It’s hard to believe that Marilyn Manson and Trent Reznor had a decades long feud
considering how they used to work together and shared similar traits.
Today lets explore the feud between both musicians.
Trent Reznor had an early aptitude for music playing piano age the
age of 12 with his grandfather telling people magazine in 1995
"[Reznor] was a good kid [...] a Boy Scout who loved to skateboard, build model planes,
and play the piano. Music was his life, from the time he was a wee boy. He was so gifted."
Growing up in Pennsylvania, Reznor found excitement through music, horror movies and
television shows to escape the boredom of small town life. It would be music that allowed him
to reinvent himself later in his life. He would play jazz was in the marching band and was part
of the drama club in high school playing Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. A strange coincidence
that he’d later work with Marilyn Manson’s on his Antichrist Superstar album years later.
Reznor would end up moving to Cleveland Ohio in 1985, when he was 23 and worked as a janitor and
assistant engineer in a local studio. During his off days he was allowed to record material
in the studio and that would result in Nine Inch Nails debut record 1989’s Pretty Hate Machine.
The album was a success going gold, despite the fact that it was released on an indie
label. Reznor’s follow up 1992’s EP broken went into a heavier direction
and it resulted in a prolonged legal battle with his label TVT Records over creative control over
Nine Inch Nails sound. Reznor eventually would sign with major label interscope.
Reznor would meet Marilyn Manson around 1989 when Manson interviewed Reznor while he worked
as a journalist for a south florida publication called the 25th parallel.
They would meet at a club in Florida and according to Manson’s biography
Reznor wasn’t very friendly initially as he was moping in the corner, but as they chatted
things seemed to warm up. Manson would tell Guitar World in 1992 "Trent and I met around
the same time that Marilyn Manson was formed,". "We became friends. We had a lot in common."
By the early 90’s they would meet again when Manson’s band the Spooky Kids were
opening for Nine inch nails at a club in Florida. . Manson by his own admission was
tripping on acid and went to Reznor asking him for feedback on the band’s performance.
Reznor hadn’t watched the show, but took a tape from Manson Reznor and
Manson would end up collaborating on the video for the song ‘gave up’
from the Nine Inch Nails EP Broken. There would be three different versions of the video for
the song with one version featuring footage of Manson recording the track with the band
It was around this time that Reznor had formed his own label Nothing Records under Interscope & it
wasn’t too long after that Manson would end up hearing from Reznor’s manager asking for him to
send him more material. Manson would be the first artist Reznor would signed to his new imprint.
By this point in time Reznor was working on nine inch nails second LP The Downward Spiral
at 10050 Cielo Drive. It was the same home that actress sharon tate was murdered in
by followers of cult leader Charles Manson. Marilyn Manson soon began work on his first album
for nothing records initially titled the manson family album. Originally linked to the project
would be producer Roli Massoman who had worked with the Swans. But after several months of in the
studio over the summer of 1993 Manson wasn’t happy with the results. He felt that the recordings were
too polished and didn’t capture the live energy of the band.. By October of 1993 Trent Reznor
stepped in the producer chair and brought in some of his session players from Nine Inch Nails to
finish up the recording over a 2 month period with Manson telling the Miami new Times "We spent seven
weeks redoing, fixing, sometimes starting from scratch. That was our band's first experience in
a real studio on a project this big. We didn't know what to expect. It was fifteen-hour days,
with a team – Trent, Alan Moulder, Sean Beavan, and me – bringing out the sound." he'd say.
When the album was submitted to interscope for release in early 1994 the label initially rejected
the record citing concerns over references to Charles Manson. It had turned out around this time
Interscope was dealing with the backlash Guns N’ Roses initiated when they recorded a cover of the
Charles Manson song Look at you’re game girl as a hidden track on their 1993 album The Spaghetti
Incident a few months earlier. Side note guys i’ve done a whole video on the controversy. Link
is down below in the description box. The name of the album was changed to Portrait of
An American family. Satisfied, interscope put out the record, but it was a slow burn taking
almost a year to catch on. The album’s success was spurred by Manson’s 1995 EP Smells Like Children,
which produced a monster hit with the group’s cover of the Eurythmics song ‘Sweet Dreams.
Manson would admit in his book that he butted heads with Nothing Records
over what song to release the song as a single. The label instead wanted to put out his cover
of Screaming Jay Hawkins song i put a spell on you. Sweet Dream was Manson’s first big
hit on MTV and it introduced a lot of people to his shock rocker persona. The following
year Manson began work on the group’s second LP Antichrist Superstar. Up until this point Reznor
produced all of the band’s releases something which didn’t change with their next album.
