TORONTO — Shock rocker Marilyn Manson told an audience in Cannes on Monday he would go on a killing spree before ever taking his own life.
“If I die and you read that I commit suicide, they lied,” he said. “Because if I was going to do that I would take everyone with me.”
Appearing in conversation with Tor Myhren, Chief Creative Officer at the Grey advertising agency, at the Cannes Lions festival, Manson insisted he isn’t suicidal.
“You might mistake a song for being suicidal, but that’s a state of thought,” he explained. “It’s the whole point of art. Rather than doing something you just express it.”
Manson had the audience buzzing with his candid comments about sex, drugs and the impact the 1999 school shootings in Columbine had on his career.
Some highlights:
On Columbine:
Manson said his team sent media outlets cease-and-desist orders to get them to stop evoking his name in coverage of Columbine.
“I trademarked the name Marilyn Manson. It’s not a stage name, it’s not my legal name. Marilyn Manson is owned by Brian Warner, my real name,” he explained.
On getting sex advice from his dad:
“My father told me when I was very young, ‘If ever you are with a woman, squirt lemon juice on her, if she screams, don’t have sex with her, she has a disease.'”
On losing his virginity:
“My father told me if I didn’t lose my virginity by the time I was 18, then he was going to get me a hooker. I was so scared, I slept with someone in 10th grade and got crabs.”
On his relationship with actress Evan Rachel Wood:
“Mistake!”
Earlier, he warned the audience about trusting people with three names.
On his personality:
“People don’t expect someone like me to be awkward and shy. I know it doesn’t seem that way on stage. When I’m talking to people off-stage, I’m talking to people I know, but when I’m on stage, I’m singing to people who I have never met before. I hide my fears with sarcasm.”
On his pre-show ritual:
“I sit in my room for three hours in the dark. It’s set at 65 degrees and I listen to music and drink water or alcohol.”
On fame:
“Having an avatar doesn’t make you have an identity and having a persona online doesn’t make you a personality either. When everyone can be famous, to me it’s not a challenge. It makes it even easier. It just makes the best rise to the top. If everyone can make music then I make better music.”
On fans:
“I don’t believe you can ever get lazy enough about your fan base. A lot of people say they want to appeal to fans, but I want to make new fans. I want people who didn’t like me before to listen to my music.”
On his longevity:
“It’s difficult because you don’t want to become a caricature of yourself, and you don’t want to be a cliché … sometimes I wonder if I have outgrown the spotlight.”
He added: “I don’t like being a celebrity.”
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