Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson is not a figure from the past, and writing about him in the past tense is the first way of getting it wrong. He released a record on 14 August 2026, toured North America between August and September, and has two open civil cases, one of them with a jury trial already set. What does belong to the nineties is his best work: three concept records that functioned as essays on the American fascination with fame and with horror, built with a precision the scandal covered up. And there is one fact from the court file that sums up why this story is better told with dates than with adjectives: the only lawsuit that ended with him paying was the one he filed himself. None of it makes sense told as legend, and all of it makes sense told as record.

Fort Lauderdale, 1989, and a system of names

Brian Warner formed Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1989. The stage name combines Marilyn Monroe's with Charles Manson's, and it is worth being exact about the second half: Charles Manson was a cult leader convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy for the Tate-LaBianca crimes, but he did not personally kill those victims, he ordered their killing. The precision matters because it is the credibility of everything else.

And it was not a stray nickname, it was a system. All the members took on names with the same formula —a female icon plus a serial killer—: Twiggy Ramirez, Daisy Berkowitz, Madonna Wayne Gacy, Ginger Fish. That rule applied to the whole band is what separates improvised provocation from a conceptual project.

His central work is three records. Antichrist Superstar, from 1996, with "The Beautiful People", made him a star and a public enemy of conservative America. Mechanical Animals, from 1998, turned towards glam with an explicit debt to David Bowie, more colourful and more melancholy, with "The Dope Show". And Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), from the year 2000, closes the triad, which is told in reverse order: Holy Wood is, chronologically, the beginning of the story. His versions of "Sweet Dreams" and "Tainted Love" gave him, in passing, two hits he did not write.

Columbine, and what they really listened to

After the Columbine school massacre, in April 1999, a good part of the American press and political class pointed to his music as a cause of youth violence. What is almost never said is that the accusation was false at the most basic level of the facts: there is no evidence that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold listened to his music. Harris was a declared fan of KMFDM, and both of them listened to German industrial metal, KMFDM and Rammstein. Manson himself pointed this out in Rolling Stone that year. Without that fact, calling him a scapegoat is an opinion; with it, it is verifiable.

His response was not a stray statement either. He postponed the last five North American dates of the Rock Is Dead Tour, he said, out of respect for the victims, and in June 1999 he published in Rolling Stone the column "Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?", on the role of the media in glorifying fame-hungry criminals. The argument reappeared three years later in Bowling for Columbine. And Holy Wood is his direct answer, in record form, to the media that had blamed him: the album usually missing from the profiles is precisely the one that joins the two halves of his story.

The file, case by case

On 1 February 2021, the actress Evan Rachel Wood named him publicly on Instagram. That same day, the label Loma Vista Recordings cut ties with him, and with the label went the CAA agency and his manager of many years. At least a dozen women have accused him of physical or sexual abuse. He has denied all the accusations.

Of the civil suits filed against him, three ended without a verdict. Esmé Bianco sued in April 2021 and reached an out-of-court settlement in January 2023, with undisclosed terms. Ashley Morgan Smithline's suit was dismissed in early 2023 and in February of that year she recanted in a sworn declaration, in which she maintained that she had given in to pressure from Wood and her associates to make accusations that were not true. An anonymous plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, saw her case dismissed on statute-of-limitations grounds, filed it again in greater detail and closed a settlement in September 2023, a week before trial.

Wood's case is the one that reverses the order almost everyone assumes. She never sued him: he sued her for defamation in March 2022, before the documentary Phoenix Rising. In May 2023 a judge dismissed most of the suit, granting Wood's anti-SLAPP motions, and in January 2024 he was ordered to pay her lawyers' fees. That year he attempted a confidential settlement paying only a portion, and Wood turned it down. In November 2024 he withdrew the suit entirely, abandoned the appeal and agreed to pay some 327,000 dollars. The only case he started ended with him paying.

In the criminal sphere, on 24 January 2025 the Los Angeles County district attorney, Nathan Hochman, announced that he would not file charges: the domestic violence allegations fall outside the statute of limitations and the sexual assault charges cannot be proven beyond reasonable doubt. That is not an acquittal: it is the statute of limitations plus insufficient evidence, and the distinction is everything. Two cases remain open. That of Ashley Walters, a former assistant, over events in 2010 and 2011: dismissed in 2023 on statute-of-limitations grounds, revived in 2025, dismissed with prejudice on 16 December 2025 and revived again on 26 January 2026 thanks to the AB 250 law, in force since 1 January 2026, which opens a retroactive two-year window; on 12 August 2026 the judge denied the motion to dismiss and set a jury trial for 15 November 2027. And that of Bianca Allaine Kyne, who sued as Jane Doe over abuse that began when she was sixteen, in the nineties, and revealed her identity in July 2024: the New York State Supreme Court threw out the 1995 events in Louisiana on 5 July 2024, but kept those of 1999, and the case is still in progress.

