Exclusive Audio: Marilyn Manson Is Not Depressed

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, our Austin Scaggs chatted with the Antichrist himself, Marilyn Manson. Read the full interview here, and after the jump listen to the juiciest bits.

On Painting and His 19-Year-Old Girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood: "Painting was the one thing that essentially helped me get back into being creative again, and unfortunately for the situation in my life, the first painting, which I called Pretty Persuasion, was a painting of Evan that I did, inspired purely by the fact that I was so excited that somebody else in the world had some sort of connection to me, because I felt very completely untethered, alone and alienated."

On Depression: "I'm very - I'm a bit disappointed in the lazy journalism that has attached itself to me being depressed. Still, the whole point of my record is that I came out of feeling empty and became very fulfilled in my new resurrected lifestyle. So it's very much a misconception to say that I'm depressed now. You can't say that I'm not insane or not fuckin' troubled, but that's different."

On Makeup: "I'm always wearing makeup....I wear makeup like a girl wears makeup, and it's often misinterpreted. But I have makeup on when I see you, I always wear makeup. There's the no-makeup makeup look, which is a trick, which girls use on you, also. College girls use that on you. 'I'm not wearing makeup,' but don't think that they're not wearing makeup. They may be wearing vagina liner, if they're in the porn industry, I don't know."

On Absinthe: "The first time I drank absinthe was in New Orleans, and that was in 1996, I think, when I was making Antichrist Superstar. It was very undistilled, it was very similar to moonshine. I spent Y2K drinking absinthe with Johnny Depp in the south of France.... We really were ready for the apocalypse, and it didn't come, and we were disappointed, so we drank more absinthe. We set off fireworks, and it was very enjoyable. I don't drink booze, I drink absinthe."

On Touring With Slayer: "I think I've made a bit of a tribute to them with my raining in blood, and I'm the first one to acknowledge that. But I think that it's two completely different audiences, and I'm really interested to see what happens when they combine together. Hopefully it's not anything that gives me a nosebleed, unless it's related to narcotics. I just want everyone to be happy and have fun, like Bobby McFerrin."

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

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