Trent Reznor has released a new statement about his former friend and collaborator Marilyn Manson. The statement, shared with Pitchfork, comes days after Manson’s former partner Evan Rachel Wood claimed the musician groomed and abused her during their relationship.
Reznor’s statement is about an anecdote about Reznor that Manson included in his 1998 autobiography The long, hard way out of hell. In the story that happened recently surfaced again, Manson recounts a gruesome scene in which he and Reznor allegedly physically and sexually assaulted a drunk woman in the 1990s.
Trent Reznor’s statement reads:
Screenshots of passages from The long, hard way out of hell began circulating on Twitter after Wood and several other women came forward with allegations that Manson had abused them. The book – in collaboration with Neil Strauss – features stories about Reznor, who Manson signed to his Nothing Records imprint and produced his band’s 1994 debut album. Portrait of an American family.
The passage in question was reportedly part of an unpublished interview with the now-defunct Empyrean Magazine, originally intended to appear in the magazine in 1995, but never printed due to “substantive objections on the part of Empyrean’s publisher, Centaur Enterprises, who believed the magazine had followed unethical interview procedures to obtain information from Mr. Manson,” according to the Manson and Strauss book.
When Manson was asked by the Empyrean interviewer how he ended up working with Reznor, he told the aforementioned story. According to the book, this happened the night before Reznor told Manson that he wanted to sign him with Nothing Records.
Reznor, who also worked on 1996 Antichrist SuperstarManson said Mojo in 2009: “He is a malevolent man and will step on everyone’s face to succeed and cross every line of decency. Seeing him now, drugs and alcohol rule his life and he’s become a stupid clown. “
Manson claimed in 2017 that he and Reznor were reconciled. ‘He’s the one who emailed me, we got back to it after a long time [Manson collaborator and producer] Tyler Bates strangely, ”Manson said to Zane Lowe. “He goes and he said in the email something like, ‘It really pisses me off that music isn’t dangerous anymore and it reminds me how great you were and I was and the time, the era.’ ”
Evan Rachel Wood has previously testified in front of Congress in support of the Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights about her experiences, although she only mentioned Manson publicly last week. In the wake of her allegations, Manson’s record label, travel agency and television shows severed ties with the musician. He has since denied the allegations in a statement, which read, in part, “My intimate relationships have always been completely consistent with like-minded partners.”