Born 5^th January 1969 in Canton, Ohio, Manson originally aspired to a career in journalism, but soon took a more active interest in music. He formed Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids in Florida in 1989 – choosing the name Marilyn Manson as a portmanteau of the Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe and the serial killer Charles Manson – but this was later shortened to simply Marilyn Manson.

Manson and his band first came to fame with the release of their 1994 album Portrait of an American Family. Produced by Trent Raznor (of Nine Inch Nails fame) and released on Manson’s own record label Nothing Records, the album produced the singles Get Your Gunn and Lunchbox, and earned the group a cult following. They then entered the mainstream with their next album Antichrist Superstar. Released in October 1996, it shot to number three on the Billboard 200 and went on to sell over 7.5 million copies worldwide. It also produced two Mainstream Rock Tracks chart Top 30 hits: The Beautiful People and Tourniquet.

Mechanical Animals, the group’s final album of the 1990s, hit the top spot of the Billboard 200 (and number eight in the UK) and spawned the UK number 12 hit The Dope Show, as well as the singles I Don’t Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me) and Rock Is Dead. Since the turn of the century they have released four more US Top 20 albums – Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), The Golden Age of Grotesque, Eat Me Drink Me and The High End of Low – and scored hits with singles like Disposable Teens, Tainted Love, mOBSCENE, Personal Jesus and Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand).

In December 2009, Manson stated that fans “can expect a new record a lot sooner than they think”.