Interview:1998/09/09 Official Website Launch
Official Website Launch | ||
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Interview with Marilyn Manson | ||
Date | September 9, 1998 | |
Source | marilynmanson.net |
Marilyn Manson hosted a live streaming event from the House of Blues in Los Angeles, for launching the band's official website at www.marilynmanson.net, talking to the fans and answering their questions for about an hour.[1]
Video[edit]
Credit: Universo Manson
Official Website Launch Event (Sep 9, 1998)
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Transcript[edit]
I want to thank everyone for joining me here. This is my official site. It is still under construction, but the important thing is that this will be the only place that we can communicate directly. The media will not be able to edit what I say to you. Other people will not be able to take things that I say out of context. We'll be able to have a clear communication. I think that's a very important relationship that I wanna establish between me and you. And I think from here on out, things can only get stronger this way. And I appreciate everyone's support. I've been watching you. I've been very involved behind the scenes, keeping track of your feelings. This record is my gift to you, and I hope everybody can take something from it and learn the things that I learned while making it. What I'm gonna do is read the questions and try and answer them the best way that I can for you. Hopefully, you can walk away with a little more knowledge.
The first question is in regard to the relevance of Omega, and it refers to me retiring. It refers to some sort of goodbye.
Antichrist Superstar was a very painful and grand transformation, as we all know. While I was making that album, and while I was growing up, I resorted to a lot of physical pain to make up for a lack of emotional. That transformation was completed and helped along by writing the book, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell. I found myself here in Hollywood, California, very alienated. I started to repair myself. And the more I began to feel, the less the world seemed to be feeling. The people that were condemning me and making me seem to be the wrong one began to look more and more mechanical. Mechanical Animals, of course, was inspired by this concept. The name Omega refers to the final chapter in this story that started with Antichrist Superstar. And it is a reference to the end. But it's not necessarily a reference to the end of my career. The 15 that I also refer to has several different importances. I've noticed that a lot of you have been coming up with your theories, and most of them are correct. And I think the more that you look, the more you'll discover. Fifteen is Biblical. Fifteen is numerological. Fifteen does correspond to the album's release date. Fifteen does correspond to the number six. Fifteen does correspond to my birthdate. Fifteen does correspond to half of my age this January 5th, which is also one-five. There are a lot of very important numbers that help fulfill the prophesy that I kind of created for myself on Antichrist Superstar. Hopefully, that answers that question for you.
The second question here says, "Now that my look has changed, will my stage show change to fit my style? How will it be different?"
The show that I'd like to do this year will be represented in three parts, much like an opera. Two of those parts will be comprised of Mechanical Animals and the two different personalities that are represented on that album. The third part will be Antichrist Superstar. I'd love to play all new songs, but I know that I still enjoy old material, and I know that you wanna hear old songs, so no one has to be afraid that I'm going to forget Portrait of an American Family or Smells Like Children, because we'll represent everything there. It will be bit of a longer show.
The next question sort of refers to that also. It says, "Have I abandoned my religious satire?"
I haven't abandoned any of my feelings or my beliefs. I think that I've said the best things that I can say, the strongest stance that I can take on religion was Antichrist Superstar. And with the things that we all together did last year; not just me, but your support, what the tour did, America's response to it. All of that together was what I intended to create. I thought it was important now to deal with what comes after that. You know, I've pointed out, and I've transformed, and I've dealt as much as I can with that subject. And I think now it's time to deal with... Really, Mechanical Animals for me documents the repair of my emotions, the repair of my soul, and this record does deal with God in a different way. It deals with me finding God in art, and in music. I think there's more spirituality in art than you could find in a church. I think that's something that we all need to focus on now. We're at the brink of a very revolutionary era that we together are spearheading. Some very strong ideals, some very strong art is going to be created in this new era. And I think that it's our responsibility to make sure that that happens.
This question asks if what happened that made me want to create my own website, that I'd once said I would never submit to the technological age.
I think by creating the website I am not submitting, I'm taking charge. If I were to not create a website, and other people would be speaking for me, other people would be interpreting my ideas, that would be submitting.
The next question is about Anton LaVey and his death, and if that had any influence on the direction of the new album.
