Biblical heroes !
29 jan 2013 par vincent
THE STOVEFEST TOUR
Marilyn and his friends arrived in Detroit as part of their church-concerts tour for the Stovefest album. Eminem, in a friendly gesture, grabbed Marilyn’s ringed hand, who wore his usual Christian mittens. Ozzy, Joey and Jonathan did the same. Eminem guided them along 8-Mile Road; the passers-by were surprised by this group of celebrities. Marilyn watched them through his tenebrous eye and approached some of them: “Alleluia Eight Mile”, said Marilyn, “We represent the Dracula ghetto! We’re on a mission for my very dear Sister Rachel. We have written our heavy metal psalms in an album and we’re going to perform them in the Detroit cathedral. What do you say about an esoteric masturbation in front of all the dogmatic unbelievers who will be demonstrating in front of the church?” Some of the passers-by agreed. Eminem took them to a Hip-Hop club where many instant rappers verbally confront each other. Marilyn, Eminem and the whole crew sat down at a table and, fascinated, observed these Rap battles. “It’s one thing to see this in your film 8 Miles and another to see it live. Impressive!” said Marilyn to Eminem, who smiled. Ozzy was subdued. “Damn!” he said, “luckily they have full body searches at the door, otherwise these kids would pull out a Tech 9 or an Uzi and gun down anybody who said something slightly askew. If my wife Sharon and I had to run this circus at our Ozzfest, and there’s plenty to deal with as it is, the cops would all take sick leaves. They’d send the swat team and presto, we’d have tear-gassed concerts.” Marilyn asked Eminem if they could organize rap battles together in front of the city’s young rappers in order to raise more funds for Sister Rachel in addition to the concert in the cathedral that evening. Eminem accepted happily and said he would arrange something for after the concert.
Ozzy, Joey and Jonathan went off to rest before the concert. Meanwhile Marilyn and Eminem secretly attended a service in a different church, where the minister was warning his congregation about the heavy metal concert that evening. “It’s still a long way to go before they’ll accept you,” said Eminem. “That’s ok,” responded Marilyn, “I’m used to this crap and as soon as they hear us, they’ll slap that minister themselves.” An elderly man in the congregation hissed ‘hush’; Marilyn stared at him coldly. « What do you mean ‘hush’? asked Marilyn. “We didn’t come with our traditional medieval blessed chain saws for this evening’s religious Arma-goddam-motherfucking-geddon communion. So let us talk in peace and focus on the reforming slogans from that other idiot who preaches the Apocalypse. Ah, you bunch of suckers. Don’t worry about us this evening because we’re going to come back for tomorrow’s service and assess the end of the world situation according to your conservative values.” In the evening, the cathedral was all aflame, led by my hero. “Detroit, motherfucking Michigan, are you with me?” began Marilyn. The audience rejoiced. “Your ministers condition you for the lost paradise and eternal damnation,” he continued. “Here you have four sulphurous rock stars who normally unleash the wicked and the gothic movements; but thanks to a courageous nun who is very dear to me, we have listened to God. And we have written an album together to help her and preach for the marriage of our two conflicting communities. Evangelist networks are constantly threatening us; that’s why we have this esoteric war cry: Christian heavy metal prayers! Repeat that again and again, please!” The crowd obeyed. Joey shouted with them marking the rhythm and Ozzy clapped his hands, Jonathan smiled and Marilyn encouraged them to scream louder with gestures while exposing his tenebrous tattoos. “Alleluia for Sister Rachel!” shouted Marilyn.
