As Page Six tells us, Marilyn Manson has a history of pretty grisly self-harm and has a number of scars as a result. The musician has said that his single worst day of self-mutilation involved cutting himself with a razor blade no fewer than 158 times — an act that he hinted happened after a temporary breakup with Evan Rachel Wood in 2008. Per NBC News, he implied a more manipulative purpose for the act in a 2009 interview, saying, “I wanted to show her the pain she put me through. It was like, ‘I want you to physically see what you’ve done.'” According to Newsweek, Manson has also incorporated self-harm into his performances. Arguably the most famous one of these happened in 1995, when he sliced his chest from side to side with a broken bottle. The act left a permanent scar. 

That’s not to say that all of Manson’s onstage injuries are self-inflicted, though. In 2016, he was forced to cut a show short when a large prop fell on him, knocking him down and out. Per NME, the accident also wrecked his leg quite badly. “I’m not sure what I hit my head on, but it did fall onto my leg and break the fibula in two places,” Manson said. “The pain was excruciating.”

Marilyn Manson isn’t a stranger to drugs and outlandish claims, but in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, he managed to combine the two in a characteristically gruesome manner. When asked about the drugs he absolutely avoids, he casually revealed that he’s attempted to get high on human bones — though he doesn’t recommend the experience. “I’ve smoked human bones and taken acid. I don’t want to do either again, because all your demons appear when you smoke bones or take acid. The older you get, the more demons chase you around and you have nightmares.” Though acid and human remains appear to be strictly on his no-no list, Manson still considered both superior alternatives to bath salts, though. The stated reason for avoiding that particular drug: “I don’t want my flesh to fall off.”

This actually isn’t the first time Manson has discussed smoking human bones. In a 1997 interview with High Times – which was impressive enough to be quoted in a congressional paper called Music Violence: How Does It Affect Our Children – Manson actually called the interviewer back to recount a tale of him and an old bandmate raiding graves in New Orleans to acquire human bones, some of which they eventually smoked. At this time, he didn’t mention seeing demons but did note that the experience gave him a headache and that the smoke smelled awful.   

In 1998, Craig Marks, executive editor of Spin magazine, got a little too close for comfort to Marilyn Manson … or, rather, his bodyguards (via MTV News). Marks was present at the artist’s concert at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom but ended the night getting roughed up by Manson’s bodyguards. In addition, he says the singer hurled some pretty nasty threats at him. “I can kill you,” Manson allegedly told Marks. “I can kill your family; I can kill everyone you know.” The editor felt that the whole thing was Manson’s revenge for having to share the magazine’s cover with another artist, instead of having it all for himself. 

All of this sounds pretty bad — not to mention a bit of an overreaction — and Marks reflected this by suing Manson for a total of $6 million. As for Manson, in 2016, he told Alternative Press that his altercation with the Spin editor apparently included more than his bodyguards and verbal threats. “Once I got arrested for putting a gun in the mouth of the editor of Spin and I hid out at the Trump Tower,” he said, reportedly referring to the incident. As for the lawsuit, it was ultimately settled. 

One of Marilyn Manson’s most famous relationships was with burlesque star Dita Von Teese, but according to Harper’s Bazaar, their story ended in 2006 when she suddenly left him and filed for divorce just days later. Von Teese freely admitted that their relationship didn’t end because of a lack of love on her part and that leaving Manson was hard. She was rather reluctant to elaborate on precisely what caused her to leave Manson — but she has made it clear that she very much had her reasons. “Let’s just say that it must have been something pretty bad for me to move out of the house after six years together and to pack up my stuff on Christmas Eve,” she said in 2007.  

In the wake of recent abuse allegations against Manson (via Vanity Fair), Von Teese has opened up about the circumstances of her sudden departure with a statement on Instagram, which revealed that she left Manson “due to infidelity and drug abuse.” Though she noted that her experiences with him didn’t include the sorts of horrors that have been in the news recently, she expressed her support for people who have been abused in relationships.

Evan Rachel Wood posted her allegations of abuse against Marilyn Manson on February 1, 2021, and other voices soon joined in (via Vanity Fair). Per the Huffington Post, as of February 3, at least ten women, including Wood, had shared their stories about getting abused by Manson. What’s more, Billboard notes that Senator Susan Rubio is pushing for a FBI and Department of Justice investigation on the musician. 

Manson denied everyone else’s allegations with the same Instagram post he used to deny Wood’s, but many of his former collaborators and employees have expressed their belief that the singer might not be quite as innocent as he claims. Per Loudwire, Manson’s former guitar technician and P.A. Dan Cleary confirmed that Manson “broke” Wood and that he later witnessed Manson abusing others. According to NME, former Manson guitarist Wes Borland (of Limp Bizkit fame) has stated that “every single thing that people have said about him is f*cking true.” Oh, and Pitchfork notes that even Nine Inch Nails’Trent Reznor — an old collaborator — released an anti-Manson statement, reminding people about his still-burning anger over Manson spreading allegations that he and Reznor once assaulted a woman together. “I have been vocal over the years about my dislike of Manson as a person and cut ties with him nearly 25 years ago,” Reznor wrote.