A lot of strange things happened to me in this past year since finishing the Antichrist Superstar tour. First, moving here to Hollywood was a rebirth for me. I think that I gained back my innocence; this is a very interesting and powerful town that has a lot of magic to it that I've always been drawn to since an early age. And I feel very alienated here despite how much people would think that someone like me would fit in more. And I did begin to regain my emotions here. Anton LaVey's death was something that kicked open a doorway that made me begin to feel empathy. And the more I began to feel my own pain and other people's pain, it became very intense. And, again, this record documents me experiencing this, so it's very personal. Also, my grandfather just recently died. Not the one that I spoke about in my book, but the one that I was close to. And I also became close to... several people. I began to experience love more, I began to experience friendship on a stronger level. So, in someways, the more I felt alienated from the rest of the world, it reflected the more I began to actually feel human for the first time.
The next question is a real important one that I think I should address now to you directly so the media can't shape it into whatever they have in the past. It's referring to what happened with Zim Zum.
Again, when we moved here to California, this city, that also like New Orleans that can break someone if their will isn't strong enough. And as we began to write Mechanical Animals together as a band, and we began to record it together as a band, Zim Zum's participation, his attention, his drive, and his focus began to dwindle because of his surroundings. I can't speak for him or explain why he lost interest, or what he got sucked into, but when we began to rehearse for our European tour, and we were finishing recording the album he wasn't showing up, and he had forgotten a lot of the songs from Antichrist Superstar. And the entire band, not just myself, took this as a grave insult. And we all felt that it was unfair to the fans, it was unfair to us, and the hard work that we've put into this band. So we had no real choice after warning him three solid times over the course of eight months, to replace him with John5. I should add also that, in the press, I simply said that he was replaced. I didn't go into any details. And Zim Zum made several statements saying that he quit because he wanted to pursue a solo career. It was in everyone's interest to leave things on a good term, so I decided not to make any statements. But he was in fact fired, and he did in fact participate in writing Mechanical Animals. He cowrote about half of the songs with Twiggy, but Twiggy and I still maintained the majority of the songwriting credits.
"What have your influences been for the new look and the new music?"
Well, it's important for me, and it always has been as a person, to evolve. And in some ways I've come full circle because I think that the band is now musically and visually a lot like how we started out in South Florida. And the music is a direct reflection of the sentiments that are trying to be translated on the album. Because I'm speaking so much more personally, it's speaking so much more about emotions and the human soul. The music's dynamics had to reflect that. Things couldn't be as pointed as they were on Antichrist Superstar, because I wasn't expressing the same sort of sentiments. So, hopefully that answers that question for you.
The next question is referring to my art, my paintings, and if I've thought of having exhibitions.
Painting was something that I got very involved in while working on Mechanical Animals. It was another way to express the way I was feeling. I included several of my paintings in the website, and if you look hard enough in Mechanical Animals, you'll find something that I've put there especially for you. In the future, I may offer some of my paintings if people are interested in buying them. Right now, I'm concentrating all of my efforts, though, on this music and this tour. But painting is something that I like to do in my spare time now.
"How did I find the strength to become successful?"
I didn't get the amount of willpower, I think, there's been a lot of things that have come in my way, and a lot of things that have tried to beat be down, and there's many times where I thought I'd fail. There were many times where sometimes it was just your support that helped me through this, over the last year, in particular. But it's a matter of your will and how much you believe in yourself and how much you believe that you can do what you set out to do. So, as far as strength, it's nothing that you can learn, it's nothing that you can buy. It's something that you have to find on your own through experience, and that's the only way you can get it.
"What is my current relationship with Daisy Berkowitz?"
Scott Putesky, who I will no longer refer to as Daisy Berkowitz because he abandoned that attitude long before he left the band. I would say there's no relationship now other than that he is currently suing me in claims that he helped create Marilyn Manson in the sense that what I represent and my ideas from my head he was a part of. I mentioned earlier I think it's quite clear to everyone that I've always thought this way. Obviously, it's my name, and it's something that I chose to represent what I had to express. So, I've never tried to cheat him out of anything, or hold him back from his career. In fact, we parted on good terms. I think that this lawsuit is a strange reflection of greed, and it's an ugly part of music that I don't really like to look at.
"What were your feelings and emotions while making this new album?"
