Singer Marilyn Manson addressed Mexico's Sunday Mail about a recent legal trial involving a 16-year-old Scottish youth who killed his 14-year-old girlfriend. It was suggested during the trial that the youth was influenced to do so by a Manson DVD.
Manson said, "I have heard of the case but I do not want to give it much publicity. What I do know is that it is all about the education that parents give their children and the influences they receive, not putting the blame elsewhere...I think people have to take responsibility for their own actions."
Corus Entertainment has reported that the accused, Luke Mitchell, was sentenced on Friday (February 11th) to a minimum of 20 years in prison for the June 2003 murder of his girlfriend, Jodi Jones. The prosecutors in the case theorized that images of a murdered woman contained on a Manson DVD may have motivated Mitchell.
I think the prosecutors might benefit from listening to listening to Eminem's song, "Sing For the Moment" which addresses this issue. "...can [music] load an gun and cock it too... next time... tell the judge it was my fault and I'll get sued..." I'm willing to bet that the motive behind the convicted youths actions had very little to do with some Manson DVD. But that's just me.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Mark Saleski
yea, the whole 'rock lyrics drove my kid to do it' thing has always been bizarre, to say the least.
ever see the Ozzy "Behind The Music"? they've got that pol talking about how "Suicide Solution" has backwards (!) references to "get the gun....get the gun...shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot".
right.
personally, i don't care if the damned lyrics say "hey, please go out and blow your brains out."
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
fittingly, i'm listening to East Nashville Skyline by Todd Snider at the minute. The album contains the marvelous Ballad Of The Kingsmen, which yacks about moral panic from back in the days of Louis Louis to nowadays. This lyric is especially fitting;
"This guy says "You think the lives of a couple high-school kids could have gotten so bad?"
Another guy says "Nah, it's just the lyrics to one of those goddamn marilyn manson songs
You know the one..."
3 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
also, i'm reminded of the brilliant bill hicks routine about the "bacwards messages" in Judas Priest songs.
"I don't care how stupid these guys are, what rock band wants to kill their own audience?"
4 - Temple Stark
In light of who I thought Manson was in the headline, the post is quite ironic.
>>yea, the whole 'rock lyrics drove my kid to do it' thing has always been bizarre, to say the least.
Charles Manson anyone??
Of course it was more that; it was the distortion of a rock song (well a Beatles song). Still .... piggie piggie piggie. Helter Skelter
5 - Mark Saleski
true enough, thought manson was so wacked he could have taken inspiration from the label on the side of a tube of toothpaste.
6 - Douglas Mays
Oh gosh, this issue again....Let us refer to Ozzy O. and 'Suicide Solution'. Back in the 70s when I was a suicidal late teen (I'm Eighteen!!!) it was music like this that keeps one alive. Just knowing that someone out there 'gets it'.
It is music like this that prevents alot of damage. Did Ted Bundy or Gary Ridgeway obsess over some rock records to influence their actions?
No they did not. Aren't these people complaining about the social dangers of rock n roll the same people that said how Beavis and Butthead are destroying the youth of America?
peaceloveguidance
7 - Margaret Romao Toigo
The ironic thing about people getting up in arms about Ozzy Osbourne's, "Suicide Solution" is that it is a song about the dangers of alcohol abuse.
A sampling of the lyrics:
Wine is fine but whiskey's quicker
Suicide is slow with liquor
Take a bottle drown your sorrows
Then it floods away tomorrows
The idea is that alcohol is a "suicide solution" to your problems, I would think that parents would want kids to get that message.
8 - Ayu
I agree that lyrics are not supposed to be blamed for committing crime, but not all people have the same opinion. I remember when I was still in Indonesia I couldn't get Eminem's CD which wasn't censored, nor Limp Bizkit, and every other typical musicians. God, and Indonesian doesn't even speak English.
9 - mike g
I'm so sick of hearing this shit.
Rock music made my daughter evil.
Violent video games made my son kill.
What violent games and satanic music was hitler into?
You have the tendancies in you or not.
The ultimate responsibility lies with the parents. They need to be monitoring their children's outlook on life and how they cope.
10 - DrPat
This is a logical outgrowth of an illogical argument. I call it the "Geraldine Fallacy" (though it probably has a more formal name somewhere), after the Flip Wilson character's tag line, The Devil Made Me Do It!
Mike, you could add to your list:
- Pornography leads men to become rapists.
- Sugar and/or drugs led the criminal to commit the crime.
Ultimate responsibility lies with YOU for YOUR actions. Not your parents, not what you read or what you play with, or what you eat, and certainly not your music.11 - JR
What violent games and satanic music was hitler into?