After the concert Marilyn and Eminem went to a rap club to continue their battle for Sister Rachel. After taking a shower Marilyn changed into a gothic gentleman’s outfit. Donations were generous; there was a big crowd and all ran to the front to challenge my heroes and Eminem. The latter left the contenders in a daze but Eminem went to them and shook hands. “Now it’s my friend’s turn, the gothic Reverend!” said Eminem. Marilyn came on stage and with his Christian, gothic hand he shook hands with Eminem before offering his traditional military salutation to the audience. “Give a motherfucking welcome to Marilyn Manson, yo!” said Eminem. Marilyn listened and stared at his opponent, and began his Biblical counterattack. “I be the Goth priest, make your prayer, for this Antichrist’ll feed, your soul later on,” rapped Marilyn in his gothic rock style. “Fucking Jesus Christ, blame the fucking fundamentalist. You are on my list; it’s inscribed on your chest. You will burn inside the flames! I am your goddamn nightmare, so try to die, by suicide.” Eminem and my hero won the battle and told the audience about the Stovefest. The next morning they returned to the fundamentalist church. While the minister was slandering the previous night’s concert, Marilyn stood up and shouted: “Pure slander! I can tell you preferred to stay home with grandpa and watch a porn film rather than to come hear us and learn about our commercial but religious effort. True. We inflamed the cathedral in the Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon style, yet not a single spectator held up redeeming bibles or rosaries to our faces trying to exorcize us. Last night we lived a Resurrection of the damned, you bunch of idiots! We biblically unleashed a Dracula ghetto service with a suicide death metal remix!” The minister was about to answer when a teenager interrupted him and shouted again and again “Christian heavy metal prayers!” Marilyn looked at him smiling before coldly staring at the minister. “You preached it, man! Fucking Jesus Christ, Alleluia from the ghetto Dracula, Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon for Sister Rachel!” said Marilyn.
Nice, France. A quick escapade before resuming the “Stovefest” tour. Marilyn and Dita went to the convent to have lunch with Sister Rachel. The nuns were all excited and very caring towards their out-of-the-ordinary guests. Sister Rachel showed them around, especially around the chapel where they pray every morning and evening. “This is where I pray to the Lord for your protection in your multiple enflamed tours. He obviously has listened to me!” she said. Marilyn hugged her tenderly and with affection; Dita smiled at her generously. “So that’s why the cops revolted and rioted with their union: because of lack of action and not for fear of getting killed in my place for a ridiculous salary,” said Marilyn ironically. Then they discovered Sister Rachel’s room, feeling great emotion. Marilyn pensively observed the walls between the icons, the crucifixes and the photos taken with Dita and my friends from Nice. He smiled looking at the photo where he embraces Sister Rachel, slightly smaller than him, with his tattooed arms. “This one must have created some gossip around the convent, did they cry blasphemy?” asked Marilyn jokingly. Then he saw the Stovefest album on her night table. “Does this lull you to sleep at least?” he asks. She nodded, laughing. “It’s probably more popular to play our heavy metal gospels at your services or on your answering machine rather than the traditional liturgies of those worn down, scratched LP’s!” He added humbly: “This Stovefest symbolizes a sort of Bible in your honor.” “In fact, I listen to it a lot, too much, according to some of my sisters, who are mostly jealous,” said Sister Rachel, making her two guests smile. “It is rather unusual, I think. He has put a lot of himself into this recording. It’s a much nobler present than mine,” said Dita while offering scarves she had designed herself and had had custom-made by one of her friends, a Parisian couturier. Sister Rachel was delighted. “These scarves are so beautiful!” She said. “They are a must for Christmas, thank you very much!” “I think there will be even more jealousy around here,” added Marilyn. After lunch they went to the chapel with Sister Rachel and other nuns for a quiet spiritual moment. Sister Rachel guided the prayers; Marilyn and Dita looked at her, fascinated.