It would be hard to answer that in any other way than to say I hope you could feel them when you listen to the record. I think there's a sense of bitterness, in regards to Hollywood and the rock and roll lifestyle. I think there's a sense of bitterness to what I went through last year. I think there's a sense of depression and isolation for the position that I now find myself in. And I think there's a sense of innocence. But I think that these are all things that when described, only cheapen the power of what I tried to put into the music, so I'd hope that when you listen to it, you can kind of unfold those things on your own.
"Do the lyrics in your songs depict your life any way whatsoever?"
I think everything I say is a direct reflection of my life in one way or another. I often choose metaphors such as Antichrist Superstar, and obviously Mechanical Animals. I'm not the type of writer that spells things out quite plainly, but I think I like to express things in a way that people can interpret and respond to on their own terms. So it's not just black and white, like "This is a song about this, or this is a song about that," so you can take from it what you want.
The next question is about the MTV awards, what can I tell us about it.
Well, I can tell you that we're going to be playing "The Dope Show," obviously. I think I'd like to save the surprises for when you watch the awards themselves. I think that it's very important that "The Dope Show" is performed here, for the first time, in Hollywood on the MTV awards. That makes the ultimate irony because it's an inditement of everything I see around me. And I don't think when you see the performance that you should necessarily interpret that as what our new stage show is going to be like. It is definitely one dimension of that, though.
"What sort of resistance have I found with the forthcoming tour, is it as strong as ever?"
It's hard to say because we haven't begun the tour, but I think if I had made a gospel album, if I had put a picture of me smiling on the album cover, I would still face the same resistance 'cause people are always gonna question my intentions now that I've established what I established on Antichrist Superstar. So I don't think our fight will be any less relentless than it was before. But that's always been a challenge, and I think that it may make it more interesting for us and it makes our cause more worthwhile.
"Do I think people should worship other people?"
I don't think that you should worship anything but yourself. I think you can identify with other people. I believe when the fans, when you people come to the show, and if you adopt certain images that reflect the band, if you wear t-shirts of mine - I don't see that as worship. I see that as us identifying with each other. That's your way of saying, "I'm a part of this also." And I think that's important. But I think you should believe in yourself. And I don't think that you should believe everything that I say. I think that you should be inspired by it and that it should make you go on and create your own beliefs.
"Any thoughts of going back to my roots, regarding Portrait of an American Family?"
I think that Mechanical Animals does go back to my roots in some ways. But it also evolves into another level that I haven't yet touched, and kind of opens the doors to a new beginning for me. In regards to style and attitude and frame of mind in particular, I think that I have come very much full circle.
"Where do I think rock is going, what performers do I admire, dead or alive?"
Strange enough to hear this coming from my mouth, some of the only people that I consider contemporaries to me right now would be The Spice Girls and Garth Brooks. They're the only ones that take on music with a sense of greatness, with a sense of trying to achieve something bigger than life. That's not to say that I agree what either of them stand for, or to say that either of them represent anything other than just commercialism. But to combine the power and greatness of something as big as that, or something as big as someone that I idolized as a kid, like KISS, or David Bowie, or T-Rex, and put something very personal into that, something personal that you identify with and that we put together, I think that that is the making of a new era. That is the making of greatness. That rock and roll is more powerful than anyone expects it to be, and that we're on the verge of achieving great things together. There's a very interesting film that everyone should try and rent called Wild In The Streets. It was made in the late sixties, and it's about a rock star that goes on to become President and leads a revolution to change the way that America thinks. I saw that as a kid and it's very inspirational to me. I think that it would be inspirational to all of you as well.
"How do I feel about having as many hate sites as fan sites?"
I think it's just as flattering if someone's taken as much effort to point out all the reasons that they hate you; that's just as much as loving you, and I think that there's only really two kinds of people in the world, people that love what we're about, and people that are stupid.
"Do I see the bulletin board and chat at marilynmanson.net as a better way to get fan reactions to what I do?"
I think there's a danger with any great art, that if you begin to test your ideas on other people, and get their opinions before making decisions, or if you pay too much attention to what other people say about what you create, that it really pollutes your expression. I think that that... I'm much more about pure art and honesty and expressing exactly what I feel, and not caring so much what anyone says. However, I do respect, and I do pay attention to everyone's comments. And I do take them into consideration. But I don't base my decisions by it. But the website is a place where I think that we can communicate directly. If there's something that you hear on another site, or something that you hear in an article or in the news, you can find out if it's real or not by coming to me directly. And that's not going to say that I'm going to have personal conversations, because obviously, there's too many people and not enough time. But hopefully I can provide some sort of leadership, some sort of guidance for a world that's on the brink of being completely out of control. The Internet is a very powerful tool, but right now it's being handled by a lot of fools. And that's not to say that any of the websites that you have created, but just the Internet in general. And I think us together, Marilyn Manson as a whole, what we all stand for, should be the biggest spider on the web. I think that it will become our web. Not something that uses us, but something that we will control.
