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boggled

Vintage Marilyn Manson Wank: Over a Decade in the Making
Posted here instead of fandom_wank, because of (among other things) racist "jokes", Nazis, threats of violence, and a skeevy rape analogy.

A long time ago, there was a band called Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids, made up of Marilyn Manson on vocals, Gidget Gein on bass, Daisy Berkowitz on guitar, Madonna "Pogo" Wayne Gacy on keyboards and Sara Lee Lucas on drums. All was (reasonably) well in Spooky Kid land until they actually got signed.

First, there were numerous lineup changes: since 1989, the band has gone through sixteen guitarists, bassists, keyboardists and drummers. Furthermore, following their departures/firing, Gidget Gein and Daisy Berkowitz both sued Marilyn Manson (the band and its managers) for failure to pay royalties. Between the two of them, Gidget and Daisy had written 99.9% of the music for the band's debut album, "Portrait of an American Family." Furthermore, Daisy stayed on long enough to write some of the music for the EP, "Smells Like Children" (1995) and the band's second album, "Antichrist Superstar" (1996) before he claimed that he was "forced out."

In the end, Manson settled out of court with both Gidget and Daisy around 1999 and it seemed like life went on, to a degree. Manson and Daisy still seemed to hate each other with the fire of ten thousand suns, but little came of it. Marilyn Manson members kept coming and going as usual with varying degrees of bitterness afterwards, but none filed lawsuits upon their departures.

At least until August of 2007. That was when the keyboardist, Pogo, left the band and sued Manson and his business managers for failure to pay "partnership proceeds."

According to Pogo, in 1993, Manson and his Spooky Kids had entered a partnership agreement where "all profits (and losses) from the group's album releases, tours and merch sales were shared in various proportions." Rather than honor this agreement, Manson had apparently decided it would be easier to force the original Spooky Kids out and replace them.

The suit also claimed that Manson had been treating the band's money as his own personal bank account to pay for such things as:

• Nazi artifacts (SS typewriters, swastika wall tiles, Nazi government coat hangers owned by Adolf Hitler, and a handbag that belonged to Eva Braun)
• Cocaine and Vicodin
• Drug addiction treatment
• Production of the film "Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll"
• Taxidermy models of animals, including a California grizzly and two baboons
• The skeleton of a 17th-century male in a wheelchair
• African masks made of human skin
• The skeleton of a 4-year-old Chinese girl.
• An engagement ring and lavish wedding in Ireland
• Paying off a film company so they would remove home video footage of a young Mr. Manson making racist comments while feeding his pet snake

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

In response, Manson countersued for breach of contract claiming that Pogo had "shown up late to band recordings and promotional appearances and gave confidential band information to the media."

While lawyers battled it out in court, in December of 2009, Manson took the fight to MySpace, posting two entries (1, 2) denouncing Pogo to the fans at large:

thieves, rapists and traitors
I want to make clear that, aside from the wasted legal fees, in no way did I pay off the person that stood behind a keyboard--pretending to play music other artists in this band wrote. And I would not piss on Pogo if he was on fire. Thee end. Or is it? Let's wait until all the really bad things I covered up for him are suddenly uncovered. I got a far more severe type of karma for traitors and people that owe me, legally alot more than what I wasted tolerating your rape of a band you never deserved to be in. M

. . .

And I Don't Want This To Be Confused as Anger
I feel nothing for a person that betrayed me and my band. My band. And I'm sure that if anyone wants to discuss this with him personally, I won't be so rude to NOT give you his or his family's addresses. Since I payed for both soon to be destroyed buildings. That's at least what I just had a dream of, that I awoke from. So good luck to you sir. You are gonna need it Sweet dreams M

That August, he had also used MySpace to insult and threaten Daisy:

Not letting you win a lawsuit won't satisfy me... I'm going to teach you about loss. And I mean the parasites, that have chosen to spew their 'story' after ....

This particular quote was probably in reference to Daisy's article in a Florida newspaper that attacked Manson had for supposedly betraying his fans and forgetting his roots.

As far as I know, neither Pogo nor Daisy ever responded publicly. In the end, Pogo and Manson reached a settlement at the end of 2009, but the terms were not disclosed.