that she didn’t want her words to be used in his defense after the allegations first arose, and one can raise the argument of abusers putting on different personas around different people, the main point of these allegations from Wood and co. was attempting to show that there was a pattern and history of abusive behavior, but that appears to be inconsistent with the rest of the people in Manson’s circle.

The recantation of Ashley Morgan Smithline’s accusations and admittance to being pressured by Wood and Gore is also pretty damning, along with the claims of Manson’s ex-lover Greta Aurora also claiming that Gore tried to recruit her as well, providing a script and checklist to conspire against Manson. The Phoenix Rising documentary does a good job of appealing to the emotions and obviously paints Wood in a favorable light, but it’s also hard to ignore the out-of-context clips of Manson backstage before and after live performances strategically placed in an attempt to justify that he had a history of violent domestic behavior when these circumstances were pertaining to frustrations in a professional setting. On top of that, the documentary also tries to paint a picture of lifelong abusive behavior by citing passages from Manson’s 1998 book The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, while it has been heavily documented over the years that a large portion of the book is fabricated or embellished stories crafted by Manson and co-author Neil Straus as a biography of the Marilyn Manson character, not Brian Warner himself. As I’ve said before, I believe in innocence until proven guilty, and at this point in time, I personally don’t feel that this guilt has been proven. The links are there, I’ve done the research, and I encourage you to do the same and come to your own conclusions.

The Return

Manson has been teasing a return to music for a long while, cryptically teasing a new album on social media for almost a year, but things really started becoming official to the public earlier this spring. First posting a photo of himself holding a microphone with the caption, “I’ve got something for you to hear” on the wedding anniversary of him and his current wife Lindsay Warner on May 15, 2023, it wasn’t until a full year later on May 15, 2024 that fans got a taste of new music in the form of a minute-long video teaser announcing his signing to Nuclear Blast Records, home to acts like Rob Zombie, Anthrax, Ministry, and several other metal artists. Visually, the iconography of the teaser harkened back to the three different installments of the Triptych trilogy, and the only lyrics that can be towards the end was the repetitious refrain whispering, “Keep sleeping, I’ll make you dream of me.”

A new album release is imminent, with an early listening party with selected press members and friends of Manson having occurred in LA this past winter yielding positive word-of-mouth reactions. For this release, Manson has supposedly collaborated with Tyler Bates once again, having previously worked with him on his bluesy 2015 LP The Pale Emperor, and its gritty follow-up, Heaven Upside Down. Assuming the music in the teaser will appear on the album in the form of a full song, it appears as though there will be a slightly heavier and more serious approach to this record than on those previous releases – upon a deeper look at the promotional materials for his upcoming tour dates, the font of his current logo is the same as the font for the cover of Holy Wood, which was his masterpiece comeback album after being blamed for Columbine. This font could’ve been adopted to make a similar statement of making a comeback after years of false accusations once again, and it may also symbolize a stylistic return either to the sound of the Holy Wood era, or maybe even somehow trying to resurrect the narrative concept behind the album and continuing it to fit the events of today.

There’s no music out yet, but a recent leak hinted at the release of the first single, “As Sick As the Secrets Within,” taking place as early as this Friday, August 2, which also marks the first night of his upcoming tour. The supposed cover art has also been leaked, showing Manson looking at himself through a piece of a chipped mirror, and with the title being a variation of a popular phrase used in Alcoholics Anonymous along with Manson’s newfound sobriety over the past couple years, one may wonder if the two are connected in the sense that this will be another more introspective release from Manson. At the end of the day, this is all speculation and we’ll just have to wait and see, but it doesn’t seem like the wait will be that long now.

On the live front, Manson announced his first tour dates since 2019 earlier this spring, hitting the road this Friday as the direct support act for Five Finger Death Punch on their upcoming amphitheater tour across the US. Manson has also booked a handful of one-off headlining shows over the course of this summer tour, and there’s a lot to be curious about in regards to his live show. Manson’s never been the type of artist to sound studio-perfect in a live setting, but fans were particularly concerned with his more recent performances coming off as sloppy, with Manson slurring his words and outright forgetting lyrics during his performances, and almost seeming bored with performing. After all this time off, how does he sound now? Does he take performing more seriously now? How will his sobriety impact his performance? As someone who’s straight-edge, I’m happy to hear that Manson’s sober now, and I’m optimistic that it’ll greatly help his voice while performing live. There have been many examples of musicians sounding better live and making better music in the studio after getting sober, with two prominent examples being Alice Cooper and Adam Gontier, and I’d like to hope that it has the same effect on Manson’s work. Plus, he appears to have been taking care of himself during this time away, looking almost 20 years younger than the last time we saw him hit the stage, so it’s likely we’ll end up seeing a much improved Manson on this tour.

Something else to consider is how elaborate and eccentric his stage show will be – will he still get in people’s faces, or will he be more reserved on stage? Will his microphone have a butcher knife blade sticking out of the bottom, brass knuckles across the edge as a handle, or will there be something completely new to catch people’s eye? Will he rip pages out of the Bible or set it on fire when he performs “Antichrist Superstar”? What does the setlist look like, especially for the headlining shows? 

Perhaps the most important question concerning Manson’s live shows is who will play in his band? When touring for the albums he made with Tyler Bates, Bates was his touring guitarist, so if he’s on this upcoming album as well, one could assume he’ll be back on stage again this time around as well. If not, perhaps Paul Wiley comes back on stage, having already been one of his most recent touring guitarists. Personally, I don’t know who the drummer would be, but I’d like to believe that former Rob Zombie bassist Piggy D is now in Manson’s band – the two have been seen hanging out with each other in public on a couple occasions this year, and with the history of Manson having shared band members with fellow shock rocker Rob Zombie (guitar virtuoso joined Zombie’s band in 2005 after leaving Manson’s band in 2004, and longtime Manson drummer Ginger Fish followed suit in 2011), I’d love to see that trend continue by adding Piggy D to the fold. Plus, he’s just a great bassist and a fun personality, so I’d love to see that dynamic on stage between him and Manson’s audience.

Like I said earlier, there’s a lot to speculate and consider before one of the most significant musical comebacks takes place this weekend, but thankfully the wait won’t be too long from now. While we wait for an official album announcement, Manson can be seen on the road from August 2 to September 19 supporting Five Finger Death Punch, along with a couple headliners sprinkled in here and there, and further support for both shows coming from deathcore superstars Slaughter to Prevail and modern emo royalty The Funeral Portrait. To see all the tour dates and buy tickets, click here. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading, and see you in Silver Spring.

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