"Do I ever worry that fans miss the message?"
Sometimes I'm disappointed when people interpret things so badly that it reflects upon all of us in a way that I don't think represents what we're about. However, I think that all Lies and rumours make up just as much of me as what I consider the truth. When you put it all together, that's what anybody is.
"Do I have a lot of friends or do I consider myself a lonely person?"
I have very few friends, but I value them all greatly, because I don't think friendship is something that, especially in the position that I'm in, that should be taken lightly.
I'm not sure if I understand the next question. It says, "Who is really Pogo'?"
Pogo is a nickname that we've called Madonna Wayne Gacy for the past eight years.
What was my inspiration for the "Dope Show" video?
Living in Hollywood, like I mentioned, it made me feel very alienated. And there's so many people that I've seen around me fall prey to dope, which is really a euphemism not only for drugs, but to fame, to power, to money. And this video is kind of representing how the world tries to put me into a rehabilitated state, tries to shape me, tries to make me into this perfect rock star, tries to make me into something safe. But that I refuse to be a clone, refuse to be copied, to be a copy. And that was kind of the dream that I had in everything that I saw when writing this song. And I expressed that to Paul Hunter, director, I had more. It was a pleasure working with him because he came from a different school of working and a different frame of mind.
The next question refers to me stating that there are no real rock stars so much anymore, and did Nirvana play a role in that?
I think, in a lot of ways, not Nirvana particularly, but what Nirvana created – grunge music, the trend that followed that entire sentiment, that being stripped away and the pseudo-honesty that if you're not a rock star in the way you look, per se, that your music is more valid or it's more honest. I think that was a direct reaction to the era that ended with Guns 'N' Roses and Jane's Addiction. And I think that Marilyn Manson is the end to the era that began with Nirvana, and I think that we as a band look forward to creating a new era that is much more revolutionary, much more creative, and bring back the true spirit of what rock music was meant to be.
The next question's kind of ambiguous, about "What do I see in the future, as well as my future and the world's?"
I'm not a fortune teller, but I've always been very inspired by my dreams, and by things that most people would call coincidences. Mechanical Animals is inspired by dreams that I've had over this past year. It is also inspired by a story that I've written, that I plan on making into a film. That film and this album is a dystopia that I've seen before me, and it is inspired by the idea that mankind is slowly, particularly now, more severely, making himself more and more irrelevant in the world.. By each new thing that we create, we make our personality, and our individuality, and, in the end, our soul, worthless and irrelevant. Eventually, our cell phones will have our conversations for us. Eventually, our computers will type out our ideas and our answers for us. And this is part of the dream that Mechanical Animals represented to me. And the one ray of faith that I have, that I try to assert on this album, is that if we came to a time when our creations, machines, for lack of a better word, replaced us and made us obsolete. The thing that they would eventually discover is that you cannot duplicate the human soul, you cannot duplicate man's need to create. Something can create, but it will never have the desire and the need to express itself.
"When was the last time I saw Tony Wiggins?"
He was, in fact, here in Los Angeles last week, I believe, with Twiggy. From the reports that I heard, he passed out in a bar and knocked himself unconscious. But I haven't seen him in a good six months, I think. The last time I saw him was actually here, on the Sunset Strip. And someone had mistakenly given me an animal tranquilizer that made it impossible for me to walk. I had to be carried away, and I think that Tony Wiggins may have been involved in that.
This question asks me if there's anything that I regret, as an artist or as a person.
I don't think we should ever regret anything we do. I think we have to accept the consequences and you learn from your mistakes, and that's how you grow as a person.
"Do I ever look at the unofficial websites for Marilyn Manson?"
I do, and there's a lot of them that I appreciate. One of the strongest ones, that I think, interprets a lot of the things that I say very accurately is angelmanson.com. I think that they're all great. I think that they all have different strengths, obviously, and different weaknesses. And I think that they're all very important, and I'm going to have them all linked to my website. I don't think I can try and outdo some of their creativity, I don't want to try and outdo the amount of information they have. The purpose of my website is so that we can have direct communication with each other.
