Celebs Who Can't Stand Marilyn Manson
The following story details intense abuse allegations that may be triggering for some readers.
What's there to say about shock rocker Marilyn Manson that he hasn't already said about himself? In fact, a vintage interview with Spin now seems particularly chilling in the wake of multiple accusations of violent, abusive behavior.
In the 2009 story, Manson said that the song "Devour," the graphic first track on The High End of Low, was inspired by a recent breakup. "That song is about when someone said to me, 'Okay, I want to be with you until I die.' And then they gave up," he explained. "I was at the point in my life where I was like, 'Okay, let's die, but I tell you what, I'm going to kill you first, because I don't trust you.'" Manson continued by describing his "lowest point" when he called that ex "158 times" while taking "a razorblade and I cut myself on my face or on my hands... I wanted to show her the pain she put me through."
More than a decade after those disturbing revelations, that ex came forward with some allegations about Manson that were even more disconcerting — and she's far from the only person to go public about issues with him, resulting in Manson's label dropping him. Read on to get the lowdown on all the celebs who can't stand Marilyn Manson.
Evan Rachel Wood made allegations of abuse against Marilyn Manson
These days, actor Evan Rachel Wood is best known for her role on HBO's Westworld. Back in the late-2000s, however, the rising young star was also known as a girlfriend of Marilyn Manson. As Us Weekly recalled, the couple took their relationship public in 2007, when she was 19 and he was 36. They became engaged in 2010 and split that same year.
In March 2019, Wood issued a pair of Instagram posts (now deleted, but reported by Us Weekly) detailing abuse at the hands of an unnamed partner, recalling being "desperate to stop the relentless abuse" and being "too terrified to leave." Nearly two years later, she named Manson (using his real name, Brian Warner) as "my abuser," alleging, "He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years." Wood was one of several women to come forward with allegations against Manson in February 2021, and the musician dismissed their claims as "horrible distortions of reality," insisting his "intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners."
Despite Manson's denials, some comments he made in an interview with Spin, conducted shortly after their breakup, were unsettling. "I have fantasies every day about smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer," he told the magazine of Wood.
Trent Reznor called Marilyn Manson 'a dopey clown'
Trent Reznor worked closely with Marilyn Manson as producer of his hit album Antichrist Superstar. However, as Manson detailed in a 2017 sit-down with The Howard Stern Show, he and the Nine Inch Nails frontman experienced "a falling out." Manson recalled the two getting into a fight in which "he kicked me out of the studio" and "smashed the hard drive" that held the album's master recordings. "I just felt heartbroken and mad and never wanted to talk to him," Manson recalled.
The feeling was mutual. In a 2009 interview with Mojo (via Rolling Stone), Reznor slammed Manson as "a malicious guy [who] will step on anybody's face to succeed and cross any line of decency. Seeing him now, drugs and alcohol now rule his life and he's become a dopey clown." Then there was the video for Nine Inch Nails' "Starsuckers, Inc.," in which Reznor is seen throwing a baseball to smash a plate with Manson's visage on it. During the aforementioned interview with Howard Stern, Manson said he and Reznor were on good terms.
However, that didn't seem to be the case when pieces from Manson's memoir resurfaced in 2021 — namely, the excerpt where Manson alleged he and Reznor assaulted a woman in the '90s. In a statement provided to Pitchfork, Reznor called the story "a complete fabrication" and distanced himself from Manson. "I have been vocal over the years about my dislike of Manson as a person and cut ties with him nearly 25 years ago," he said.
Corey Feldman accused Marilyn Manson treating him like a 'play toy'
In the days following Evan Rachel Wood's allegations against Marilyn Manson, former child star Corey Feldman took to Instagram to share allegations of his own. Accusing Manson of being "obsessed" with him, Feldman claimed the rocker "tried to use & abuse me as his play toy" during what he categorized as "decades long mental & emotional abuse."
For insight into Feldman's claims, Manson summed up their first meeting in a 1998 feature he wrote for Spin. "I was always amused by Corey Feldman," wrote Manson, describing the actor's attire as "a pseudo-Michael Jackson sort of outfit that made him look stupider than any of his movies had ever made him look, and that's hard to achieve."
According to Manson, he "continued to torment Corey" whenever they'd encounter each other, "putting lipstick on him and introducing him to strangers. Because it is my duty to punch below the belt, I told him I was a big fan of the rap song that I saw him perform on television, which was among the s**ttiest songs ever recorded yet still not cool enough by far to be the worst thing I had ever heard."
Justin Bieber dissed Marilyn Manson after a t-shirt ripoff
Justin Bieber incurred the wrath of Marilyn Manson — and it was all over a t-shirt. Back in 2016, Bieber launched a line of merch in conjunction with his Purpose tour. One of these items was a Bieber-branded t-shirt featuring Manson's face; as Consequence of Sound reported, the shirt retailed for a hefty $195. As Manson said in a subsequent interview with Consequence of Sound, the first time he met Bieber, he'd already been selling the shirt and implied Manson should be thanking him. According to Manson, Bieber said, "I made you relevant again." Manson described Bieber as "a real piece of s**t in the way he had the arrogance to say that."