Afterwards they went to the Economic Stove, in the meantime a group of home boys arrives. “Hey cousin, what are you up to tonight? Wanna have a drink with me in a quiet place so we can get acquainted?” says the leader trying to show off in front of Dita. Marilyn shows the symbol of the so-often encountered American evangelist puritan fear for protect his elegant Burlesque girlfriend. “I’m the antichrist who is going to preach the Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon at your mosque during the evening prayer. You’re lucky, because although I’m starving, I don’t have the equipment with me to eat you during my coffee break. The Apocalypse is near, I advise you to leaf through the Bible while you’re in the shitters. It’s an explicit survival manual to learn what to do when God brings the Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon to all sinners. Nice fried home boys with onions, I’m already drooling. That’s better than going to a McDonald’s and yet I’m a loyal client there. I can always go get my chain saw from my minivan and chop you up for evening meal at the Stove,” he says showing his chromed teeth and smacking his lips in front of the home boys, who, petrified, leaves the way. Once they arrived to the association, Marilyn saw Sister Olga. “Yes, I know, we’ll take off at 5:00 pm or else you’re going to kill us,” he said to her. “And anyway, you don’t have any absinth or champagne for my girlfriend. A glass of water will be fine for right now; that’ll be something different for a change.” “That’s right. I’m glad to see that you’re still wide awake despite your jetlag. Take it easy with illegal substances anyway, » answered Sister Olga. A man approached and congratulated my hero for all his accomplishments for the non-profit organization. He shook Marilyn’s ringed hand. “So how is life treating you?” he asked. Marilyn smiled, a bit surprised. “Well,” he answered, “Besides the demonstrations, the inquisition, death threats, snipers who cross themselves and yet want to kill me and the bastard journalists from Fox News who blame me for corrupting their gremlins…..life is good!” The three guests went into the dining hall down below and were talking until 5:00 on the dot. Sister Olga came down the stairs and Marilyn looked at her smiling through his gothic eye lens. “Good Lord, Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon,” said Marilyn jokingly, “this is like mermaids from Stalingrad! Easy there, we’re leaving. We should have recorded you to broadcast it through the loudspeakers after concerts for the borderline fans in trance. Just to remind them not to hog the places after the shows and piss off quickly as soon as they hear the redeeming sound of the chain saws, like a punctuation mark on your book of rules about punctuality.” « This Marilyn is quite something. If you did that I’d send you some of your favorite absinth by mail,” replied Sister Olga. “May it be so, your words in God’s ears, Amen!” added Marilyn laughing.
Later on Sister Rachel took Dita to visit the streets in Nice, and some city parks. Dita was under the spell of the local architecture. Marilyn had been invited to Mireille’s house; the dog was happy to see him as usual. Marilyn smiled. “Hey Bibi, sorry, I forgot to bring you some conservative Republican meat in a doggy bag, » he joked. « It’s so frustrating not being able to set you free in the Fox News TV studios to chew up some puritanical, conservative, evangelical journalists. But, you see, my dear Bibi, the building is super patrolled. They have even more security cameras that I have at home.” Mireille confessed to Marilyn that certain people were secretly slandering the noble intention of Marilyn, Ozzy, Joey and Jonathan for the Stovefest. For some people my hero was creative but also destructive and they weren’t sure which of the two. Some say he diverts the religious tourism from the Vatican and Rome does not appreciate Marilyn’s spiritual marketing towards Sister Rachel. Marilyn listened to her and decided to take some notes for his next album Born Villain. He wrote some lyrics in front of Mireille and explained to her their hidden, religious, even outrageous meanings. In the evening he went to Jean Marie’s church and attentively observed the crucifixes, Christian paintings, as well as the parade of tourists who looked at him suspiciously. Marilyn thought and wrote down some more lyrics; then it was time for mass. Marilyn attended diligently Jean Marie’s preaching; he heard him evoke the resurrection of the soul, the evolution of the ages, the impact of the Vatican, etc. Marilyn listened to all this, stared at the devotees transcended, pensive, and connected their devotions to his feelings and observations and wrote down more lyrics for his future album.
Some days later the heavy metal troupe went to Lourdes and visited the holy places before giving a concert in the town’s cathedral. They stood in line before the famous Virgin Mary cave. The Lambda tourists recognized and stared at him suspiciously. Especially because of their elegant retro look, and their gothic tattoos, the metallic appearance of the artists did not go unnoticed. When they arrived in front of the bishop who was baptizing thousands of pilgrims, the bishop found himself in front of Marilyn and was at a loss. “So, what?” said Marilyn, “We also want the holy Virgin’s blessings? I’ve been in dire need of protection for years from the numerous armed fans, who multiply like the loaves of bread in the Bible. They’re constantly posting death threats each Christmas telling me that they’re going to kill me on stage. My security cops are always threatening me with going on strike if I don’t pay them more. And to crown it all, the chief cops watch only Fox News. When I shake hands with some of my co-worshippers, as a gesture of fraternity, on Sunday at church, they just insult me. Each Sunday when I go to church some of them spit at me, some stick a rosary to my forehead and recite the Lord’s Prayer: other shove their Bibles at me in an attempt to reform me. So, please, could you bless me and protect me with the Virgin Mary’s holy water?” Reply Marilyn.