This next question asks me if I'm going to be in any films in the future.
I have a small, very very small cameo in a film called Jawbreaker that Rose McGowan stars in. That will be out, I believe, in January. And it's a very different role for me, however small it may be. I think that it will be something that you will be interested in seeing. I plan on maybe posting a photo of me in this film sometime over the course of the next few weeks to get you guys a sneak preview of what that's going to be like.
This asks if I have any plans for writing another book.
I have written some things since Long Hard Road Out of Hell; they are possibly something that could be considered as fiction. However, they are directly inspired by my personal life. I don't think at any time now, anything that I write could ever truly be fiction, because it's so hard for me as an artist to step outside of what moves me personally, because that is my inspiration.
This asks if I plan on touring Europe.
I'm making a short press tour to Europe sometime next week. The official musical tour of Europe will take place sometime before Christmas, after we complete the short run in America.
This is an important question. It says "What is the significance of 'Find the Truth' on my website?"
It's not to say that the other websites are lies, it is to say that no one else is making statements but me on this website. So if you want to find out how I'm feeling, what I have to say, what my thoughts are, you can only find it here because I'm the one that's in charge of it. Anybody else can only speculate on what I'm feeling.
"Are the stories about the karaoke bar true?"
They are, and I haven't really gone into them full detail. Maybe that's something I'll save for another book, because there's so many stories, so many interesting characters, that have come in and out of my life via the karaoke machine over this past year. But the ones that I mentioned, Corey Feldman and Leif Garrett together singing Grease were probably the most amusing moments of the entire karaoke period. But I think we'll wait, and I'll start posting some more photos for you guys so you can see some of the people that stop by.
This question is a little more serious; "Does it bother me when I am blamed for kids committing suicide?"
It bothers me that someone could grossly misinterpret something enough to kill themselves. But I don't think that anything I've ever said would encourage that. I think that everything I've ever said has been a fight for life, has been me struggling to keep my head above water. I think that I've always discourage weakness. I think I've always discourage pitiful escapes like suicide, regardless of how many times I myself and everyone around me has considered thoughts like that. I think that it's easy for me to be a scapegoat. I think we've all known that. I think that because of the way we look, or because of the things that we think or what we listen to, we're always going to get blamed because it's the easy, simplest way for people to think. It doesn't take any effort to really realize that it's their inability to raise their children properly that results in this. And it's people's guilt via religion and via pseudo-morality in America that pushes people to behave that way.
"What other current artists do I admire?"
Andy Warhol's a hero of mine. I'll always be a longtime fan of The Beatles and David Bowie and T-Rex. New bands that I enjoy: I listen a lot to the album This Is Hardcore by Pulp. I listen to a wide variety of things. Some days I might want to listen to Slayer, some days I might want to listen to an old Mötley Crüe record. Some days I want to listen to the soundtrack to 2001 or A Clockwork Orange. I like a lot of the music that's in the Stanley Kubrick films. It's hard to find people to admire in this era of music that we're in. Obviously, I respect people like Billy Corgan. I still have a great amount of respect for Trent Reznor. I think that that's probably the best way that I could answer that question.
"What are my thoughts on President Clinton?"
I guess because everyone assumes that I have a different sense of morality, that I've gotten asked that question a lot. I think that he should have just chosen a more attractive or more interesting candidate to perform oral sex on him. But I also think that, according to rules set forth in my book, that blowjobs are like handshakes or autographs; they're part of the business. So, he's not really guilty of anything as far a I'm concerned.
"Is John 5 a member of the group?"
John 5 is now a member of the group, and I hope he stays that way, and I believe he will.
"Do other members of the band have access to the bulletin board on the website?"
They will have access to it; I think currently I'm going to have the most involvement in it, but I'm going to try and set it up so that each band member has his own section, so that if you wanna direct questions to them, we can eventually get to a point over the next couple of months where we can do that.
"How do I feel when bands like Psychotica and Orgy seem to look and sound somewhat look like I do?"
