Music Mondays: Marilyn Manson's "Heart Shaped Glasses"

I've always liked Marilyn Manson, his style his music, his way of life. When people hear Marilyn Manson they're instantly turned off thinking he's evil and a devil worshiper. You know people just need to calm down and not be so quick to judge. Just cause he looks a certain way doesn't mean he's bad. I've listened to his songs and they're not bad. Everyone thinks they're going to be so bad cause of the way he looks and acts but they're not. Yes his Cd's do have a parental advisory sticker on them but that's mainly because he says the F word in his songs big whoop! It's not like we don't hear the F word all the time in the real world. Any who now onto the good stuff.

Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), better known by his stage name Marilyn Manson, is an American musician and artist known for his controversial stage persona and image as the lead singer of the eponymous band, Marilyn Manson. His stage name was formed from juxtaposing the names of two 1960s American cultural icons, namely, actress Marilyn Monroe and convicted multiple murder mastermind Charles Manson as a critical and, simultaneously, laudatory appraisal of America and its peculiar culture. He has a long legacy of being depicted in the media as a detrimental influence on young people. The seemingly outrageous styles for which he models and the controversy surrounding his lyrics have led to his very pronounced public appeal.

He was born in Canton, Ohio, the only child of Barb (née Wyer) and Hugh Warner. Manson is of German descent on his father's side, and is a fourth cousin twice removed of Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan. In his autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell he detailed his grandfather's sexual fetishes (including bestiality and sadomasochism) influence to the forming of Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids. The environment in his childhood made him vulnerable to further abuse and he was molested several times by a neighbor. The trauma put him on a path of rebellion.

As a child, he attended his mother's Episcopalian church, though his father was Catholic. Warner attended Heritage Christian School from first grade to tenth grade. He later transferred to Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Manson graduated from high school in 1987, and became a student at Broward Community College in 1990. He was working towards a degree in journalism and gaining experience in the field by writing music articles for a South Florida lifestyle magazine, 25Th Parallel. He would soon meet several of the musicians to whom his own band would later be compared, including My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.

Manson formed Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids in Florida in 1989 (the name was shortened to Marilyn Manson in 1992). While with The Spooky Kids, he was involved with Jeordie White (also known as Twiggy Ramirez) and Stephen Gregory Bier Jr. (also known as Madonna Wayne Gacy) in two side-projects: Satan on Fire, a faux-Christian metal ensemble where he played bass guitar, and drums in Mrs. Scabtree, a collaborative band formed with White and then girlfriend Jessica (vocalist with the band Jack Off Jill) as a way to combat contractual agreements that prohibited Marilyn Manson from playing in certain clubs. In the summer of 1993, the band drew the attention of Trent Reznor. Reznor produced their 1994 debut album, Portrait of an American Family and released it on his Nothing Records label. The band began to develop a cult following, which grew larger with the release of Smells Like Children in 1995. That EP yielded the band's first big MTV hit with "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)," a cover of the 1983 Eurythmics hit. Antichrist Superstar (co-produced by Trent Reznor) was an even greater success.

He later went on to release his Cd Eat me Drink me with his single "Heart Shaped Glasses" that he wrote for his then girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood. Manson even had Evan be in the music video for the song which made her the highest paid actress in a music video.

*Infromation from Wikipedia and IMDB.com*