Marilyn Manson Visits ‘Last Call’

Marilyn Manson visited ‘Last Call with Carson Daly’ on Friday to promote his new album ‘Lest We Forget’, due out on Tuesday (September 21). He also discussed his crazy fans, fiance Dita Von Teese, his thoughts on the U.S. presidential election, his Mandy Moore fetish, trying to entertain an audience that mostly came to watch Mase perform, and more. Read on for a transcript.

Carson: Our first guest tonight is one of the most popular artists
of the last decade. He is as insane and twisted as he is brilliant. Here
he is — marilyn manson.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Carson: What’s happening, manson? Nice to have you here.

Marilyn: You guys, stop taking up my quality air time.

Carson: Yeah, exactly. We’re gonna have plenty of time for you. What’s
going on?

Marilyn: Nothing much. Just — good to see you were making fun of these
kids earlier, they can clap. Watch.

[ Laughter and applause ]

Carson: The manson fans go crazy. Do you have a good relationship with
your fans? Do you, like, read the stuff online, or how do you communicate
with them?

Marilyn: You know, the communication’s on stage. That the best way.
That’s why you become an artist, so you can communicate. Anything else
is just inaccurate.

Carson: Do you go, like, after shows and sign autographs and talk with
them, or are your fans almost too crazy for even you?

Marilyn: No, they’re not too crazy. There is an exhaustion level depending
on, you know, my drunkenness, if I’m in jail. Things like that.

[ Laughter ]

Carson: When was the last time you were in jail?

Marilyn: I was arrested last year, but cleared of all of my sexual charges.

Carson: Oh, you were?

Marilyn: That little hanky-panky thing that happened on stage with —
some security guard said that he was sexually attracted to me, or something
like that.

Carson: Oh, right. But did you spend any time in the can?

Marilyn: Just a couple hours, you know. But it was enough to make me
not want to be a guest star on “oz.”

[ Laughter ]

Carson: I met you — look at this, I met manson in ’90, when I first
got to mtv. And I was — I saw you perform back in, like, ’96 at shoreline
amphitheater at san francisco with nine inch nails, and I think prong might
have been on that tour. And was a fan of yours and was at kroq and, like,
broke in the guy’s office to play “beautiful people.” To make a long story
short, I get to mtv and manson is my first interview. You know, my first
time in new york, and I’m terrified of manson —

Marilyn: I’m terrified because —

Carson: — Like most people who don’t know him, and it really wasn’t,
I don’t think, until —

Marilyn: I was scared because I read “teen people,” and you were doing,
like, a joint interview with jennifer love hewitt, and you were just talking
about going —

[ Laughter ] Yeah, you talked about how you guys go to church on sunday
and I was thinking, “this guy’s going to crucify me.”

Carson: Isn’t that horrible? No, but I was fan of yours and —

Marilyn: You were brainwashed.

[ Laughter ] You’ve clearly been healed of that.

Carson: Yeah, I’m good now.

Marilyn: He’s good now. On sundays he sleeps in.

Carson: Right. I don’t go to church. Look at this. This is the book.
Have you ever seen this? This is a large copy of, before it went to print,
of the neil strauss book.

Marilyn: Before the lawyers took out all the objectionable parts?

Carson: I don’t know what version that is. But I knew a lot about you,
I studied and I thought, “I’m terrified.” And then I met you, and I figured
a lot of people probably have that about you. They’re terrified until they
get a chance to sit down and talk to you, if they get that opportunity.
I think doing “politically incorrect” way back when might have been a milestone
in that regard.

Marilyn: Well, we got to live in a world where you’re trained to separate
the conscious from the subconscious, so people like me stand out. But if
we were living in more primitive times, strangely enough, I would fit in
better.

Carson: Right. Fair enough. What — I saw you down in miami at the mtv
video music awards. One of the things I’ve always liked about you are your
gynecological jokes about mandy moore.

[ Laughter ] You’ve had many.

Marilyn: Well, I’ve tried to switch it to michael moore now. So I’m
doing a sequel to “bowling for columbine” called “bowling for concubines.”

Carson: Oh, you are?

Marilyn: Yeah.

Carson: That’s nice.

Marilyn: No one laughed.

Carson: That’s okay. They’re terrified. Your fans laughed, that’s all
right.