Well, Wagner. But that's still no excuse.
12 - Gunnfan
from the album Power in the Blood, 2002
"Woody Guthrie", Alabama 3 (A3)
-------------------------------------
Another psychopath in Iowa
loading up another round
While the NRA in Columbine
hunt Marilyn Manson down
Powder in the Pentagon
cruel letters in the mail
Some KKK white supremicist
cooking up a dose of race hate
CHORUS
Don't need no country
Don't fly no flag
Cut no slack for the union jack
Stars and stripes have got me jetlagged
Some baby in Afganistan
crying for its' mama now
while the BNP scare refugees
senseless up in Oldham town
Hypocrites in Downing Street
pouring petrol on the name
Satpal cries, asks Paddy
why do we always get the blame
CHORUS
sing a song for the asylum seeker
for the frightened baby on some foreign beach
you'd better bang a gong and pray
they reach a safe harbour
Some mother in Jakarta
lays down her weary head
in some free trade zone compound
here they work you 'til you're dead
Hunger stalks the corridor
famine and disease
I seen the multinationals
walking hand in hand
with globalising marketeers
CHORUS
====================================
Visit www.alabama3.co.uk
13 - jason
First of all, Twiggy wasn't one of the "corner stones" neither was Ginger. The FIRST bass player was on portrait, and he was the bassist from the band Spooky Kids. That band has changed it's members more often than not, it's like NIN, Trent Reznor is NIN, and Manson is Manson, it doesn't matter who else is in the band. Maynard asked Twiggy to be in APC and Twiggy decided it was time for his career to go a different way. The only reason Twiggy and Manson were together so long was because they were and still are very tight friends. As far as Golden Age goes, he must have missed the rest of the cd. The New Shit does have meaning, and it is a deep song, the lyrics just aren't well written. The rest of the cd is very powerful in showing that the freaks and nu-goths that follow him are becoming way too snobby and should stop thinking in an Ayrean way, as if freaks and nu-goths are better than everyone, or anyone else for that matter.
14 - jason
Next thing someone will tell me Lol Tolhurt was a cornerstone of The Cure...
Or that D'arcy was a cornerstone of The Smashing Pumpkins
15 - sane person
All this stuff you ppl say about MM not causing these horrendous killings, suicides etc doesn't change the fact the MM is still telling these kids this stuff - if anyone else exposed themselves in front of junior high students and taught them homo sex acts, blasphemy, etc, they'd be arrested - but all you idiots defend MM because you're against right-wingers & because you think he's an "artist". What a joke! As a pro musician I can tell you that this guy has - 0 musical talent/ability. The only "talent" he/it has is a flair for the theatric, and even that may be "talent" that comes not from himself, but from the demon that dwells within his wretched self - the same demon that gives "it" it's charisma, and the same demon you fools are all enamored with. WAKE UP!!!!
16 - david white
Manson is just a artist. Like Britney and Christina. Only other art is more offensive for some people and other is not. Everybody is responsible for his own actions and some influences like music, books, films,etc. If one can't take responsobility then that person is not ready for the real life. You can like or dislike manson's art but art is when you create something new. And even if you only sing it or write the lyrics of it that still doesn't change that this is just a opinion,and manson is here by only one of the millions artist like others in these mtv style artist.
Have fun
17 - sane person
Just an opinion - BUT you're forgetting that most of Manson's fans are 11-17 years old and that they literally WORSHIP this freak. So are Britney & Christina's fans, but do Britney and Christina call themselves "Anti-Christ Superstar" and tell kids to "kill God, kill their parents and kill themselves"? Do they tell the kids (who incidentally are not even old enough to "take responsibility for their own actions") that they are "their savior"? They may be a loose influence sexually to young girls, but do they teach them blasphemy combined with totally perverted sex acts? "Take responsibility for your own actions"? What about MANSON taking responsibility for HIS own actions?? What a hypocrite! And he loves to call others hypocrites. He talks about it being the parents responsibility and that it is "all about....the INFLUENCES they receive" Like MARILYN MANSON?? It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic. He knows his fans are childen and that they worship him. He knows exactly what he's doing - being a Satanist, he wants to cause as much evil to children as possible. I rest my case.
18 - jason
Naw, it's not that complicated. Mason just likes people to talk about him so he can sell records.
Also, I don't think anyone between 11 and 15 would give two hoots about who or what Mason is, just like many Mason fans don't give a hoot who came before him.
Finally, it would be awesome if someone like Brittney had the balls to tell her fans to kill god... it'd be a hell of a lot more interesting. I'd rather Mason influence kids than Brittney or Chritina freaking Agulara (sp?)