Manson would recall to Rolling Stone how one of his dreams served as an inspiration for the
album saying , "I started having dreams and visions of the world being destroyed
and me being the only one left. It was like an ultimate retribution for all of the things that
have happened to me growing up. One dream took place some time in the future — it
may have even been in Fort Lauderdale. Entertainment had gone to such an extreme
that they had taken people and made them into zombies almost just for entertainment's sake.
Antichrist Superstar would be recorded over an eight month period and it was a tumultuous time
for the group. The band’s behavior in the studio was destructive resulting in damage
to both the building in addition to the band’s equipment.During the recording guitarist Daisy
Berkowitz left the group after having much of his equipment destroyed by both the band and
Reznor. Twiggy Ramirez would end up playing a majority of the guitar parts on the album.
The record also resulted in a lot of creative tension between Reznor and Manson.
Manson would claim that Reznor was responsible for starting the feud telling Howard Stern
"Trent came to me and said 'we need to stop doing drugs. The very next day ... I stopped
doing drugs. Then things changed and I was the nerd." Reznor according to Manson didn’t clean
up. And soon enough Twiggy Ramirez and Reznor were making fun of Manson calling him “arch-deluxe”.
Arch deluxe was a reference to a burger that mcdonalds was marketing exclusively to adults.
Following a fight between Reznor and Manson in the studio, the producer kicked the frontman out
only to take a hammer and destroy the hard drive that contained what many thought contained the
masters for the album. In the years that followed Manson thought the masters were
lost but it would turn out they were never on the hard drive that reznor smashed.
Antichrist Superstar would be the album that made Manson a household name, a staple of MTV
and filled religious conservatives with fear. Manson would take on a larger
than life persona with the media and religious organizations making him public enemy number 1
and recreated the fear of the satanic panic.
His concerts would be picketed, he would be barred from playing state run venues
and he became a scape goat for many of the problems America’s youth were facing.
Some states including South Carolina offered Manson money to not play their state and
schools in Florida went as far as threatening to expel students who attended his concerts.
The following year in 1997 The David Lynch Film Lost Highway would feature musical
contributions from both manson and reznor who were still wrapping up antichrist superstar. The
project supposedly took Reznor off of Manson’s album for a little while and it only added to
their strained relationship.. Manson would also make a cameo in the film with twiggy ramirez.
It was initially reported that Lynch originally asked Manson to score the soundtrack, but the
job eventually went to Reznor. Manson would end up leaving nothing records shortly afterwards.
The following year Reznor would be interviewed by spin magazine where the publication wrote
the following Unlike many musicians, Reznor is savagely aware of his place in the current strata
of pop stars. He constantly compares himself to other musicians, saying that he "can't write a
thousand songs like Billy Corgan," that he's "not as careerist as [Marilyn} Manson”. Reznor would
end up returning to Nine Inch Nails in 1999 putting out the group’s third LP The Fragile.
Featured on the album would be a song called Starfers Inc or as MTV put it Starsuckers.
which some interpreted to be a shot at both courtney love and marilyn manson
The irony of the diss track was that it also spelled the first sign of reconciliation
between Reznor and Manson. Manson would end up appearing in and co-directing the music
video for the song . He would also make a surprise appearance at Nine Inch Nails' concert on May 9th,
2000 at Madison Square Garden in New York City ,to perform the track. The concert also saw Manson
perform his own song Beautiful People with Nine Inch Nails Here’s MTV covering the reunion and
interviewing both musicians. We said we've both been competing there's much more terrible music
out there that we should reunite against. We remember a time everytime we'd open up
rolling stone there'd be a picture of michael stype popping out of somebody's underpants
and then it was billy corgan everywhere we don't want to make a vide that made it seem like
we're bitchy because limp bizkit's doing better than we are in their minds. Listen,
I'm not going to say that limp bizkit sucks, you know it, i know it. I'm not going to say it
It was around this time Reznor would speak to Kerrang magazine where he also confirmed
that himself and manson shared a mutual hatred of courtney love while also reflecting
on his new relationship with manson saying "It just felt really good to see the guy again
and hang out,". "I reluctantly missed him. We were like brothers and I couldn't even tell you why we
fell out. It was something to do with him getting some fame and both of us being out of our minds."
Side note guys I’ve done a video on the whole Courtney Love and Marilyn
Manson Tour from the late 90’s link is down below.