Everybody's inspired by something, and it's how you take your inspirations and make them your own that kind of expresses you as an artist. Y'know, I spoke to Gene Simmons the other day. And as a kid growing up, he listened to David Bowie, he listened to Alice Cooper. As a kid growing up, I listened to KISS, I listened to David Bowie, I listened to Alice Cooper. Nothing that you see can ever be truly original in any way, everything is always inspired by something. But I think it's always, as an artists, better to take your inspirations from classical things of the past, and try to make them your own. To try and jump on a current bandwagon, I think is the easiest thing anyone can do. And I think, especially by me breaking away in some ways from what people's expectations were for this album, I shed my skin of a lot of imitators. Those two bands in particular I don't hold any bitterness towards. I do see the inspiration there, and I guess I can only take it as flattery.
"Was it weird making this record without Trent as a producer?"
I never really thought about it while doing it. But if I were to reflect upon it, I would say that this is the easiest record to make. Physically, it wasn't as demanding because I don't think I was in as much physical pain. However, emotionally, it was very taxing. And this record came from a lot of loneliness and a lot of isolation, a lot of depression. But as far as not working with him, I think it gave us the ability to really shine as a band and to really show people what we were made of, and not be held down by limitations that we would have if we were working with him or expectations people would have of us by working with him.
"Did I feel the need to use as many drugs to record this record as Antichrist Superstar?"
When recording Antichrist Superstar, I think that drugs were used to numb emotions, and I think I took out a lot of physical pain on myself, because I was trying to become something superhuman. And what I discovered at the end of that road was that I needed to be vulnerable as well. I needed to have emotions. So I had to go through that transformation. I had to dig as deep and come as close to death as I could so that I could come full circle and be reborn as a stronger person. So on this record, I wasn't feeling that same... the same thing I was feeling, so drugs weren't playing the same role. I think drugs played more of an inspirational or recreational role, more of a decadent role. It wasn't something I was running to, to hide from myself. It was more something I went to for inspiration. Something if I wanted to disassociate my mind and my body. Drugs were inspirational in that sense. Something that if I wanted to open up doors that aren't really open to the normal conscious mind, drugs were used.
"I heard Billy Zane from Titanic was in your new video," this person asks.
That is true. Billy Zane is someone that I met and is a fellow artist, and sometimes we work together, painting, however pretentious that might sound. It was really quite simple, though. We would just spend time together, hanging out, listening to music, or painting. We became friends. He was one of the first people I met when I moved to Hollywood. And I think he's a cool actor. I didn't really like the movie Titanic, but I thought he played a good asshole, and I appreciate that because I often play a good asshole myself.
"My new look doesn't seem as dark as my past look. Am I happier now than in the past?"
I think that the interesting thing a lot of people miss about glam rock, the glam rock that I enjoyed as a kid growing up that has been inspirational to me on this album, is that the outward appearance, the flashiness of it, is intentionally sarcastic and it reflects something much darker beneath. And that's something that a lot of people miss.
"Do I like living in Hollywood?"
I like it in that it inspires me, because I don't feel like I fit here.
This question is about the rock opera movie, if I'm going to be making that, and/or directing it.
The movie is something I'm going to focus very strongly on at the beginning of next year, and it's not limited to the music that's on Mechanical Animals, but it is greatly inspired by it, as well as the music from Antichrist Superstar. It upsets me, just as a fan of film and as a fan of music, that the last movie that had the two together in any sense was Spice World. And I miss things like Tommy, I miss things like The Wall, I miss things like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. And I'd like to make something just as powerful.
"What does the line 'Cops and queers make good looking models' refer to?"
It's an interesting question, it depends on how you want to look at it. I think mostly when people ask me about that, I like to leave it up to their interpretation. It's something that was inspired mostly by me viewing how the two words are very stereotypical, and how the two words are often used in a derogatory way, and how I was using them in more of a sarcastic, almost complimentary way.
Do I see Mechanical Animals as a sequel or a prequel?
Mechanical Animals, in some ways, because it's almost a direct reflection on my life, could be viewed as the second half of Antichrist Superstar. But I think that it's the direct result of the transformation of Antichrist Superstar. So, you can really interpret that how you'd like.
This question's interesting. "What do I think of Jack Off Jill?"
It was a band that I obviously created the name for, so at one time I was very involved in what they were doing creatively, and I tried to... In fact, Jessica was a very close friend of mine, and I encouraged her to start a band. And I helped them out when they did, and helped them as much as I could at the time. I think later, her relationship with Scott Putesky after he departed Marilyn Manson may have put a wall between us. But there's a strong chance that we could amend our friendship in the future. That's always open to me. I don't dislike the band, and I think that musically, they have their own sound, and they have the potential to go on and make great things.
