MARILYN MANSON: 'I'm Always Going To Be Bad'

According to MansonUSA.com, Austin Scaggs of Rolling Stone magazine recently conducted an interview with Marilyn Manson. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Rolling Stone: What did Evan's [Rachel Wood, Manson's 19-year-old girlfriend] parents think of the ["Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)"] video [featuring several soft-core sex scenes starring Manson and Evan]?

Manson: Well, I had to have a drink with Evan's mother and father. The main thing that needs to be established is that I might share my life with her, but that does not incriminate her in my behavior. So if I want to go dig a hole and bury my genitals in it, that doesn't mean she dug the hole. Basically, I'm not as bad in the way they'd like to think I am. But I'm bad in a different way. I'm always going to be bad. More bad than Michael Jackson, but that's probably not a good comparison, considering.

Rolling Stone: They'd obviously be concerned with what she's up to around you.

Manson: Absolutely. I'm not surprised by that. But I found a strange ironic similarity with what her father said to me and what my dad said to Evan, which was, "If you break his heart, I'll kill you," or something along those lines.

Rolling Stone: You always have a unique woman with you, whether it's Rose McGowan or Dita Von Teese or Evan. What separates Evan, in a professional sense?

Manson: Evan was a real catalyst to help me realize that I wasn't delivering the message that I always stood for. And if you were to speak about her talent and personality, she's the most unique, stand-alone person who doesn't need a relationship with me to further her career. If anything, I could only take away from it.

Rolling Stone: You've shocked plenty of people. Growing up, what shocked you?

Manson: The shootings at Kent State — because I grew up in Ohio and could probably ended up going to Kent State. I grew up very afraid of war, and for the oddest reasons. I wasn't afraid of dying as much as I was really afraid of getting my hair cut. It might sound funny, but it's really true.

Rolling Stone: You received death threats after the Columbine massacre. What was the scariest moment?

Manson: I had just been interviewed by Michael Moore [for "Bowling for Columbine"]. I was going to perform at Mile High Stadium in Denver, where if someone wants to kill you, you're dead, that's all there is to it. I was being followed around by about twenty plainclothes police officers. Everyone, my family and loved ones, so to speak, begged me not to do it, but they knew I had to.

Rolling Stone: Your European tour will hit a former monastery in Slovenia. Who booked that?

Manson: Everyone who's with me now are people that have actually stood by me after a really hard period in my life, and my manager, and the people who arrange the tours, are tying to accommodate my happiness. So when a show like that comes up, it's pretty irresistible. The question shouldn't be: "Why is Marilyn Manson playing a monastery in Slovenia?" It should be: "How are we going to get naked girls and chimpanzees in there?" That said, I'm not into interspecies erotica.