Marilyn Manson Band Member Chris Vrenna Opens Up About ‘Bizarre’ Touring Lifestyle
Marilyn Manson has long been rumored to be something of a wild man on his tours. Stories have abounded for decades of Manson’s tour antics. In his autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, Manson detailed much of the bizarre — and even grotesque — antics which occurred on his earlier tours, including his breakout tour with Nine Inch Nails in the mid ’90s.
One of his many morbid tales from the road details going through a graveyard in New Orleans, Louisiana. There, his party collected decayed human bones, scraped pieces of the bones off, and smoked them from a pipe.
As an interesting post-script to that grotesque story — Manson didn’t enjoy it, according to New Ravel.
“It was terrible. It smelled like burnt hair, gave you a really bad headache and made your eyes red.”
As intriguing as that story may be, there’s also a level of disbelief. Marilyn Manson’s stage persona is purposefully morbid and dark. It’s common for many to write such stories off as hype to perpetuate his image. According to ex-Manson drummer Chris Vrenna, such stories are not hyperbolic. In fact, they’re apparently pretty accurate, according to Alternative Nation.
Vrenna was a member of the band for nearly eight years. He also toured with Nine Inch Nails. He opened up in a recent interview about his time with Marilyn Manson, confirming that many of the morbid stories are indeed true.
Vrenna didn’t mince words in the interview, saying that he had personally witnessed “horrifically bizarre stuff.”
“It was crazy. I don’t want to say it was a nightmare, but it was a three-ring drunken circus on wheels on the time, forever. He burned me out though. Quick version of why I quit is it’s a very dark lifestyle. There’s a lot of substance problems, the hours are insane. It’s just really intense. It’s as crazy as everything you’ve ever read and everything you’ve ever heard.”
Manson has canceled more than one date on his recent “Twins of Evil” tour with Rob Zombie. Official word from his public relations team was that the singer was sick, but Vrenna’s recent comments beg questions about the validity of those excuses.
As for specific stories, Vrenna is remaining mum.
“If I could even come up with it, I probably wouldn’t even tell you because one thing about this stuff, there’s kind of a code of honor where you don’t want to, because it would involve perhaps other people.”
While Vrenna’s reticence to elaborate may be disappointing to Manson fans — or the morbidly curious who want further details — the musician’s autobiography has detailed stories as lurid and as intense as can be imagined.