A lot of people always like to ask me this: "Where do I see myself in ten years from now?"
I don't like to look at things like that, because the things that I see are very disturbing, and I often don't see myself in ten years from now. I think that it's better to focus on each day, and to live each day to the fullest.
"Does it bother me that my song is getting played on the radio more now, am I afraid of becoming too mainstream?"
This is a classic scenario that a lot of young kids create. Fortunately for me, when I was growing up, I never felt this way because I must have had the insight to realize that if you appreciate an artist, and if a song or a band or an album is great, and it's strong, and it's true, the more people that like it can only help it and make it better. If a song is a fad, or if a band is a fad, if you've got a Sugar Ray, or you got, y'know, whatever band you want to pick on, and say you're sick of hearing this song, that is what's bad about mainstream. And that's what something that's true and strong can change. When I was growing up, I couldn't have thought David Bowie or KISS or Annie Lennox, or any of these people could be true or great at what they do, and these were all commercial artists, pop artists. And they changed and inspired the way that we all think. They've influenced me as an artist, they changed people's opinions on style, they've changed people's opinion on music. So I think, as long as what you create is true to what you are, the more people that hear it can only make it better. And I think it's important that fans don't judge new fans, because everybody hears something for the first time. A fan that's been around since Antichrist Superstar shouldn't have the attitude that someone who heard "The Dope Show" isn't as cool as them, or isn't as dedicated as them, because maybe they didn't hear Portrait of an American Family. By judging other people, it's everything that we stand against. We're trying to say, "Let's break down these barriers. Let's make our own standards." We don't want to judge each other. We have to stick together. I think the more people that hear it, the more of us there are, and that the more power that gives all of us.
"What exactly does the name Mechanical Animals mean?"
I may have answered that partially earlier. However, Mechanical Animals is the way I describe mankind and the path it's following. That people look and act like human beings, but inside, we're losing our souls, that we numb ourselves with drugs, we numb ourselves with television. we numb ourselves with the Internet, with prescription drugs, with whatever we can find, because everyone's afraid to be an individual. And Mechanical Animals is the fear that I have for the world.
I just have a few more questions I'm gonna answer. Someone wants to know if I prefer performing, writing, or recording.
Each of them has their own strength. I think... I feel that performing is the most cathartic and most immediate way to express yourself, because it's an interaction between the people watching it and what you're doing. And that's when I feel it the most. But I love each one of them equally.
I think that's everything I'm gonna answer for now. But I'd like everyone to know that I will be observing the message boards on a daily basis. You will find messages from me however frequently I'd like to post them. You should watch on a daily basis. I'm going to update you with photography. The Manson Gallery is going to be filled with artwork that I've been creating. It's going to be filled with photographs of the band on tour. You're going to see a lot of things that only you can find on this website, things I'm gonna give to you only. Eventually, I would like to faze out certain elements of the media so that we can talk personally, that it doesn't have to be filtered through them. Eventually, it would be great if we didn't have to go through MTV. You can come see my videos here.
What I'd like to give to you guys as a gift for your dedication is the first peek at Mechanical Animals besides "The Dope Show." I'm going to be downloading tomorrow on liquid audio the song "Posthuman." And that is for you. And if you also keep an eye out, over the course of the next week, I have some uncensored footage from "The Dope Show." A lot of you have been asking what's censored about it, and I think you're confusing that with MTV's censoring of the word "queers." There's footage that we weren't allowed to put in the video that I'm going to give to you directly.
There's a very interesting limo ride scene between the woman who dances at the end of the song whose name is The Goddess Bunny, who is actually a transsexual. And there is a sex scene that is very explicit that takes place between her, Pogo, and Twiggy. And I thought that would be something you'd be interested in seeing, so I'm going to provide that for you, as well as some other stuff of myself that you didn't get to see in the video.
So, I want to thank everybody again. Tomorrow night is the MTV Awards. I hope you all enjoy that. And look for me now on the website, and I will be posting as Omega015, and when you see that, you'll know it's from me. And I will try and fulfill all of your problems with the website, and try and keep things updated on a daily basis to meet your needs, because I appreciate your support. So, thank you very much. This is me signing off now.