Nine Inch Nailed

Last week we wrote about Marilyn Manson

Last week we said we knew why Marilyn Manson's life was full of bitterness and rancour -- apart from the fact that that's what Goths do (and assuming his life is indeed full of bitterness and rancour, as allegations of his treatment of some former girlfriends and the Wolf Alice frontwoman suggest). It's because he believes his best life was stolen by Trent Reznor.

And it looks as though we were right: we suspect this may be why, in his memoir The Long Hard Road out of Hell, Manson ... actually, let's call him Brian Warner, because that's his name. In the book Brian says the Nine Inch Nails frontman and he abused a woman together. It looks now like a desperate wish fulfilment fantasy or petty revenge: that'll teach him for being able to write songs. Bloody Trent, who fills stadiums and has the crowd screaming his words -- "HEAD LIKE A HOLE!!!". Bloody Trent, who didn't even have to change his name -- well, hardly: his real name is Michael Trent Reznor.

Yesterday Reznor issued an angry statement to Pitchfork distancing himself from the old hag: "I have been vocal over the years about my dislike of Manson as a person and cut ties with him nearly 25 years ago. As I said at the time, the passage from Manson’s memoir is a complete fabrication. I was infuriated and offended back when it came out and remain so today." A few years ago he said that Brian was a "dopey clown" whose life is ruled by drugs and alcohol. These guys once had a sort of mentor-protégé relationship and were friends, but not for very long, it seems.

There was a time when it would have been most unseemly to see two fiftysomething chaps taking potshots at each other, but scandal in the MeToo era seems to have become equal-opportunities. Brian has been dropped by his record label and cut out of TV shows, including some he wasn't even in. No one can remember a single one of his dirges, the bloated gothic horror story lies gathering dust and the book has no takers either.