Brian Warner — better known as Marilyn Manson, which is also the name of the rock band he fronts — has always been associated with a certain level of divisiveness. During the ’90s, protesters decried Marilyn Manson’s music and performances as offensive, obscene, satanic, degrading toward women, and promoting violence and abuse; fans and supporters argued that the shock value was actually in service of thought-provoking social commentary. Warner has faced multiple allegations of violence and abuse across decades of his unconventional and controversial career. But a significant turning point came in February 2021, when actress Evan Rachel Wood publicly accused Warner of sexual assault and abuse during their relationship. More than a dozen women leveled similar allegations of dehumanizing and nonconsensual experiences against him, prompting increased scrutiny over the musician’s past.
Warner has consistently denied sexually assaulting or abusing anyone, claiming that his “intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners.” A source close to Warner also responded to allegations from accusers Ashley Walters and Esmé Bianco by stating that both women continued to attend Warner’s concerts and parties for years after they were allegedly abused. Things shifted in March 2022, when Warner went on the offensive and filed a defamation suit claiming that Wood had been involved in a conspiracy against Warner. “This detailed complaint has been filed to stop a campaign of malicious and unjustified attacks on Brian Warner,” Warner’s attorney, Howard King, said in a statement to Vulture. On February 23, former accuser Ashley Smithline retracted her 2021 allegations in a testimony submitted as part of Warner’s defamation suit. Smithline claims Wood and others had “manipulated” and pressured her into coming forward, which Wood denies. A judge has since ruled that Smithline’s new declaration will not be admitted as evidence and later dismissed multiple core claims to the defamation suit. Manson’s remaining claims are set for trial on May 1, 2024.
Throughout Warner’s tumultuous career, there have been not only allegations of sexual assault or abuse but also claims of misbehavior and harassment from former bandmates, venue staff, and journalists. Here’s a detailed timeline of Warner’s rise to rock stardom and the troubling allegations that led Rolling Stone to claim he is a “monster hiding in plain sight.”
Early 1990s: The band builds a fan base for their shocking performances. “You didn’t know if they were gonna have naked, underage girls underneath the keyboards or if [Warner] was gonna strip and somebody was gonna give him a blowjob on-stage,” rock writer Sandy Torres recalls to the Broward–Palm Beach New Times in 2004. According to Warner’s autobiography and several news outlets, early shows feature elements such as a nude woman tied to a cross, a child in a cage, shredded Bibles, a Nazi flag, and bloody animal body parts.
Warner’s autobiography includes several unsettling anecdotes involving women during these early years. He writes that he and a friend were attracted to an uninterested mall employee, so they called her from a pay phone and allegedly threatened to rape her and crush her underneath her car. Warner also alleges in the book that he and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails once got a woman intoxicated and penetrated her with their fingers, with Warner claiming he lit her pubic hair on fire. In February 2022, Reznor denied his involvement in the alleged assault, calling the passage a “complete fabrication” that he has been “infuriated and offended” by since it was published.
December 1990: Per a New Times report, rock manager John Tovar hears of Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids’ growing popularity. He attends a packed show alongside 300 fans, who arrive in costumes and makeup mimicking the band’s aesthetics. Within weeks, Tovar is managing the band.
1993: The band, whose name is now shortened to Marilyn Manson, is the first act to sign with Reznor’s Nothing Records label, distributed by Interscope.
July 1994: Marilyn Manson’s major-label debut, Portrait of American Family, is released July 19. The album includes a track about child molestation. In an interview the following year, Warner alleges that his songs about child sexual abuse are misinterpreted and are a way to “deal with the things that happened to me as a child.”
December 1994: Marilyn Manson begins their first headlining tour in Florida. Warner is arrested for indecent exposure after the first show on December 27 and is released after spending a night in jail. He later explains that police thought he was masturbating onstage with a dildo but claims he was in fact wearing underwear with a “design feature that looked penislike.”
1995: When asked to share stories about groupies in a Purr interview, Warner says that “the best and most exciting stories on the road are better left a secret because of the statute of limitations.” He adds that he has to respect the “innocence and ignorance” of fans who get caught up in the moment and claims that “anybody that gets into any exploitation is not someone who doesn’t WANT to get taken advantage of.” Elsewhere in the interview, Warner states, “I’ve grown accustomed to getting sexual excitement out of a girls’ screaming. There’s something about a terrified girl that I find exciting.”
Warner reportedly lived in New Orleans while recording projects released in 1995 and 1996. He claims in his autobiography that he once smoked human bones that he took from a graveyard in the city, though it’s not clear when the alleged grave robbing took place.
September 1995: Warner allegedly invites a 16-year-old girl onto his tour bus after a show and sexually assaults her while a bandmate watches, according to a lawsuit filed in January 2023.
October 1996: Antichrist Superstar, the band’s second studio album, debuts on the Billboard “200” at No. 3.
November 1997: The U.S. Senate holds a hearing on “music violence.” The father of a 15-year-old Marilyn Manson fan who reportedly died by suicide while listening to Antichrist Superstar testifies that the band’s music “caused him to kill himself.”
January 1998: Per MTV, former member Putesky sues Warner and the rest of the band, claiming he was never paid thousands of dollars in “royalties, publishing rights, and performance fees.” A settlement is reached in October. The New Times reports in 2004 that Putesky’s “trump card” during mediation was his allegation that Warner once pointed a gun at him for hiding a cassette tape.
