Marilyn Manson Thinks The Columbine Tragedy Essentially Ended His Career

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In November 2014, Marilyn Manson attended Cannes Lions to speak at Grey Agency’s annual music seminar during the global advertising festival. He spoke candidly with Grey creative chief Tor Myhren about personal branding.

But he spent much of the conversation talking about his decades-long troubled relationship with the media, which has largely focused its coverage on his high-profile romantic relationships and his music’s supposedly malicious impact on young listeners.

Manson was famously (and falsely) accused in some mainstream news outlets of inspiring the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre to commit their killing spree. At Cannes, he pointed out that the killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, actually weren’t fans at all and reportedly felt Manson’s music was “too pop.” Still, Manson admits the connection between his music and the tragedy took its toll on his career.

“With Columbine, it really shut down my career entirely, to the point where casinos — gambling establishments — refused to book my shows,” Manson said.

Rehabilitating his reputation was a slow and incomplete process, one that left him bitter about the hypocrisy of news outlets that would demonize his music while prominently featuring criminals.

“They put these two killers (Harris and Klebold) on the cover of Time magazine,” Manson said. “I’ve never been on the cover of Time magazine. That’s the whole point.”

(Via Billboard)

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