Marilyn Manson Leads Prayer Circle With Kanye West and Justin Bieber
Embattled shock rocker Marilyn Manson once again appeared on stage with rapper Kanye West this weekend… and one point appeared to lead both West and pop star Justin Bieber in a prayer circle (photos below).
According to The PRP, the appearance was part of West’s Sunday Service performance on Halloween. These “events often promote a Christian-leaning gospel and ministry experience.”
That seems like an odd place for the author of Antichrist Superstar to make an appearance — and it’s made all the stranger by Bieber’s presence. Manson and Bieber have boomeranged between mutual admiration, beef, and mutual admiration again several times over the past few years.
Manson’s appearance at this event — and the fact that he seemed to be praying with West and Bieber at one point — naturally begs the question… Has Marilyn Manson found God?
On the one hand, that seems like SUCH a stretch, given how much of Manson’s career is built on anti-Christian sentiment.
On the other hand, neither West nor Bieber are known for their sense of irony, and both seem to be earnestly religious. In my experience, people who are way into Jesus don’t take kindly to making light of their faith — so at the very least, I would imagine, Manson is presenting himself as born again to Bieber and West.
Maybe this is Manson’s master plan to try and un-cancel himself. As you’re likely aware, he’s spent most of this year being sued by a plethora of former girlfriends who all say he was physically and psychologically abusive towards them; at least one ex claims he’s guilty of sex trafficking. The Christian Right has been only too-happy to look the other way when guys like Donald Trump and Roy Moore turn out to be sex criminals, so they’d probably welcome Manson with open arms, too.
Assuming this is the case, Manson would join Blackie Lawless from W.A.S.P. as the most famous metal musician who can no longer perform his most famous song (in Manson’s case, “The Beautiful People,” which includes the lyric “It’s all relative to the size of your steeple”). There would also be a ton of other Manson songs he’d no longer be able to perform… in fact, I don’t know what the rules about this kind of thing are, but the album art from Holy Wood alone might make that album off-limits now.
I guess we’ll see where this goes.
A flood of charges against Manson began in February, when actress Evan Rachel Wood alleged that Manson “horrifically abused me for years.” She elaborated on those accusations a week later, at which point she also said that Manson’s wife, Lindsay Usich, and someone named Leslee Lane were “conspiring to release photos of me when I was UNDERAGE, after being given large amounts of drugs and alcohol, after Brian performed on Halloween in Las Vegas, to ‘ruin my career’ and ‘shut me up.’”
Manson is currently being sued by three ex-girlfriends — Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco, actress Ashley Morgan Smithline and a woman identified only as “Jane Doe” — as well as a former assistant, Ashley Walters, for several charges related to sexual assault and physical and emotional abuse. Manson has denied all of the charges, claiming he is the victim of a conspiracy. He has been dropped by his label, Loma Vista, his agency, CAA, and his manager of 25 years, Tony Ciulla. He was also fired from television roles on the programs American Gods and Creepshow.
Two former Manson collaborators, Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland and Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor, have both spoken out against the shock rocker. Borland called Manson “a bad fucking guy” and asserted that his victims “are speaking the truth,” while Reznor said that he has “been vocal over the years about my dislike of Manson as a person and cut ties with him nearly 25 years ago.” He also denied, not for the first time, a story from Manson’s memoir, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, in which the singer claims that he and Reznor plied two women with alcohol and then took advantage of them once they were heavily inebriated.
Manson first appeared with Kanye at an event in August, which also included DaBaby, the rapper who recently faced backlash over homophobic comments he made earlier this year.