There was deadly silence and everybody looked confused, waiting for the bishop’s reaction. The latter consented and did the same with Ozzy, Joey and Jonathan under a deluge of camera flashes that machine gunned the rather unusual scene. In their walks and visits of sacred places, our rockers came across teenagers with whom they engaged in various conversations. Marilyn told them about their project for Sister Rachel and the youngsters promise to bring along a lot of people. There was a feeling of collective euphoria during the concert; the devotees shouted Marilyn’s esoteric war cry, Marilyn smile, he leaps to the front of the stage and mystically chants “stove (the crowd reacts), stove (the crowd continues as he raises his voice), stove, it’s extra hours and Sister Olga is not going to kick you out, so all those from the Dracula ghetto chant alleluia with me for the Economic Stove! For the magnificent Sister Rachel, who multiplies healings? (The crowd chants alleluia rhythmically). For wonderful Mireille who helps convicts! (The crowd continues). For my friend Jean Marie, the best Goddamn-mother-fucking priest on the whole planet, alleluia for Christ’s sake! (The crowd yells even louder). And for Sister Olga, who is more efficient than tear gas grenades thrown by cops, and who could be the image on the labels of absinthe: alleluia, motherfuckers ! (The crowd chants that leitmotiv energetically with the fury of the seven angels of the Apocalypse). This entertaining preaching symbolize the Christian heavy metal prayers, for represent us much more that the Goth bling-bling of the Dracula ghetto!” he yell inside the church with the enthousiasm of Ozzy and Jonathan, while Joey enflamed his drum for rise theses Christian Goth prayers, heavy metal style, the audience was transcendent.
A few days later in Carcassonne, the troupe visited the medieval city with great fascination. After friendly exchanges with gothic fans, they bought sandwiches and munched them in the heart of the historic city in front of the cathedral where the previous night’s concert had taken place. Just before the concert there had been a service in which Marilyn had spoken: “Thank you to all the cities and cathedrals which gave us their support in our creative project. And many thanks in the name of the Dracula ghetto: Christian heavy metal prayers. Amen,” he said, before his musical triumph in this cathedral. A few days later in his LA studio, Marilyn recorded hey cruel world and overneath the path of misery, watched by Jean Marie, Sister Rachel and Yves Marie. They all gave him great support and asked him how he felt. “The gothic Reverend of the Apocalypse is going to throw his suicide death metal communion wafers from the remixed Dracula ghetto into the faces of American censors and reforming extremists at every Sunday service in church and at political meetings,” said Marilyn. “It’s the Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon for these misbelievers, I support my friends. » Then he went on to record with great faith, a new song written during a service in Nice, one written at the Dominican, children of Cain. He had won yet another symbolic battle.
THE ENIGMA OF FAITH
Marilyn Manson and his star friends Ozzy Osbourne, Joey Jordison and Jonathan Davis really surprised their metal fans, the whole Christian community and even the Goths with the launch of their new album called Stovefest, even going gold worldwide. I went to the city of Orleans, France, at the request of Ozzy’s wife, Sharon Osbourne, in order to follow the steps of Marilyn Manson, the Biblical deathcore Pope who was proclaimed Antichrist superstar in 1997. But I also wanted to pay homage to the work of the other three rockers. Among them there was Ozzy, of course, for whom Sharon feels an ocean of love. She told me at the airport, “He is indescribable. Ozzy and my family are my strength, my faith, my reason for being. It’s not because he’s my husband that I say this; in fact Ozzy is my eternal soul mate. » I readied myself to re-discover and face a charismatic, intelligent and funny artist in the person of Marilyn Manson.
