During a recent appearance on This Is The Worst Podcast, John 5 shared a story about how Marilyn Manson got back at him for embarrassing him in front of girls.
John 5 recalled, “Marilyn Manson, so all the girls loved Marilyn Manson. All the parties would be in my room. They would always be in my room so he could always just leave and go to his room.” According to John, this led to a rivalry between them. “All these girls in the room. We were just talking and hanging out and telling stories and stuff like that.”
The guitarist continued, “For some reason, we were at this point where we would scare each other just like two little jumps. I would say Freddy Krueger and he would like… It was so stupid but there was this room full of girls.”
John 5 went on, “I can’t believe I’m laughing saying this. Manson goes, ‘I’m going to go to the bathroom’ and walks, and all the girls are like, ‘Oh my God.’ So I’m hiding like right here. So when he comes back in, I just go, ‘Freddy Krueger’ and he goes, ‘Ah’ and I scared him.”
The rocker added, “All the girls laughed at him and he got so mad. He was so angry and left. And then in my room, he broke all this glass, like the mirrors and stuff like that in my room so I couldn’t walk around the hotel room and stuff.”
Earlier this year, John 5 also discussed Manson’s offer to him in an interview with That Fuzzing Rock Show. He explained how he got his stage name, saying, “Well, I had a meeting with Marilyn Manson and I was in a restaurant.”
John went on, “It was so weird because I sat down at this restaurant and Manson had these CDs in his car, he had the David Lee Roth CD. I sat down with him and he goes, ‘I want you to join the band and your name’s going to be John 5, and I want to do everything with numbers,’ and like all this stuff. So it was like a whirlwind, I didn’t even audition, and I was like, ‘Okay.'”
John 5 performed with Manson during the ‘Mechanical Animals’ tour, with his first live show being at the MTV Video Music Awards. However, during a 2003 performance at Rock Am Ring, Manson kicked John’s guitar, and they had a public argument. John later described the incident as unprofessional, but mentioned there was no bad blood between them. In 2004, the two parted ways amicably.