Marilyn: No, yeah, I don’t know why they keep sticking me with mandy
moore. There’a lot of “m’s” going on. You know, my obsession with micky
mouse, michael moore, mandy moore, eminem. All this stuff.

[ Laughter ]

Carson: What did you think of the michael moore film? Of “fahrenheit”?

Marilyn: I thought it was inspiring to me that, whether you like his
opinion or not, or whether you care what he said or what he didn’t say,
that it made a lot of people — it inspired a lot of people to talk about
things. And that’s what art should be. So it was, you know, one of the
deciding factors of me making my “best of.” A chapter closed, new beginning
rather than just an end of things. Because when you make a “best of,” it
could be time to stop doing something. But it’s hard to be inspired in
a media culture where the more successful you become, the more marginal
you are. You know, you become more mediocre, more mainstream, obviously.

Carson: And I don’t think —

Marilyn: You experienced that with “trl.”

Carson: Yes. I’m over that. Thanks.

[ Light laughter ]

Marilyn: You’re more cutting-edge now.

Carson: Yeah, here we are. But do people think that you’re going to
stop playing music because you’re putting out a “best of”? It’s a weird
thing for manson to do.

Marilyn: Well, my band thought that. ‘Cause I fired them all, but —

[ Laughter ]

Carson: Why did you fire them?

Marilyn: No, I tried. No.

Carson: What happened? No, come on, tell me what happened.

Marilyn: No, just a matter of growing up and transforming. If you’re
not able to transform then you really don’t grow, you know? If people don’t
want to try new ideas and try new things.

Carson: You should take medeski martin & wood. You can have them
in your band. Put a little makeup on them. You guys down?

Marilyn: I think we’re gonna need the george lucas special effects team.

[ Laughter ]

Carson: I think you are. Tell me about — one thing I wanna mention.
Jenna jameson has a new book out called “how to make love like a porn star.”

[ Scattered applause ] In it, she reveals some very, very interesting,
vivid details about manson. And said that you were “massively endowed.”
I don’t really know what the question is.

[ Light laughter ] I figured I’d bring it up.

Marilyn: It might be a rhetorical question.

Carson: Maybe you want to comment for the ladies about that.

Marilyn: Stop calling my house.

[ Laughter ] I’m engaged.

Carson: Yeah, that’s true. You are engaged.

Marilyn: Yeah. I’m always engaged in somethin but this time I’m engaged
to be married.

[ Light laughter ]

Carson: Wow, a woman.

Marilyn: No, I don’t mean I’m always engaged with a — it could be a
criminal lawsuit. But this time I’m engaged to a woman to be married. Yeah.

Carson: What sort of woman —

Marilyn: You sounded surprised when you said “woman.”

Carson: Yeah.

[ Light laughter ] No, I just wanted to clarify that. What sort of woman
do you meet that you say “I’m gonna spend the rest of my life with you”?
What qualities does this person possess?

Marilyn: In the past, I was drunk. So I made a few mistakes. You know,
you can agree, ’cause you had this thing with the face.

[ Laughter ]

Carson: He’s right. I still dream —

Marilyn: The girl was drunk, I think.

Carson: Who, tara?

[ Laughter ]

Marilyn: Hey, I’m not saying any names.

[ Applause ]

Carson: It’s all right. No one’s watching. It’s like, 2:30 in the morning.

Marilyn: Yeah, I know. I’ve got to take my jacket off.

Carson: It’s like a sweater under the jacket.

Marilyn: Yeah, so you know I’m only hot on one side.

Carson: Let’s go back. You were drunk, dating —

Marilyn: Yeah, so I’m engaged. Dita von teese is the only girl that
I’ve met that I’ll spend my life with. Because she dresses better than
I do.

Carson: Really?

Marilyn: Yeah. And undresses better than I do, too.

Carson: I heard that you’re not bathing. Is that true?

Marilyn: Where do you get your information?

Carson: I don’t know. There’s all kinds of crap about you.

[ Light laughter ]

Marilyn: No, I’m bathing.

Carson: You are bathing?

Marilyn: I am.

[ Laughter ]

Carson: Who are you voting for?

Marilyn: You know, it’s like a bad game where, if you don’t like either
one, you could vote for the third party. But it just dilutes it. So —
right now, until someone changes my opinion, I’m a “no vote.”

Carson: What’s, like, your biggest concern in, like, america? Is it,
like, terrorism, like ours?

Marilyn: No.

Carson: Is it big business?

