I understand that Twiggy Ramirez re-joined Marilyn Manson because the money’s right, but I guess that Manson has to get something out of it, too – and it would appear that the payoff for him is some sense of nostalgia for a time when he was much, much more famous. In an interview with Rolling Stone last Friday, he revealed:

“The turning point for me was when I went to see Led Zeppelin’s reunion show, and I saw Jimmy Page and Robert Plant look at each other for a moment, and they probably said, ‘Holy shit, we wrote ‘Stairway To Heaven.’ I wanted that look again… I want to look at Twiggy and go ‘Holy shit, we wrote ‘The Beautiful People.’”

When giving interviews, I think it’s a good rule of thumb to never, ever, under any circumstances, mention Led Zeppelin and your own band in the same breath, unless maybe you are/were a member of, say, The Beatles or The Stones or some shit. ‘Cause “The Beautiful People” was a big big hit in its day and I like it and all, but “Stairway,” it ain’t.

In response to Manson’s statement, ousted Manson member Tim Skold revealed that he would be re-uniting with his old band, Shotgun Messiah, because he was inspired by “that look that Steve ‘Sex’ Summers gets when he looks over at Kristy ‘Krash’ Majors during a Pretty Boy Floyd show.”

-AR