When “Bowling for Columbine” first hit theaters, even people who were familiar with Marilyn Manson and his gothic- industrial-meets-glam music were surprised at the rock singer’s insightful interviews with filmmaker Michael Moore.
When asked about the accusations that he was responsible for the Columbine killings, Manson, sitting in a small room backstage at Mile High Stadium in full costume, replied quite naturally: “I definitely can see why they would pick me. Because I think it’s easy to throw my face up on the TV, because in the end, I’m a poster boy for fear … because I say and do whatever I want.”
Manson, who plays Coors Amphitheatre on Saturday, has since said that the scariest moment of the Columbine fallout was that show at Mile High. “If someone wants to kill you, you’re dead, that’s all there is to it,” he told Rolling Stone in June. “I was being followed around by about 20 plainclothes police officers. Everyone, my family and loved ones … begged me not to do it, but they knew I had to.”
Catching up with The Denver Post a few weeks ago, the gothic-rocker said that Denver show was the beginning of a massive life shift, one that comes to a close with the recent release of his new record, “Eat Me, Drink Me.”
“For me, the most memorable part of that interview was the fear of the whole experience, trying to be convinced by everyone to not perform,” Manson said. “As much as I realized that I have to do what I do, I also realized that if I can’t do what I do, I can’t live in the sense that, last year, I started to separate my work and who I am, and both nearly died.
“I nearly stopped making music and stopped having a reason to live. But this change in my life started with that trip to Denver, where I realized that people were able to see a different part of me. They rallied with me and identified with my way of thinking without me changing my musical identity.”
This record has basically saved his life, Manson said. That’s a curious statement, given that Manson considers himself to be inhuman and, if he’s in the right mood, the Antichrist. If nothing else, it has opened a chapter of his life to his loyal fans following his every move, including his recent divorce from burlesque queen Dita Von Teese, a split that inspired most of the new material.
“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for this record,” Manson said. “Now I feel as if I’ve resurrected myself and who I want to be.”
As much as this record was integral to Manson forwarding his musical career, “Eat Me, Drink Me” is hardly the singer’s great artistic statement. Manson created music that was essential listening throughout the late ’90s with the CDs “Antichrist Superstar” and “Mechanical Animals.”
It’s fair to say that producers Trent Reznor and Dave Ogilvie contributed to Manson’s anthemic-pop approach to the gothic-industrial subgenre, something Reznor had perfected with his own group, Nine Inch Nails. But Manson also brought something to the table. As the principal songwriter of songs such as “Angel With the Scabbed Wings,” “Tourniquet” and “The Beautiful People,” Manson created an aesthetic microcosm that went far beyond the sonics.
With “Eat Me, Drink Me,” there’s some interesting production, and the imagery, as always, is vividly disturbing. But nothing catches as instantly – or latches on as potently – as Manson’s previous outings. The single “If I Was Your Vampire” comes the closest to grabbing the listener, and while some people might call the track a throwback to his “Antichrist” days, it plays without the authority of “Superstar.”
Another single, “Heart-Shaped Glasses,” is a joke and little more than an excuse for Manson to frolic about with his new girlfriend, 19-year-old actress Evan Rachel Wood, in a sometimes-erotic, often-dull music video. Wood, Manson’s muse for the new record, met the rocker on the set of “Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll,” a feature film Manson is starring in and directing.
“A lot of the lyrics were taken from the 15 or 20 notebooks I had compiled with chaotic ramblings that went in all sorts of directions,” Manson said.
The results, while not all that musically stimulating, were positive. And Manson isn’t fearing his trip back to Colorado this weekend, either.
“I feel like I’m in the best period mentally and physically and musically that I have ever been in,” Manson said. “I’m quite excited about coming back to Denver. … One of the reasons I felt I had nothing left to say in music was because I’d said all I could say on a lot of these subjects. Now the world has caught up with me on a lot of these subjects. And if I’m 1 percent of the reason that people have started to think differently on certain things, then I’m happy.”
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
