14 DAY TRIAL // On Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, two students embarked on a killing spree, taking the lives of 12 students and a teacher, injuring 21 others (other 3 were injured as they were attempting to escape), and then committed suicide. “Dark” music groups, such as Marilyn Manson and Rammstein, were blamed for the fourth-deadliest massacre in US history, but it was so because people wanted a scapegoat, Manson tells the latest issue of Kerrang! magazine.
The shock rocker reveals to the mag that, while there’s no question that his music might be considered dark and even violent (but under no circumstance encouraging of acts of violence such as the Columbine massacre, or less for that matter), he was clearly chosen as scapegoat by a grief-stricken public who did not know who to blame. Because of this, he came close to losing everything, Manson says.
“Blaming me for [Columbine] was ridiculous. It’s a lack of responsibility from everyone. If you want to blame something, well, I went to a Christian school. That’s why I write what I write. Shall we blame the Christians?” Manson explains in the interview. At the same time, the rocker believes that things would be completely different if, hypothetically speaking, the same scenario were to happen again today. Still, he admits that he lost almost everything when people started pointing fingers at him for the murders.
“I essentially lost everything because of Columbine but, if it happened now, it just wouldn’t have the same impact.” Manson says. “There has to be that first person who takes the arrows in the back and I guess that was me. If there was a Grammy Award for death toll, it would be mine. I don’t think anyone has been blamed for as much violence as me.” the rocker adds, hinting that people still fail to perceive the difference between art and real life, as he argued on many other occasions before.
At the moment, Marilyn Manson is currently promoting his latest album, “The High End of Low,” as he’s preparing to hit the European festival circuit this month in support of it. In the meanwhile, he’s also made the time to lend his voice to Lady Gaga’s remix of “Love Game” in what has been labeled by fans a track that brings together “the best of both worlds,” as we also reported the other day.