MAKING OF THE ALBUM: Marilyn Manson – Portrait of an American Family

Marilyn Manson had first begun their association with Trent Reznor back in 1990 when they had landed a support slot for Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails at Club Nu in Miami, Florida. Shortly before that, frontman Manson had interviewed Reznor for lifestyle magazine 25th Parallel, but after their set Manson had given Reznor a copy of their crude demo. At this time, bassist Bradley Stewart (using the pseudonym Gidget Gein) was unable to play his instrument and Stephen Bier (better known as Madonna Wayne Gacy) still hadn’t purchased a keyboard. Manson had taken acid and began to parade his girlfriend around on stage on a leash, whipping her as she began to cry as her trip turned bad. Two years later, shortly after purchasing the Nine Inch Nails EP Broken, Manson received a call from Reznor’s manager requesting a copy of the band’s latest demo. Manson was invited by Reznor to appear in the music video for the track Gave Up, which also featured touring guitarist Richard Patrick, who would later form the group Filter.

Manson and Reznor soon became close friends and began to indulge in a variety of outrageous acts whilst throwing parties with groupies and other rock stars. Marilyn Manson commenced work on their debut album, Portrait of an American Family, at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida with producer Roli Mosimann, who had previously worked with Celtic Frost on their 1990 album Vanity/Nemesis and two albums by The The. Due to his lack of enthusiasm, Mosimann was eventually fired from the production (as would later happen with Skinny Puppy‘s The Process), prompting Reznor to offer help salvage the recordings. Manson travelled from Florida to Los Angeles, where Reznor was working on his latest album, The Downward Spiral, at the same house where actress Sharon Tate had been murdered by The Manson Family in 1969.

Manson knew that the current line-up for his band was on the verge of falling apart, with Gidget Gein’s ongoing drug abuse (he would eventually overdose at the age of thirty-nine) resulting in him being unable to perform, whilst Manson felt that drummer Frederick Streithorst (also known as both Sara Lee Lucas and Freddy the Wheel) was not committed to the band. Manson was visited in L.A. by guitarist Scott Putesky (Daisy Berkowitz), but his refusal to listen to the mixes further convinced both Manson and Reznor that he did not belong in the band. They continued to attempt to remix the recordings that Mosimann had produced, whilst the group began to arouse interest from Interscope Records (and Reznor’s own Nothing). Yet, with support from a major label came significant issues, with Interscope refusing to release the album with the track My Monkey, which included a reinterpretation from the poem Mechanical Man, by serial killer Charles Manson.

As the band began to fall apart, Manson reassembled a new line-up, although for the time being Berkowitz would remain the guitarist. With Gein gone, Manson was finally able to hire his friend Jeordie White, who had performed with local groups in Florida and would come to adopt the moniker Twiggy Ramirez. Lucas would eventually be replaced by Kenny Wilson (Ginger Fish), although he would not appear on a recording until 1995’s Smells Like Children. In his autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, Manson stated “if he sues me now, I’ll break his kneecaps.” Ironically, Lucas and Berkowitz would sue Manson for unpaid royalties, reaching a settlement in 1998.