February 1998: Spin magazine editor Craig Marks files harassment and assault charges against Warner, accusing him of threatening his life after inviting him backstage at a New York show. The legal complaint alleges that Warner’s bodyguards grabbed Marks “by the neck” and threw him against the wall. Marks claims that Warner said, “That’s what you get when you disrespect me.” Warner later countersues for defamation, and the case is eventually settled out of court. In 2016, Warner appears to reference the incident to Alternative Press Magazine, saying, “Once I got arrested for putting a gun in the mouth of the editor of Spin.”
February 1999: Warner gets engaged to Rose McGowan, per ABC News, after about one and a half years of dating. The engagement ends in January 2001.
April 1999: Initial reports of the Columbine High School massacre falsely describe the school shooters as Marilyn Manson fans. Warner cancels the final five dates of his band’s ongoing tour out of respect for those killed. In a statement obtained by the New York Times, he criticizes coverage of the tragedy. “The media has unfairly scapegoated the music industry and so-called Goth kids and has speculated, with no basis in truth, that artists like myself are in some way to blame,” he says.
October 2000: Warner allegedly grabs security guard David M. Diaz’s head and proceeds “to gyrate his hips” against it during a concert in Minnesota. Diaz claims he asked Warner to stop and felt humiliated, and he later files a $75,000 lawsuit against Warner for battery and emotional distress the following year. Per MTV, a jury finds Warner not liable in September 2003.
April 2001: Actress Jennifer Syme attends a party at Warner’s house and dies in a car accident later that night. In April 2002, her mother files a wrongful-death lawsuit, accusing Warner of giving Syme cocaine and encouraging her to drive while inebriated. “Words cannot express the pain that I feel over the loss of Jennifer Syme’s life,” Warner says in a statement. “After Jennifer was sent home safely with a designated driver, she later got behind the wheel of her own car for reasons known only to her. Her death is sad and tragic.” Paper reports that the case is later settled out of court. The lawsuit is officially dismissed in May 2003.
July 2001: Warner allegedly gyrates against another security guard’s neck at a show. Per MTV, Warner pleads no contest to two misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and assault and battery over the incident. He is ordered to pay Joshua Keasler a $4,000 fine. Keasler later sues Warner for sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He and Warner eventually reach a private settlement with the East Valley, Arizona, Tribune reporting that the lawsuit is dismissed in January 2004.
High-Profile Relationships and Allegations of Abuse
November 2005: Warner marries model and burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese on November 28, per court documents obtained by Today. According to People, the pair began dating in January 2001.
December 2006: Von Teese files for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Rumors swirl that infidelity was a factor, and Von Teese eventually tells the Sunday Telegraph that Warner had an “inappropriate relationship” with another woman during the marriage. Warner later claims she couldn’t put up with his “rock star” lifestyle.
January 2007: Warner, now 38, begins publicly dating 19-year-old actress Evan Rachel Wood, per Women’s Health magazine. Wood later tells Elle that she met Warner at a party and became “movie buddies” with him before they started a “healthy and loving” relationship.
April 2007: Wood is featured in the music video for the Marilyn Manson single “Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand).” Warner reveals in an Energy interview that he wrote the song after he saw Wood wear “Lolita glasses” and told her he would break her glasses if she broke his heart. “I meant it in an almost violent way but also in a romantic way,” he says.
Wood later alleges in the 2022 documentary Phoenix Rising that she was “essentially raped on-camera” during the shoot. According to Wood, this was “just the beginning of the violence that would escalate over the course of the relationship.” Warner’s attorney later responds in a statement claiming Wood was “not only fully coherent and engaged during the three-day shoot but also heavily involved in weeks of pre-production planning and days of post-production editing of the final cut.”
August 2007: Former band keyboardist Stephen Gregory Bier Jr. (stage name Madonna Wayne Gacy) alleges Warner used the band’s earnings for personal purchases including Nazi artifacts, a $150,000 engagement ring for Von Teese, human skeletons, and drugs. The complaint also claims Warner tried to force members out of the band, alleging he once set a drummer’s kit on fire while he was still playing. Warner denies the allegations in the $20 million suit, which is eventually settled in December 2009. According to the Toronto Star, it’s decided Bier will receive $380,000, paid by Warner’s insurance company and Bier’s former business managers rather than Warner himself.
November 2008: Wood confirms to People she and Warner have broken up to focus on work. She denies a rumor they split on bad terms, stating, “The person that said such horrible things about Manson being ‘controlling’ and ’emotionally abusive’ is certainly no source ‘close’ to me.”
June 2009: Warner tells Spin that, after their breakup, he called Wood 158 times in a single day, cutting himself with a razor blade each time to demonstrate his pain. “I have fantasies every day about smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer,” he adds. In 2020, Warner’s team releases a statement claiming these comments “obviously” represent “a theatrical rock star interview promoting a new record, and not a factual account. The fact that Evan and Manson got engaged six months after this interview would indicate that no one took this story literally.”
November 2009: Marilyn Manson releases a music video for “Running to the Edge of the World,” in which he appears to beat a woman. By the end of the video, her bloodied body is lying in a bathtub. Several media outlets note the actress looks like Wood.
January 2010: Wood and Warner reconcile. Today reports that she accepted his marriage proposal onstage in Paris.
May 2010: Warner allegedly pins photographer Ashley Walters down, tries to kiss her, and places her hand in his underwear after a photo shoot at his house, according to a 2021 lawsuit. Warner “vehemently denied any accusations of assault,” a spokesperson tells the Cut in response to the suit, which is later dismissed because of the statute of limitations.
June 2010: Warner allegedly asks Walters to be his personal assistant, offering her double her current salary and various artistic opportunities. She alleges in her dismissed lawsuit she was sometimes expected to work 48 hours straight and was constantly afraid of his violent outbursts and threats. She later claims to the Cut that he once sent her a photo of Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco’s cut-up back with the email subject, “See what happens?”
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