marilyn mansons new CD, the high end of low is set to be released in ma 2009.

Rebounded from divorce and finding his new muse in 19-year-old Evan Rachel Wood, the shock-rocker has rediscovered that 'I've gotta be me.'

By BEN WENER
The Orange County Register

There seems little point in rehashing Marilyn Manson's history, as is the temptation when one discusses such a controversial cultural figure.

Reviled by some, revered by others, admired as much by lovers of the dark arts as by ideological sympathizers who might never be caught dead playing his albums, Manson has become much more than a guy who can make grinding, gruesomely growling music under titles like "The Golden Age of Grotesque" and "Holy Wood (In the Valley of the Shadow of Death)."

Widely known for his creepy visage more than anything he has created – rarely has such a pop pariah ever been so vehemently rebuked without consideration for the purpose of his work – the demon who emerged in the mid-'90s as the "Antichrist Superstar" is now an evil entity whose somewhat self-manufactured mythology grows more storied every year. He's become a cult icon not unlike the legendary Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan and an idol of Manson's. ("Manson is the most revered Satanist, second only to my grandfather," Stanton LaVey told Spin earlier this year.)

Missed all the gory (some might say suspect) details? Read his eye-opening 1999 memoir, "The Long Road Out of Hell," co-authored by rock scribe Neil Strauss. Born Brian Warner into an alienating world of perversion and religious imprinting that had the opposite effect – it drove him from, not toward, God – Manson's sordid saga reveals a once-tortured, now-empowered individual who walks it like he talks it no matter what anti-Manson crusaders think. Even (or should that be especially?) out of the limelight, he starkly illustrates just how much ghoulish forebears like Alice Cooper and the so-called Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne, have become horror-show caricatures.

Yet failing to walk it like Manson talks it is precisely what went wrong in the four years since "Grotesque." During that time, Manson – no one with half a brain calls him Marilyn or by his real name – settled deeply into a relationship with burlesque queen Dita Von Teese, who, arriving after Manson's time with actress Rose McGowan, appeared to be his twisted soulmate.

After six years together, they married – and almost immediately, Manson says, Von Teese expected him to change. His vampiric hours, his drug use and absinthe consumption, perhaps most vitally his philosophy of self-preservation through fiercely independent thinking and creative transformation – she'd have preferred he put all that away and be a more normal husband.

And for a brief time Manson slowly felt himself conforming. "I started to feel bad about being me," he told me in his gravelly but gentle voice during a phone chat a few weeks ago. "I started to feel like I had to turn me off somehow, to prove that I fit into this convention I know now didn't suit me properly."

I asked for clarity: "You mean marriage?"

"Yeah. Well, the execution of marriage. I don't necessarily think I couldn't be married again. I think that I assumed – and it was me projecting my idea of romance onto Dita – that she believed in things the same way I did. I think we got to a point where she was feeling like, 'Well, I assumed you would eventually grow out of this.' And I'm saying, 'But this is me.' My marriage started to transform into something that was too concerned with the rest of the world, with how it would get portrayed in Vogue magazine – and that sort of thing was exactly what I had fought hard to stand against. But I got lost between love and belief in myself. I didn't know who I was supposed to be anymore."

"I'm absolutely not looking for someone who agrees with me about everything," Manson quickly adds, "or someone who wants to please me by believing what I believe. But I need the same dark romantic yearning. I had b

Do the band maketh the man? They certainly help. Marilyn Manson is both the name of the band and of the singer and he is very much the Main Man. But everyone else has a part to play so although there is no show without Punch1, the supporting cast members are essential.
The band
Marilyn Manson - the singer, the protagonist.
Pogo/Madonna Wayne Gacy - keyboards
Ginger Fish - drums
Tim Skold - bass guitar
Chris Vrenna is 'Against All Gods' tour drummer, 2004-05
Mark Chaussee is 'Against All Gods' tour guitarist, 2004-05
Mark Chaussee was also Manson's assistant during the Grotesk Burlesk tour in 2003.

Changes for the 2007 tour:
Rob Holliday - bass guitar
Chris Vrenna - keyboards
Tim Skold - lead guitar
Former band members
John5/John Lowery - guitar, 1998 to 2004
Twiggy Ramirez/Jeordie White - bass, 1993 to 2002
Daisy Berkovitz/Scott Putesky - guitar, 1989 to 1996
Gidget Gein/Brad Stewart - bass, 1990 to 1993
Zim, Sara Lee, Olivia and Zsa Zsa:
Zim Zum/Timothy Michael Linton - 1996 to 1998
Sara Lee Lucas/Freddie Streithorst - 1990 to 1995
Olivia Newton Bundy/Brian Tutunick - 1990
Zsa Zsa Speck/Perry Pandrea - 1990
Overview
Band members past and present - to 2004 - are summarized on the band member timeline.
Stagenames
Except for Tim Skold, John5 (named for being the 5th new guitarist or perhaps it's a biblical reference), Zim Zum, Chris Vrenna and Mark Chaussee, the other original stage names are a combination of female icon firstname and male serial killer surname. It's a juxtaposition thing.