With his vampish pallor and supernatural appearance, it’s hard to believe Marilyn Manson would ever really die without some sort of holy-water based ritual.
However, fans were shaken to their core when people started posting photo tributes to the iconic singer, with the caption ‘RIP Charles Manson’.
Yes, people were getting rock star Marilyn Manson – real name Brian Warner – mixed up with notorious cult leader and murderer Charles Manson, who died of natural causes yesterday at the age of 83.
Brian Warner took the stage name Marilyn Manson as a composite of two iconic American figures – Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson.
In Marilyn Manson’s autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, he wrote:
The balance between good and evil and the choices we make between them are probably the single most important aspects shaping our personalities and humanity…
Marilyn Monroe had a dark side just as Charles Manson has a good, intelligent side.
This isn’t the only time Marilyn Manson has referenced Charles Manson in his work. According to writer Tommy Udo in his book Charles Manson: Music Mayhem Murder:
His cover version of ‘Sick City’ – an acoustic rendering posted as an .MP3 file on his website in February 2000 as an ‘impromptu Valentines Day gift to fans’ was probably the most widely circulated and played Charles Manson song to date, outstripping the Guns N’ Roses cover of Look At Your Game Girl on The Spaghetti Incident.
Udo added:
By conflating the names of America’s greatest symbol with the name of its greatest icon of terror, Marilyn Manson set out to subvert ‘Christian’ America.
Marilyn Manson yesterday tweeted a picture of Charles Manson linking to his Sick City cover:
Charles Manson was the leader of a deadly cult, who manipulated his members into murdering pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six other people in 1969.
Some people are therefore not happy about ‘RIP Charles Manson’ trending on Twitter – worrying about how this dangerous man is being romanticised.
One person said, ‘y’all saying rip charles manson like he wasn’t out murdering people’.
48-year-old Marilyn Manson is currently alive, and still causing mayhem with his controversial music.
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.