Marilyn Manson Rambles, Makes Jokes About the Dark Knight Killer

This is Marilyn Manson. Photo credit also goes to Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson headlines this weekend's Sunset Strip Music Festival, which caps a crazy summer for him that included promoting his latest release Born Villain and an acting stint in Californication.

We spoke with him recently on the phone after he'd just gotten off stage in Toronto. Despite our best efforts to keep things structured he offered a lot of stream of consciousness rambling and with unsolicited recollections, not to mention some off color jokes about James Holmes. Still, somewhere in there he offered genuine observations about himself.

Stuck with a bad phone connection, we tell him our phone sucks, using the term "to tell ya the truth." "Don't ever say, 'To tell you the truth...'" he chides, "because that implies you lie. I learned that in journalism school." He likens himself to a sweaty zebra, referencing the black-striped face from his soon-to-be released video, "Slo-Mo-Tion" (above).

Will this be your new look?

I don't wash so there's never a new makeup look, it's whatever I'm stuck with the next day. Of course I did make a lot of ruckus with makeup from my trip leaving L.A. [Manson wore "Fuck You" scribbled across his face to LAX on Friday.] I'm very surprised I was not arrested by the TSA. I was kind of bored and also didn't really get what I would call a proper night of sleep. I won't say I was drunk, but I will say it might have been the amount of blood in my alcohol system.

Wait, you mean alcohol in your blood system?
No I like to say it the other way. It [the "Fuck You"] was something I'd done before but never at an airport. It wasn't really intended for the paparazzi as much as it was intended to be... me. I'm not being mean.. I'm just being me. [laughs]

Well all the articles about the incident said you were nice to everyone and covering your face for kids.
I would cover my face anyway because my face probably scares kids. But let it be known that it said 'fuck you' but then there was an ellipsis that was on my neck too. It wasn't neck acne... it was... I thought there could be more to say...

Some might say you do this stuff to get attention in a very calculated way.
I was bored. Of course it is to get attention but it wasn't really a mean thing because I live in L.A. and it would make it difficult to travel home. I'm in Canada now, just got off stage. It's raining here, and not just because I made it rain. I have to have a disclaimer before the shows: "Ladies and gentlemen, please get new panties or tissue because you will get wet." That's not really true. I like to make things up.

So how do I, or any journalist know you're serious or joking about something, then?
You don't. That would cancel out me, because the whole point to everything that I do... there's no reason to ever try to be shocking. I've never tried to be shocking. To be interesting or valuable as an artist is to be confusing and create chaos. When I was filming Californication [he'll play himself on the Showtime series], a reporter asked me 'if you could be anyone in the world other than yourself, who would you want to be?' I said, have you seen the new Batman? They said, 'oh you want to be Christian Bale, and I said no -- I do love Christian Bale and American Psycho is one of my favorite movies -- but I said no, I'm talking about the guy who cleared out all the seats on opening night.

I wasn't making fun of that, though. It's strange, as a quote un quote... wait scratch that... I hate people that say quote un quote. Technically -- this is another thing I learned in Journalism school -- the two fingered quote by your face (unless you're quoting a famous person or stating a piece of known vernacular or a euphemism) is single quotes. Ok, no one's ever declared that as law, but it's technically true. When people do double quotes I always correct them and say no, it's single quotes unless you're quoting someone like Abe Lincoln or me.

Back to the point... I'm wasn't being funny or derogatory when I said I wanted to be the guy who cleared out the seats opening night ... confusing yes. It was considerate of him to clear the theater because sometimes it's hard to get tickets and I haven't seen Dark Knight yet ...

Of course I was being comical but dark comical. The difference between that and a comedian... Comedians have a huge carte blanche and the ability to get away with saying a lot of things.

I've said offensive things in my time and I've been in trouble for a lot of them ... but people have to understand I started all of this to be sardonic. That's the whole point of the name Marilyn Manson.

I'm the kind of asshole that, you know, once you understand an asshole that makes you a buttfucker.