BADFELLAS
OZZY OSBOURNE MEETS MARILYN MANSON AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE
Ozzy Osbourne meets Marilyn Manson-five words guaranteed to give
apoplexy to censors, evangelists and moral watchdogs everywhere. A few months before OzzFest, Guitar World arranged for these two titans of demonic shock rock to meet for the very first time, via a conference call. The grandad of devil metal and the music's new Great Dark Hope couldn't be more dissimular, outwardly. While Osbourne talks a blue streak, punctuating nearly every sentence with the f-word, Manson is quiet and subdued. Picture it: a genuine, English working class
wildman holding discourse with an equally middle class Midwestern Misfit. But the two of them found plenty of common ground as soon as the settled down for a Satanic summit meeting.
GW: It's an honor to bring you guys together for the first time.
MM: It's definitely an honor for me. Back when I was 15 years old, I
would never have thought that one day I'd be playing a tour with Ozzy
Osbourne. It's great being a part of something that had an impact when
you were growing up.
OO: Of all the new bands, Manson is the one that really stands out, for
me. I gotta tell you man, the name of your band is fucking great. It
think it is a great angle.
MM: I appreciate that. The name is a statement on American culture.
OO: They rerun these Charles Manson biographies on TV all the time. I
mean Charles Manson, he's in the system, he gets fed everyday, he has
become institutionalized, and he must be the most publicized fucking
mass murderer of all time.
MM: Well, they created his image-the media. If they'd ignore him, he
would have just been like anyone else in jail. But they have made him
into an icon, then they bitch about the fact that he is an icon. That's
something that always fascinated me-this endless circle. And I think
the same thing happens with us, Oz; they make us into these
antichrists, then they bitch about us.
OO: But that's been the story of rock and roll ever since it
started-going back to Elvis Presley.
GW: Maybe we can talk about how each of you got into the Satanic
imagery that's been so prominent a part of your music.
OO: Talking about myself, it is not purely satanic. Black Sabbath was
never really persay a Satanic band, although we did touch on some topics
like Satanism and devil worship in certain songs. It was just a
different angle. If you think back to the late 60's and early 70's, it
was all the fuckin' flower power and how wonderful the fuckin' world is.
That just didn't seem true to us. The world was fucked.
MM: I feel a certain relationship to that as well, because of the way
political correctness is now.
OO: But don't you agree with me?
MM: Absolutely. For Manson fans and people who are affected a lot by
this music, the idea of somebody doesn't necessarily represent evil; it
represents an anti-mainstream mindset.
OO: Anti-establishment, right. Like yourself, I have been treated like
the fucking antichrist. I now have been sued by about 25 people who
claim their kids committed suicide from listening to my music. That's
total crap.
MM: I have always said that if someone is stupid enough to kill
themselves over music, then that is what they deserve. That's one less
stupid person in the world.
OO: It would be a very bad career move on my part, don't you think, if
I intentionally put out albums that make people commit suicide? If
everyone who buys the record id gonna fucking shoot themselves, then the
follow-up wouldn't sell many records, would it?
GW: Marilyn, can you recall the first time you heard Ozzy Osbourne or Black Sabbath?
MM: When I was a kid. I went to a private Christian school where they
really discouraged us from listening to music. Once they had a seminar
where they said, "Now this is the type of stuff you can't be listening
to." They held up albums by Black Sabbath, Queen, Led Zeppelin. . .and
played them backwards. Immediately, of course, this is what I became
interested in listening to, because I wanted to know why they did not
want me to hear it. One thing I did not realize was that my parents had
the first Black Sabbath album in their collection.
OO: When I was a kid, if my father told me not to do anything, I would
immediately run out and do it.
MM: Exactly. So I remember when I put that first Sabbath record on, it
scared me a little bit. It was dark, in its sound and in what was being
said. I was immediately attracted to it. I guess that was the part of
me that really wanted to get it, because it felt like that had been
suppressed for so many years. It kinda just opened me up. I've said
this before: Black Sabbath was my introduction into heavy metal.
OO: I enrolled my kids in a Christian school in L.A. The other day my
son comes home from school and says, "Dad, is it true what my teacher
said to me today? He said he went to one of your concerts a few years
back and that you handed 'round a big bowl and, that you would not
perform until you drank all of their spit." I said to my son, "Jack, do
you think I would do that? Do you think that's true?" And he said,
"No, it sounds like bollocks. It's bullshit." I haven't had my kids
baptized or christened or any of that. I haven't made them any
religion. I think that it should be their choice. But a teacher at
this same school told my daughter, "Well, you know, if you are not
christened, you're not going to heaven." It's a bunch of fucking
bullshit, as far as I'm concerned. I don't believe their is a heaven
upstairs or a hell down stairs. I think we've got both hell and heaven
here on earth. It's all here for us.
MM: Yes. The one thing I did learn from going to Christian school is
that I enjoyed the Bible. I enjoyed most of the stories. I just hate
the way America deformed the religion.
OO: But you see, you can make the Bible say whatever you want it to
say. You can take one passage and link it to another passage, like that
guy Jim Jones who massacred all those people in his religious cult a
while ago. It's very dangerous. Now, on the road, I found that one of
the heaviest place for groupies in Salt Lake City. Which is supposed to
be all the fucking Mormons? And the groupies are in fucking droves
outside the venue.
GW: Have you found that to be the case, Marilyn?
MM: Salt Lake City, yeah. There was an incident where I wasn't allowed
to play there.
OO: You and me both, brother. I've had people fucking stop my tour bus
and turn me around.
MM: An interesting thing happened to me in Texas. I like to have
oxygen off to the side of the stage when I am performing. And the
paramedics refused to give me oxygen because of who I was. Because they
were Christians, they did not want to help me. I did not think that was
very Christian of them.
GW: So how do you guys feel about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? You
have both been acknowledged by that institution.
OO: You know what? It's one big hand job.
MM: I feel like they did not do a very good job on my statue. It was
great to be there, but it didn't look like me.
GW: Marilyn, how do you deal with that post-show exhilaration-being
that vibed up, then having to come down to normality?
MM: It's hard. I feel very drained after a performance, and not just
physically. It takes a lot out of me mentally, too. It's hard to deal
with. Sometimes I have to be around a lot of people. Other times I
can't be around anyone. It's different everyday. It's never the same.
OO: Before I go onstage, I have to go through this ritual, to make the
transition from being Ozzy offstage, to being Ozzy onstage. I have to
focus myself. But every time I go out on that stage, everything that I
thought of before is totally blown out of the window. I can't stand
people talking to me-like social chats-before I go on the fucking stage.
I can't do it.
MM: I can't either.
GW: How does Manson prepare for a show?
MM: It is very similar to Ozzy's. I cannot be talked to or bothered
for at least 3 hours before a show. I like to be by myself and don't
like to think about anything or talk to anybody.
GW: Is there any possibility that we'll see you two together onstage on
tour?
OO: Listen, there's a possibility of anything.
MM: If Ozzy invites me, I'll be up there.
OO: There's nothing worse than being on the road with fucking people
you don't like. We're all a fucking team. What's mine is yours, you
know?
MM: Great, man, thanks again.
OO: 'Cause we are all out there to do one job, and that's to give them
the best day of their fucking lives.
MM: I think we will do that.
By misreznor