(Instagram/@MarilynManson)
Marilyn Manson has been the dark prince of the metal scene for some time now, having led a storied career in music for close to three decades now. Manson started his musical career in 1989 as a college student pursuing a degree in journalism, working for a local publication that enabled him to meet some major players in the alternative scene. That same year, Manson connected with guitarist Scott Putesky and formed the band Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids.
Since those humble beginnings, Manson has risen to the center of the Metal/Gothic Rock scene and become a bastion of alternative subculture both in America and abroad. The multi-platinum artist is slated to release his 10th studio album, Heaven Upside Down, later this month and has been touring to promote the album since July.
Marilyn Manson’s Net Worth as of 2017: $25 million
Let’s break down the journey Manson took to get to this fortune.
1989-1992
Before he came to be known as Marilyn Manson he was Brian Hugh Warner, an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in journalism at Broward College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Warner started his musical career writing for the lifestyle magazine 25th Parallel, a job that gave him the opportunity to connect with artists like My Life With the Thrill Kill Cult and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails- both acts that Marilyn Manson would later be compared to on a global scale.
In December of 1989, Warner met guitarist Scott Putesky and the two formed the band Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids along with bassist Brian Tutunick. Warner, Putesky, and Tutunick took on the stage names Marilyn Manson, Daisy Berkowitz and Olvia Newton Bundy respectively and recorded their first demo in 1990. The band enjoyed some local success thanks to support from a local radio DJ, and after some changes to the band’s roster, their name was officially shortened to Marilyn Manson in 1992.
1993-1995
In the summer of 1993, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails established his own record label Nothing Records. Reznor extended both a contract deal and touring spot alongside Nine Inch Nails to Marilyn Manson, and the band accepted both offers. During this time, the band put together their debut studio album Portrait of An American Family as well as an hour-long EP titled Smells Like Children, from which came their first iconic hit, a cover of the Eurhthmyic’s “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”.
1996-2002
Over the course of the next six years, Marilyn Manson put out a concept album trilogy that they referred to as a triptych, where the contents of each album told a dedicated and specific story through the songs. These albums were Antichrist Superstar in 1996, Mechanical Animals in 1998, and Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) in 2000. As the band’s music was gaining notoriety, the group found themselves brought before congressional hearings to determine if the violent nature of their lyrics were having an adverse effect on the youth of America. It was also during this period that the band came under fire for their associations to the Columbine High School Massacre, as the perpetrators of that atrocity cited Marilyn Manson as a favorite band of theirs.
2003-2009
Throughout the early to late 2000s, the group put out their 5th, 6th, and 7th studio albums. The first of these three albums, The Golden Age of Grotesque (2003), was the last major album released under the label Nothing Records, as the studio dissolved after legal disputes between Reznor and his former business partner John Malm. The remaining albums Eat Me, Drink Me (2007) and The High End of Low (2009) were released through Nothing Records’ parent company Interscope Records. It was also during this period that Manson himself began to branch out in his artistic endeavors, from directing a surrealist short film called Doppelherz to taking on small roles in films as well as releasing art installations to coincide with album release parties. The High End of Low was the last album to be released with Interscope, as Manson had a very public falling out with the label’s then-CEO Jimmy Iovine.
2010-Present
After splitting from Interscope, Manson proclaimed that he had regained a lot of the creative freedom he had felt restrained whilst working under Interscope. In late 2010, the band signed a joint-venture deal with the label Cooking Vinyl to release their 8th studio album, Born Villain. In addition to the album, Manson commissioned actor Shia Lebeouf to create a surrealist short film with the same name.
Following the success of Born Villain, Marilyn Manson came back again in a very big way with 2015’s The Pale Emperor. Again released on the label Cooking Vinyl, the album debuted in January 2015 and was dedicated to Manson’s mother who had passed away in 2014 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The record had a few high-charting singles, and the album itself debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 list, with sales of 51,000 copies in its first week, the highest number of first-week sales since 2007’s Eat Me, Drink Me.
Following the release of that album, Marilyn Manson went on a lengthy tour, called The Hell Not Hallelujah Tour, while also collaborating on projects with David Bowie and The Smashing Pumpkins. Since the culmination of that tour, the group has been working on their next major studio release, called Heaven Upside Down, currently slated for an October 6, 2017 release. In anticipation of this release, the band has been touring to promote it, though an incident on September 30, 2017 wherein a stage prop collapsed on Manson has forced the band to reschedule some of their planned tour dates.
It’s certainly been a long and winding road for Marilyn Manson, but one that has obviously been well worth it. You don’t become the crown prince of Metal/Goth Rock without some sacrifices along the way, and Manson is no stranger to that idea. Here’s to a speedy recovery and an amazing next album.