The reconciliation would be short lived as Manson and Reznor went back to sniping
at each other in the press. The source of the escalating tension was said to be the masters
of Manson's first several albums that he' wanted access to as he contemplated putting out reissues
Manson would tell an interviewer when asked about rereleasing his first 3 albums:
I'd like to say yes, but there’s a legal matter pending that I can’t say too much about.
It’s very hard to believe this, but representatives from Nothing Records
have indicated that they are not able to find, or have lost the master recordings to my first
three records. It's not something that you would ever let happen in musical history.
I would imagine something like that could only be intentional. If not intentional, it would have to
be done only through complete disregard. Now that Nothing Records doesn't exist,
I think there’s only one of two people responsible for that. Out of those two people,
there's only one that really has an opinion of me that is voiced very often" he'd say.
This coupled with the fact that Reznor got sober in 2001 led to the Nine Inch Nails
frontman keeping a distance between himself and manson. Reznor would claim to outlet WENN
"I'm not blameless, for sure "but part of it is we were friends, I was helping him out,
then he's on my label, then he's opening for my band, and the competitive nature of it got to him.
"I'm disappointed, but you lose friends along the way," said Reznor. "There's a
toxic element to him that probably wouldn't be healthy for me to be around" he would say.
In 2004 Reznor took a shot at Manson DUring a chat with fans One fan asked if Reznor
was planning on covering any songs in the future to which he responded “I was hoping
to do something unique and pertinent like do an exact cover or replica of the song personal jesus
but it was already taken. The comment was a shot at manson’s cover of the song.
Fast forward to 2009 Reznor would give an interview to Mojo magazine again blasting
Manson saying “he is a malicious guy and will step on anybody’s face to succeed and cross any
line of decency. Seeing him now, drugs and alcohol now rule his life and he’s become a dopey clown.”
Several years later in 2011 interview Reznor was asked whether he’d work with Manson again
responding that Manson is and i quote a talented person"
and that "we’ve had our problems, but I wear suits… I'm an adult now."
The following year Manson was interviewed by Arizona Central where he discussed their
relationship saying “ I don't have any bad feelings towards him. I really don't.
He helped put me out into the world and I went my way and whatever happened happened.
I don't think you should go back and fix things that have already been done anyway...I
don't think there is tension. I don't think we ever really had a lot in common. We had a
certain sense of humor in common. He was always more of the jock and I was more of the burnout."
Reznor would talk to Rolling Stone again in 2015 where the topic of Manson came up saying "I mean,
I really haven't thought much about that guy," Reznor responds. "I wish him the best and we
were good friends at one point in the past, and we became not such good friends. People change,
and I don't go around carrying it on my shoulders at all. So I have said many,
many stupid things in my career. That wasn't as bad as some, so I'm glad that you focused
on that one. Notice, I didn't deny saying that or my feelings didn't change" he'd say.
In 2017 Manson confirmed to radio host Howard Stern that the beef was water under the bridge
and that he was open to collaborating with Reznor . He would also reveal that Reznor
still has the masters to antichrist superstar and that the reunion was
initiated when Manson would be watching the documentary the defiant ones about
Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. That documentary also featured an interview with Reznor.
Manson would admit that it made him nostalgic for their friendship. It was around this time
that Manson and Reznor appeared to start talking again with Manson telling interviewerl Zane lowe
“He’s the one who’s actually sent me an email, we had sort of mended ways after a long time
through [Manson collaborator and producer] Tyler Bates strangely enough,” “He goes and he said
in the email something along the lines of, ‘It really pisses me off that music’s not dangerous
anymore and it reminds me of how great you were and I was and the time, the era." he'd say
Then this year news broke of Manson’s alleged mistreatment of women over the years.
Manson would end up losing his recording contract and be dropped by his manager.
Reznor would weigh in on the congroversy in the news putting out a statement that says
I have been vocal over the years about my dislike of Manson as a person and cut ties with him nearly
25 years ago. Reznor also took the time to slam Manson’s 1998 autobiography which described
a story where Manson and Reznor allegedly mistreated an inebriated women. Reznor would
go on to write this year As I said at the time, the passage from Manson’s memoir is a complete
fabrication. I was infuriated and offended back when it came out and remain so today.
The passage in question was allegedly part of an unpublished 1995 interview with the
now-defunct Empyrean Magazine, The story was removed from the interview because the
editors have concerns over unethical procedures that were used to get information from Manson.
That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button
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