The heavy metal troop took refuge at a seminary, but they also had a concert there to support the Christian organization that Manson is so involved with. Sharon explained to me that he would discuss with the students for priesthood about many theological and spiritual subjects and then His Sanctity Reverend Manson would welcome me into his seminary with one of his students, Paul Bénézit, his guide and assistant for the day. “That’s a change from the old laudatory press conferences at the Ritz in Paris,” he said. “Who would have thought that me, the Antichrist superstar, would have recorded a disc and spread my wings writing esoteric lyrics to support a religious friend’s association,” said Manson to me. “This Christian Stovefest of the Antichrist has generated a massive commercial craze in which dollars – with the omnipresent eye of God and the inscription in God we trust –have flooded record shops thanks to the concept of my new album born villain. All their customers will be revived as born again under the enflamed hymn of our death metal Te Deum suicide remix in the Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon style at the churches of the Dracula ghetto. Christ myths, we are rewriting the psalms for Sunday mass, how ironic! The cops who were in charge of controlling the Christian demonstrators shouting and protesting against me in 2001 outside the Ozzfest were totally paranoiac, watching all that anarchy. I thought they were on acid. That sure was some riot. I’m talking about the time before the interview with Michael Moore. Anyway, my fans really appreciated my performance, especially when I set fire to hundreds of death threat and redeeming insult letters and evangelist flyers on stage. That sure calmed them down, damn it, blessings from the remix Dracula ghetto. I would add that at the time of my 2001 tour for holy wood, the Christian activists tried hard to stop my fans from seeing me by promising to give them some free pizza. So, there was Domino’s pizza, the way to go in order to be absolved and reach God’s kingdom on the one hand and on the other, burning in hell’s eternal flames in agonizing screams of terror, if they chose to see me, which they did. In my opinion the choice was not very kosher for young people who were already stigmatized by society. For Sister Rachel and our new bible, the stovefest, the religious marketing campaign of this disc was a David-versus-Goliath type of fight with the fans, and also with the heart of the church. An Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon style remix, giving the conservative Republicans from Fox News heart palpitations. And me, as gothic Reverend, I survived and I went to preach for Sister Rachel the tenebrous hymn of the uprising of the damned under an esoteric requiem of enflamed suicide death metal inside churches. There, religious services are remixed in the Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon style. I waited for the catholic demonstrators and their ilk with conviction. I am going to exorcise them all with a good tracks of born villain; their signs with reforming slogans will burn with Molotov cocktails in the name of the marketing apocalypse of my artistic rock. Thus I will wave the gothic religious standard of our counterculture and raise hell until there is a biblical riot at the heart of your Holy commercial prayers. Alleluia motherfuckers for the four riders of the Dracula ghetto. During the promo of this religious disc – or rather this heavy metal gospel – and its tour with my rocker friends, I visit churches like a tourist in quest of absolutions in order to argue with young Christians and future priests.” Tell Marilyn.
Paul took us into the cathedral where a divine light brightened the nave, which delighted the tenebrous Reverend. « What a remarkable piece of immortal work from the past in order to preserve any type of spirituality, religious or man-made, it doesn’t matter,” continued Manson. “Time goes by, crossing centuries with different rhythms, but always present. They’ve often asked me about my possible fatherhood. I believe that it’s a form of immortality, but I don’t know when and how I will experience that because raising a child and sharing your universe with it requires great courage. Today I can say that I share my universe in harmony with my father Hugh Warner. He’s my dad and I love him. To become a father myself….I think about it sometimes. If a miniature copy of myself came springing out of a uterus burning things up and screaming obscenities that would be very funny. I would laugh on my death bed. »
The Reverend admiringly observed the architectural details of the church, the Christian paintings and the crucifixes through his gothic eye lens. “And to think about the fact that in my youth Christianity terrified me massively,” said Marilyn. “Every morning at the Heritage Christian School the teacher, who was a very beautiful but ice-cold woman, threatened us with hell’s eternal agony if we didn’t pay dogmatic obedience to Catholicism. That’s where I started my rebellion; I was lost, like all other adolescents. But I chose films like the exorcist as my personal reference, which gave me a dark vision of religion and later pushed me to writing and becoming the Antichrist superstar. I succeeded in getting kicked out from the Heritage Christian School after placing a sex toy, which had belonged to my grandfather, in the frigid teacher’s Bible.”
