John Corabi recently shared his thoughts on Marilyn Manson’s style in a chat with ‘Interviewing with the Legends’ YouTube, saying the artist’s work isn’t as original as some believe.
“This was back in the early 2000s. I was married for a minute to this girl that was just raving about Marilyn Manson, who I actually like. This is not a slag towards Marilyn Manson. But she was like, ‘Oh my God! He’s so original and ra ra ra ra,’ and I kind of sat there for a minute, and I’m like, ‘Not really,’” the Dead Daisies frontman said.
He explained his opinion by pointing out Manson’s influences. “Okay, let me just explain to you what Marilyn Manson has done here. Marilyn Manson is taking elements of Alice Cooper, and he’s mixing it with elements from David Bowie, and then he [is taking] elements of Nine Inch Nails, and he’s putting it in a stew, and he’s doing his own thing.”
Corabi recalled a time when the Independent Film Channel aired David Bowie’s final performance as Ziggy Stardust. During the show, he noticed a familiar symbol on Bowie’s backdrop.
“You know that giant circle with the broken arrow pointing down that Manson had as his logo? That was David Bowie’s backdrop in that video,” Corabi said.
“I called her over, and I said, ‘Look, I want you to watch this, and tell me what you see.’ She’s sitting there. She’s looking at [it]. She goes, ‘What are you looking at?’ I go, ‘Look at David Bowie’s backdrop.’ She goes, ‘That’s Marilyn Manson’s logo.’ I go, ‘No, that’s David Bowie’s logo. Marilyn Manson just re-did it again.’”
Marilyn Manson has openly talked about his admiration for David Bowie and even penned a piece to Rolling Stone explaining it in detail after the singer’s passing. For his 1998 album ‘Mechanical Animals,’ Manson drew inspiration from 1970s glam rock and adopted a style similar to Bowie’s. He also recorded a cover of Bowie’s ‘Cat People (Putting Out Fire)’ in 2016 with Shooter Jennings.
Besides Bowie, Manson named the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Alice Cooper, and Smashing Pumpkins as influences in his life and music.