The designer of the shirt initially claimed they'd obtained permission from Manson, which turned out to be a big fib. As Manson explained to Billboard, he didn't even have to get his lawyer involved. "It was nice though that I didn't have to sue his company for making the shirts that he wore with his name and my face on it," Manson explained. "They were very much like, 'We know we're wrong here; just take as many dollars as you want.'"
On an episode of The Howard Stern Show (via People), Manson said Bieber apologized over text, and Manson told Bieber not to worry about what he believed to be "a fake feud."
Rob Zombie clashed with Marilyn Manson on tour
Rob Zombie famously butted heads with Marilyn Manson back in 2012 when they co-headlined their "Twins of Evil" tour. During an interview with Howard Stern the following year (via Noisecreep), Zombie complained that Manson typically took to the stage "like 25 minutes late" and went past his allotted time. When Manson publicly accused Zombie of cutting short his set (something Zombie said didn't happen), Manson told the audience he was ready to throw down.
After the show, Zombie recalled to Stern, he barged into Manson's dressing room and asked, "What the f**k is your problem?" Oh, but that wasn't all: Zombie also fired some expletives off at Manson during a performance. However, Michigan Live noted that he told Stern that the feud had since been resolved. "Might as well let it die out because it was so stupid to begin with," Zombie explained (via Michigan Live). "He can go late; it doesn't matter. He just has to get off on time."
Whatever had taken place, the beef had been squashed by 2018 when they announced plans for their "Twins of Evil: The Second Coming Tour." "By the time [the incident] was news to the public, it was already old news to us," Zombie told LoudWire. "We stopped caring about anything that happened five years ago. There's no negative anything."
Marilyn Manson's tour with Courtney Love led to bad blood
Courtney Love's band Hole hit the road with Marilyn Manson for the 1999 "Beautiful Monsters" tour. As Dave Wyndorf, frontman of opening act Monster Magnet told Metal Hammer, the tour was "a f**king disaster" from the start.
What began as "gentle ribbing" of each other onstage reportedly turned acrimonious. Meanwhile, the fresh-out-of-rehab Love was "appalled" by Manson's drug use and debauched behavior. "They do a lot of coke and it's really '70s; it turns people into amoral porno watchers who make bad jokes," Love reportedly told MTV News (via Metal Hammer). Not unpredictably, the tour ultimately self-destructed, halted in midstream when Manson injured himself onstage.
Years later, Manson told Esquire he and Love "never really had a falling out. We've always been weird with each other, because she's slept with pretty much every one of my friends, supposedly. Not me, though. She, one time, told me she was mad at me because I didn't want to f**k her and I was smarter than her. I said, 'Well, you kind of proved your own point right there on that one.'" In early 2020, Manson told Page Six he and Love had patched things up, and in January 2021, Love wished Manson a happy birthday on Instagram, noting that he was one of the people who "helped get me to a place to detox."
Marilyn Manson has history with members of Limp Bizkit
Marilyn Manson lashed out at fellow rockers Limp Bizkit back in 1999, reported NME, when he wrote on his website that their fans were "illiterate apes that beat your a** in high school... and now sell you tuneless testosterone anthems of misogyny." Frontman Fred Durst fired back, telling NME, "I understand that Marilyn Manson is very unhappy that his career has gone in a shambles and he's alienated his fans so if he has to say things like that because he's very mad at himself, I would forgive him."
When Evan Rachel Wood made her allegations, Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland — who once played in Manson's band — backed her up her claims. "He's not a great guy. And every single thing that people have said about him is f**king true," he said on Twitch channel Space Zebra, via NME. "He is a bad f**king guy, and I was there when he was with Evan Rachel Wood. I was at his house. It's not f**king cool, and that's all I'm gonna say about it."
In Borland's view, Manson "is canceled. Goodbye, don't let the door hit you on the way out."
Charlyne Yi had a nasty experience with Marilyn Manson on a set
One of Marilyn Manson's increasingly frequent incidents onstage prompted actor Charlyne Yi to offer up her own Manson horror story. In a since-deleted 2018 tweet (which was reported at the time by The Hollywood Reporter), Yi shared her recollection of working on the TV doctor drama House when Manson dropped by on a set visit.
"Ugh don't even get me started on Marilyn Manson," Yi wrote before stating that "he harassed just about every woman" on the set of the TV series. Yi went on to say that he made offensive remarks, including using a racist slur. "Yes this happened a long time ago — on the last season of House he came on set to visit because he was a huge fan of the show & he harassed just about every woman asking us if we were going to scissor, rhino & called me a China man." She continued in a followup tweet, writing, "I genuinely hope he gets help."
A while later, she returned to the topic in another tweet (which, like those others, she subsequently deleted) to reveal she'd been harassed on social media by some of Manson's particularly indignant fans. "What's fun about sharing experiences like this is that you get harassed by crazy people telling you to die or blaming you and then you get to block them," she wrote.
