MARILYN MANSON IS WORKING ON ANOTHER BOOK
Manson still loves pussy
Marilyn Manson’s 1998 autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, is notable for several reasons. For one thing, it was its co-author (read: the dude who listened to Manson babble on and on and then actually turned those babblings into a book) Neil Strauss’ first foray into rock star hagiography, which is to say, it was ostensibly a practice run for Motley Crue’s superior The Dirt, which Strauss which would write three years later. For another thing, it was written at the height of Manson’s stardom, so the dude did not yet know the sting of releasing an album no one cared about, which means that, throughout the course of the book, he takes himself way, way, wwwwaaaayyyy too seriously. (He seems to think that he might actually be the antichrist, claims to have given Axl Rose the idea to record a Charles Manson song for “The Spaghetti Incident?!”, and more or less accuses Trent Reznor of not believing in him, despite the fact that Reznor signed him to his Nothing Records imprint, produced his first two albums, and co-wrote and played on a whole bunch of the songs on Antichrist Superstar.) And both because and despite this fact, the book is actually a really fun read. One of the highlights of MetalSucks’ Heavy Metal Literature Night a couple of weeks ago (and someday I’ll post a wrap-up and photos from that event, I swear) was a young woman reading Manson’s list of ways the reader can tell if he is gay (I say “he” because Manson claims that all women are lesbians) — for example, if you have ever gotten any semen on you, be it your own or someone else’s, you are, apparently, gay. (Allow me to congratulate each and every male reader of this site on being gay, many of you probably just this morning.)
Why am I rambling on and on about this? Because apparently Manson has hired former LA Weekly writer Erin Broadley to pen his new, authorized biography.
Now, part of me is bummed that this won’t be another autobiography, ’cause I’d really love to read Manson continue to go on and on about what a genius he is. Part of me isn’t disappointed in the change of format, though, ’cause a) maybe Broadley will get into the life and times of some of Manson’s undervalued collaborators, like Jeordie White (a.k.a. “Twiggy Ramirez”) and Tim Skold, and b) Broadley got the gig following a long and public feud with Manson that the God of Fuck started after reading something unflattering she’d written about him — in other words, Broadley’s tome might actually be, y’know, honest. I mean, I’m guessing she’s not afraid to speak truth to power.
Or maybe the book will suck. That’s always a possibility. But for now, I’m willing to be optimistic. I mean, if nothing else, we know that Manson continues to take himself too seriously: the above picture, which was released in conjunction with the book’s announcement, features Marilyn wearing a shirt of an issue of Rolling Drone on which he was on the cover.
No word yet on when the book will come out.
-AR
[via Metal Insider]