Manson and Paul went to the latter’s room, where Joey Jordison and Ozzy Osbourne were talking about the concert in the cathedral later that evening. Both artists warmly shook hands with me. “We’re going to hose down the church in the rock’n roll style, just to shock the young priests, But there’s no way any asshole is gonna hit me in the face with a baseball bat” says Ozzy. “We’re going to blow away die-hard fanatics at full blast until they are deaf and paranoid because tonight it’s going to be a praise of religious suicide death metal. So we avoid the inquisition,” Joey smiled. “The gospel of the Dracula ghetto churches, which was prophesized by two preachers of our holy gothic and Christian parish 40 years ago. The first in Birmingham, UK, in 1970 before becoming the Godfather of Shock-Rock in the USA; the second baptizes our suicide death metal remix hymns from his hometown in Des Moines, in the USA before evangelizing the whole world into our parish. Let’s go to a traditional Sunday service with all the conservative Republican liturgies and exorcize them all together with a high pressure religious hose over their reforming dogmas. Our protest will be like a demonstration from Christian hell, right outside their churches during service. We’ll wave Bibles as activist signs with our slogan, the Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon, so that we survive and preach our gospel on MTV and biblically skyrocket the sale of our discs right in the churches under the sounds of our Christian suicide death metal remix of the Dracula ghetto. This hardcore biblical riot will unveil our contrasting faith to God. He will confuse our scene yells with born villain prayers! It’s the Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon of the Dracula ghetto! It’s the psalm of the 1997 Biblical death-core baptized Antichrist superstar.” Jokes Manson
The Reverend, exposing his chromed gothic rings and bracelets and tenebrous tattoos while signing himself, smiled about the Christian activists who believe he really represents a danger for the youth. “Well, I’ve always thought that if they were really interested in the effects of my music and how my music can change people’s actions, why aren’t they interested in what I do? I assume you don’t know what I’m talking about… I mean, it’s like blaming Shakespeare, or the Bible, or King James, because all is linked, each action provokes a reaction. But what Marilyn Manson really meant from the beginning is ‘This is your world; you’ve created it and I just grew up in it. And if you don’t like the way your children behave you need to raise them differently. But I’m not going to be the one doing it for you.’ But for me, art, therapy, creation, all is spirituality. You know I think that is why certain people are drawn to religion, others to creativity and others to self-destruction. If you build something, you sing it, then people respond in a positive way, which is really exciting for you as an artist, it increases your self-esteem. Money is just a means of obtaining what you need to continue. I don’t think that it is freedom. I think that sometimes it can even be a prison. Money Can’t buy me love the Beatles sing. Money makes some people lazy and destroys your ambition and will to do things. I remember, at the beginning, I drew my first flyer, then I went to the stationary shop and I Xeroxed it and I even colored them myself. And I didn’t have all my songs yet,” he said humbly. “It’s a true story, I have nothing to lose,” confessed the Reverend.
It was time for Manson to have a debate with the seminarians. “I sang personal Jesus for my 2004 best of and I’m going to sing it again tonight at the cathedral.” Manson adds jokingly, “I will be facing you, so please don’t shoot at me, I don’t want to make the conservatives from Fox News too happy, that would be too bad for my religious friends! So I hope no little smartass has hidden a bomb under my seat in order to be beatified by the Vatican.” The Reverend and Paul settled down. Manson fascinated his audience and somebody asked him about his participation in Michael Moore’s documentary Bowling for Columbine.