Paul Stanley of KISS called Marilyn Manson 'pathetic'
As a performer, there's no denying that Marilyn Manson can count such bombastic rock-star predecessors as Alice Cooper and KISS as influences, borrowing much of their intentionally shocking shtick for his own act (although, to be fair, Cooper and KISS certainly drew influence for their own onstage gimmicks from the theatrical antics of Screamin' Jay Hawkins).
And while Manson may have been the latest shock rocker in the musical tradition in the vein of the face paint-coated members KISS, guitarist and singer Paul Stanley professed he was no fan. When Manson marked the death of the homicidal cult leader from whom he borrowed his name by sharing a cover version of Charles Manson's song "Sick City," that was apparently too much for Stanley to abide.
To make his opinion known, Stanley slammed Manson in a scathing tweet. "Pathetic when somebody who's [sic] career never really took off is desperate enough to try for publicity by connecting himself to the news of a murdering scumbag's death," he wrote.
Esmé Bianco wants to see Marilyn Manson in jail
Esmé Bianco is known to fans of HBO's Game of Thrones for her role as King's Landing sex worker Ros. Long before she landed that part, however, she had an offscreen role as Marilyn Manson's girlfriend.
As Bianco told The Cut in 2021, she was a longtime fan when she met him, and subsequently accepted his invitation to appear in a music video. According to Bianco's allegations, what she expected to be an acting role turned into a horrific nightmare when Manson flew into a rage, tied her down and whipped her, even using a sex toy on her welts. In Bianco's eyes, Manson transformed from a "massive role model who really helped me through some incredibly dark and difficult times as a teenager" to a "monster who almost destroyed me and almost destroyed so many women."
Yet despite all that, she later entered into a relationship with him, a dark period in her life that's left her with lingering emotional and physical scars. "He's not a misunderstood artist," Bianco said of Manson. "He deserves to be behind bars for the rest of his life." Manson has not addressed Bianco's allegations directly, but in an earlier statement that went up on Instagram, he claimed his accusers were "choosing to misrepresent the past."
Moby and Marilyn Manson traded verbal jabs
Moby and Marilyn Manson have had a long relationship over the years that can best be described as complicated. It all began back in 2000, when Moby criticized a Manson show that culminated in a violent onstage melee that resulted in Manson's drummer Ginger Fish breaking his collarbone when a flying microphone stand knocked him out.
Moby slammed the show in an interview with the New York Post (as reported by NME). "It was disgusting. I'm waiting to see if the police want witnesses. That kind of violence is totally unnecessary onstage," said the electronica pioneer.
Manson fired back in a snarky press release, through his record label. According to ABC News, Manson dissed Moby as a "TV-commercial soundtracker" and "self-appointed spokesperson." Continuing, Manson was unrepentant and dismissive. "On my stage that kind of violence is completely necessary," Manson said in his statement. "It's just unfortunate that Moby wasn't injured." However, judging by this 2011 photo of the pair, they seemingly made up at some point during the years that followed.
Phoebe Bridgers 'stopped being a fan' of Marilyn Manson as a teen
Singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers made waves with her February 2021 musical debut on Saturday Night Live, concluding her performance of "I Know the End" by smashing her guitar Pete Townshend-style.
Bridgers also attracted attention with a tweet she issued just a few days prior to that performance, when she responded to Evan Rachel Wood's allegations of Marilyn Manson's abusive behavior. "I went to Marilyn Manson's house when I was a teenager with some friends. I was a big fan. He referred to a room in his house as the 'r*pe room,' I thought it was just his horrible frat boy sense of humor. I stopped being a fan," Bridgers wrote in a tweet. "I stand with everyone who came forward."
Bridgers followed up with another tweet, claiming that Manson's record label was well aware of his alleged deplorable behavior and did nothing about it, only dropping him when Wood's allegations made headlines and he became seen as a liability. "The label knew, management knew, the band knew," Bridgers wrote. "Distancing themselves now, pretending to be shocked and horrified is f**king pathetic."
Jenna Jameson called her relationship with Marilyn Manson 'disconcerting'
For a brief period in 1997, adult film icon Jenna Jameson dated Marilyn Manson. According to a 2021 interview she gave to the Daily Mail, she does not exactly have fond memories of what, by her recollection, was a weird and unsettling experience.
"We didn't go out long because I cut it off after he would nonchalantly say he fantasized about burning me alive," she alleged. As if that wasn't enough to send anyone running, Jameson also detailed some of Manson's habits in the boudoir. "Sexually he liked to bite, and it was disconcerting," she shared. Jameson also noted that while nothing happened without consent, she saw some big red flags that caused the relationship to come to a screeching halt. "Once he started speaking to me violently, I was like ... goodbye, Brian," she explained, using Manson's real first name.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit RAINN.org for additional resources.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233 or TTY 1−800−787−3224. You can also find more information, resources, and support at www.thehotline.org.