Marilyn: No, I think anyone who gives in to terrorism is just — that’s
what it is. I mean, when you tell people that things are safe, you’re implying
things can be unsafe. You know, so it’s just a —

Carson: Do you agree with the hard line?

Marilyn: No, we just live in a culture that creates it’s own devils.
And that’s why I’ve been demonized in the past. Because there was nobody
bigger to be afraid of. And I’m sure I’ll be demonized again, but I like
that. ‘Cause I look good doing it.

[ Laughter ]

Carson: How do you like quickly — the bush twins.

Marilyn: Geez.

[ Laughter ] They should know that a threesome does imply incest, and
that’s illegal in most states. I’m not gonna show anybody that tape that
you gave me earlier.

[ Laughter and applause ]

Carson: I think you would really like —

Marilyn: I think the mase crowd.

[ Talking over each other ]

Carson: No, they’re fine.

Marilyn: And I’m pointing just to the black people, figuring they’re
the mase crowd.

[ Laughter ] See, there we go. You gotta loosen people up. Don’t be
afraid to say the black crowd.

[ Laughter ]

Carson: You said it twice in ten seconds. I think that covers us for
the night. We’ve hit the black crowd quota for the evening. A little jazz,
if you would.

[ Laughter ] Do you listen to rap?

Marilyn: White people hate me more than they hate them, don’t worry.

[ Audience oohs ] No, that’s what chris rock said to me the other day.

[ Laughter and applause ]

Carson: You have black fans?

Marilyn: I don’t know. I don’t’ go around counting.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Carson: You listen to hip hop?

Marilyn: I do listen to hip hop. I like — I did fantasize for awhile
about being beyonce.

[ Laughter ] No, I wanted to be her. ‘Cause I thought she was better
than me in the videos, her dance moves, her hips, you know. It dn’t really
work out for my figure.

Carson: We’re having this guy on the show next week. I just wanted to
see if you had anything to say about him, because he’s already loaded and
now is a big tv guy. Donald trump.

Marilyn: He’s got the more extreme version of my hairdo.

[ Laughter ] By nature.

Carson: I would love to see you make over donald trump. Has anyone come
to you and asked you to do a reality show?

Marilyn: It would be to say, “who hasn’t?” But there’s clearly felonies
involved.

[ Light laughter ]

Carson: It wouldn’t air on tv?

Marilyn: It wouldn’t be airable. I’ve known the osbournes pretty well,
and I’ve had to baby-sit those kids, growing up. I took jack to his first
strip bar. But —

[ Light laughter ] I even was his sponsor out of rehab.

Carson: You were?

Marilyn: No.

[ Laughter ]

Carson: Jack’d be back to the bottle right now if that were the case.
How are you with all of your vices at this moment? You feel pretty good?

Marilyn: “At this moment?” You mean like the next ten minutes? Yeah.

Carson: Like in general. Like this month.

Marilyn: Yeah.

Carson: You struggling with any demons?

Marilyn: No, I’m never struggling. No, abstinence is always a good one.

Carson: Somehow I don’t see that. The “greatest hits” cd —

Marilyn: Trying to keep my ear on.

Carson: “Lest we forget.” And it’s like double disks, and it has videos
too, on one disk.

Marilyn: It does. It has all the ones that they would allow to be on
there. I made a video that I’m gonna go ahead and say now has been banned
by the label. They wouldn’t even show it to mtv.

Carson: What video?

Marilyn: It’s for “ain’T.” It was directed by asia argento. I’m gonna
make it available on my website only. It’s the only place you’ll be able
to get it in america.

Carson: When will that be available?

Marilyn: Because I refuse to censor it. And I’m not going to defend
it. It’s a very extreme video. But I paid for it myself. Because I wanted
it to be what it is.

Carson: Something tells me it is very extreme.

[ Light laughter ] If you call it extreme, it’s just gotta be.

Marilyn: Well, they said there was not one scene they could take out.

Carson: Is it one that looks like a snuff film? Does it have that gritty
vibe to it?

Marilyn: No, no. It’s — I mean, the germans said they would play it
if I took out the part with the tongue in the lady’s private area.

[ Laughter ]

Carson: If the germans are censoring you, you know you’ve made something
hot.

Marilyn: Yeah.

Carson: All right. Manson, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate
it. Marilyn manson, everybody. Be sure to pick up the album “lest we forget.”
It’s in stores september 20th.