Manson smiled before concentrating. “Ah, that interview was a true redemption, I believe,” he said. “At the time it was my first visit to Denver after having been blamed for Columbine. An event after which almost all the Americans turned away from me cancelling my concerts. At the same time they all wanted to interview me: journalists from all the big TV chains. But I refused to be interviewed because that would have only confirmed a link with Columbine. Then I was contacted by a woman who worked for a local Denver paper. It turned out that she had done some thorough research and had found out that neither of the young murderers were fans of mine; they found me ‘too commercial’ and probably hated me. The day after the massacre I watched Fox News, and the reporter who became very famous, Shepard Smith or whatever his name, knew me. He never replied to my messages after that because he probably knew he would get slapped, because he said that there were three murderers wearing Marilyn Manson T-shirts. That wasn’t true, and there weren’t even three of them. This drama was treated in a very hollow way and I was fascinated. That is why I talk about it in my album Holly Wood. Back then I was writing an eponymous film precisely about children, guns and violence. Then what I was talking about happened. I was about to express my criticism about that when it was thrown into my face. In a nutshell, when I got to Mile-high Stadium in Denver for a concert 30 plain clothes cops were waiting for me to protect me because I had received hundreds of death threats. The stadium layout made it quite easy for anybody to shoot me. I had to overcome my fear, especially after they told me not to go on stage. But I did. You know, to be prepared to die for what you do means that you can’t live without it. During my interview with Michael Moore, his documentary was still only a nameless project. I talked with him for two or three hours, and in the film he only used a short extract of my message which had an impact on viewers in the United States, and even in the rest of the world. It was very annoying to hear people say ‘I thought you were so intelligent! I never thought about you as intelligent before the film’. And I used to reply ‘I didn’t know you were that stupid before meeting you’. You know you often hear ‘I don’t give a damn about what people think of me’. But I do care about what people think of me, but that doesn’t determine who I am. I’m interested in order to preserve myself. At the same time I really want my image to represent me. Sometimes I can control it, sometimes I can’t. I’ve been playing Russian roulette for a long time. I survived before being tolerated in certain churches. Now when I go to church they don’t call 911-exorcism and I even get to have the communion wafer.”
Before the concert, the four rockers had dinner with Osbourne, Paul, Silouanne – another seminarian who is a great fan of Iron Maiden – and myself. There was a clear festive bond between us, especially when I asked him if he is a romantic despite past scene excesses. The Reverend smiled. “Absolutely. However, many people misrepresent or have their own meaning of the word romance. I’ve been inspired by Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil. It’s a very black representation yet very romantic. In my opinion all passion is by definition romantic. Indeed I believe you can’t define the word love. We say to people that we love them and yet I also love to breathe, I love a certain drink, I love … light. I don’t know what makes a person positive, but I give great importance to details. That is why I paint, I write songs. It’s a way of filling the voids. This is spirituality. I’m thinking about the Bible, for example, which I read a lot as a child when I went to the Christian school. I love learning so I read a lot of books and in all religious books of all religions you find they are founded on God, a concept linked with creation. Someone who made everything. Thus, creating things as an artist of any sort, a florist, an architect, a writer, a painter or a singer, is bringing something into this world. But these days, the means religious people use is to take away things, especially with me, because I provoke them and control them through my words; so they try to take away freedom and expression from this world, which goes against the very principle of the book they represent. And still they haven’t succeeded in making me hate religion. I think all art is subjective. What I’m supposed to do is to question things. Sometimes, when I’m in a bad moment, what I create describes exactly what I feel to make people feel the same way, which is not always good, especially when I feel like shit. I’m lucky to be able to communicate with people based on solid ground; I’ve always been shy and that’s why I chose to paint and to play music in order to express myself. As for tonight’s concert, suicide death metal, at this ancient church, we’ll spread our tenebrous wings and unify the whole religious world. The word religion itself means to re-connect and enflame the audience with our esoteric gospel. I hope we can unleash the whole church with our ecclesiastical sound of God’s fire and inspire our seminarians to write new hymns. The gothic Christian mass has been said, even prophesized in the Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon style by the four riders of the Dracula ghetto: Christian heavy metal prayers! Alleluia motherfuckers!” Manson smiles while he crosses himself, showing his chromed rings with chromed gothic skulls then stoically stares at me with his white eye lens.
Then Manson had a toast with his friends and the two seminarians before shaking hands with me. “You are our fucking spokesperson for all those guys who didn’t understand a thing about our religious scheme;” said Ozzy to me. “You are our fucking commercial Fedex! Convert all those misbelieving assholes who demonstrate their denialist slogans at our concerts. They really need to relax, damn it. They are as much a preacher as we four are.” Later I found out that their concert was recorded and that the Christians loved the disc.