Nuclear Blast, and a twenty-one-date tour

While that is going on, his career is working again. One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1 came out in November 2024 and Chapter 2 on 14 August 2026, both on Nuclear Blast, one of the big metal labels. He co-headlined the Freaks on Parade Tour with Rob Zombie: twenty-one North American dates between 20 August and 20 September 2026.

Not everything works out for him. Tyler Bates, his most stable musical collaborator of the last decade, left the live band in January 2026, and his announcement as a guest on a Slipknot stadium tour for 2027 opened a controversy that continues. But the fact, uncomfortable and verifiable, is that one: discarded by the industry in 2021 and back with a big label and a big tour in 2026, with two civil cases still open.

What to remember

As an artist, Manson made three records worth revisiting: Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals and Holy Wood, a triad told backwards, with a system of names he applied to his whole band and a thesis about the media that he himself set down in writing in 1999. The Columbine episode portrays him better than any praise: he was blamed for inspiring two killers who, according to everything verifiable, never listened to his music.

The rest does not admit a kind summary, and that is why it is better said with the file open: two out-of-court settlements, one sworn retraction, a prosecutor's office that ruled out charges on statute-of-limitations and evidentiary grounds and not through acquittal, a defamation suit that he filed and withdrew while paying some 327,000 dollars, and two civil cases in progress, one of them with a jury trial set for November 2027. None of it is closed, and writing it as though it were would be the mistake. If you are living through a situation of intimate partner violence, in Chile you can call SernamEG's Fono Orientación, 1455; and if it concerns the abuse of a girl, a boy or an adolescent, there are 147, Fono Niños, and Línea Libre, 1515.

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Sources

Marilyn Manson is the stage name of the American musician Brian Hugh Warner, born on 5 January 1969 in Canton, Ohio, and also that of his band, formed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1989 as Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids. The name combines Marilyn Monroe's with that of Charles Manson, a cult leader convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy for the Tate-LaBianca crimes of 1969, crimes he ordered and did not personally carry out. All the band's members took on names built with the same formula of a female icon and a serial killer: Twiggy Ramirez, Daisy Berkowitz, Madonna Wayne Gacy and Ginger Fish, among others. His central conceptual triad, conceived in reverse chronological order, is made up of "Antichrist Superstar" (1996, with "The Beautiful People"), "Mechanical Animals" (1998, glam-inspired and with a declared debt to David Bowie, with "The Dope Show") and "Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)" (2000). His versions of "Sweet Dreams" and "Tainted Love" are also well known. After the Columbine school massacre, in April 1999, he was singled out by media and politicians as an influence on the perpetrators; there is no evidence that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold listened to his music: Harris was a declared fan of KMFDM and both listened to German industrial metal, KMFDM and Rammstein. Manson postponed the last five North American dates of the Rock Is Dead Tour and published in June 1999, in Rolling Stone magazine, the column "Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?". On 1 February 2021, the actress Evan Rachel Wood accused him publicly on Instagram; that same day the label Loma Vista Recordings cut ties with him, and subsequently so did the CAA agency and his manager. At least a dozen women have accused him of physical or sexual abuse; he has denied all the accusations. Esmé Bianco sued in April 2021 and reached an out-of-court settlement in January 2023, with undisclosed terms. Ashley Morgan Smithline's suit was dismissed in early 2023 and in February 2023 she recanted by means of a sworn declaration. An anonymous plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, reached a settlement in September 2023, a week before trial. Manson sued Evan Rachel Wood for defamation in March 2022; in May 2023 a judge dismissed most of the suit, granting Wood's anti-SLAPP motions, in January 2024 he was ordered to pay her lawyers' fees, and in November 2024 he withdrew the suit entirely, abandoned the appeal and agreed to pay around 327,000 dollars. On 24 January 2025, the Los Angeles County district attorney, Nathan Hochman, announced that he would not file charges, noting that the domestic violence allegations fell outside the statute of limitations and that the sexual assault charges could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt. The suit by Ashley Walters, a former assistant, over events in 2010 and 2011, was dismissed in 2023 on statute-of-limitations grounds, revived in 2025, dismissed with prejudice on 16 December 2025 and revived on 26 January 2026 by virtue of the Californian AB 250 law, in force since 1 January 2026, which enables a retroactive two-year window; on 12 August 2026 the judge denied the motion to dismiss and set a jury trial for 15 November 2027. Bianca Allaine Kyne sued as Jane Doe over abuse that began when she was sixteen and revealed her identity in July 2024; the New York State Supreme Court threw out on 5 July 2024 the events that took place in Louisiana in 1995, but kept those of 1999, and the case is still in progress. He released "One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1" in November 2024 and "Chapter 2" on 14 August 2026, both on the Nuclear Blast label, and co-headlined with Rob Zombie the Freaks on Parade Tour, of twenty-one North American dates between 20 August and 20 September 2026. Tyler Bates left his live band in January 2026. Profile compiled for Rebobinados with fact-checking; interpretations of the meaning of the work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety, Associated Press, Wikipedia and other press coverage.