And why did you put some of that shit in quotes? Can you identify your source? Did Mason say those exact words... to kill god and then yourself? If he did, man, he sounds kinda like Bush to me...
19 - jason
Oh... and let me know how it is that you know Manson is a Satanist.
Can you prove that any more than you can prove George Bush is not a Satanist?
20 - jason
I don't understand your use of quotes... Manson never said those exact words... send me your source, assuming you are quouting from one.
21 - sane person
An interesting news item about the shooter in the latest Minnesota school shooting just came to my attention, and I quote: "A sophmore, he enjoyed Goth music such as performed by Marilyn Manson." and "He was constantly drawing stuff in his notebook that was evil and dark.....but it wasn't anything that extreme and out of the ordinary for a Goth kid."
How many times does this have to happen before people realize? If any of you who defend MM's "1st amendment rights" have kids, I sincerely hope this never happens to them - if it does, God forbid, I think it safe to say you'll QUICKLY change your tune.
22 - jason
I'm trying to think of a nice way to say this but sir, you're an ignoramous. You claim Manson has said things he hasn't and you even put these said things in QUOTES.
You then point fingers at musicians rather than, oh, I don't know, stupid American gun control laws (or lack thereof). I don't remember the last time any "goth kids" shot a whole bunch of people up in Canada.
Do you not think people can think for themselves? Should we be censoring Manson, pulling his albums off shelves because of poor parenting and gun control laws? Is that your solution?
Wow... I wonder what you think of 50 Cent and Tu Pac.
For the record, I think Mr. Brain Warner is actually Catholic. He just also happens to be an entertainer.
23 - sane person
Last post on this - unlike you, Jason, I don't have time for this freakin' shit.
1st of all, you seem to assume that because I'm against MM that I'm a fan of "Dub-ya" I can't STAND Bush, alright? I think he's a powermad warmonger and what he's doing with these wars and trying to institute forced democracies around the world is anything but Christian.
2nd,it's a very well known fact that Anton LaVey is one of MM's heroes and that LaVey made MM an "honorary minister" of the church of Satan. I have at least one pic of the 2 of them together.
MM may do this shit to sell records, (which is despicable in itself) but believe me, he has other motives - just as a Christian would have motives for trying to influence children to do good, a Satanist desires to spread evil. I can't prove this, but MM probably made a "deal" to get fame & fortune in exchange for helping to destroy kids. And you don't seem to realize, but MANY, indeed MOST of his fans are junior high age. You say kids 11-15 have no interest in MM, but the kid who killed his GF that was the subject of this whole thread was 14 at the time of the murder, and the kid who just killed the others & himself in MN was 15! As I said B4, WAKE UP!!
My use of quotes was only from the article at the top of this thread, the Kill God,.... etc. thing was from the forward of one of the books about/by him, I believe it was the autobio, but it was one of the books out about MM. PLUS the quote was on a well known T-shirt that MM sold. He's also stated in various interviews and lyrics that he wants to be remembered as the person who brought an end to Christianity & that he wants to help bring about the apocalypse. (sp?)
If you prefer MM influencing kids over Britney & Christina (which is bad enough), then you must WANT more high school shootings, what the hell, maybe there will start to be some grade school shootings next. As this last story from MN proves, these killings and suicides are the predictable & logical results of MM's message of hate and hopelessness. Add to the mix some insensitive students making fun of the misfits who listen to MM and other similar satanic trash, and you have a recipe for instant mass murder.
MM had a website for his "Church of Anti-Christ Superstar, www.dewn.com/mm/ (the content is conveniently gone now), where he preaches pure hatred to his followers and tells them basically to destroy everything and that the day will come when they will be in control & they will decide who fits in. He hypocritically talks as if he's one of the teens, so the young gullibles will relate to him, while we all know that he's really a 36-37 y.o. extreme pervert, preying on and manipulating the feelings of alienation & insecurity he knows they have. The shit he said on that site sounds a lot like Hitler's writings...all anti-christs are basically the same, full of hatred, especially for God. But it matters not that the content of that site is gone, because if you look at his lyrics you will find these same ideas in one form or another reiterated again & again.
That's all I have to say on the subject, think what you want, deceive yourself if you want....I hope you all open your eyes soon.
24 - jason
Hmmm.
You seem to have the time.....
Anyway, I'm pleased you at least clarified your opinion and citations.
25 - Douglas Mays
hhhmmm...if heavy metal lyrics cause suicide, would'nt the streets just be a bunch of dead bodies? carcasses all over? Many heavy metal listeners....
peaceloveguidance...