Brian Warner was born on January 5, 1969 in Canton, Ohio USA, when he was 18 he relocated to Tampa Bay, Florida and adopted the name Marilyn Manson: Marilyn from actress Monroe, Manson from serial killer Charles Manson.
In 1990 Marilyn Manson and guitarist Scott Mitchell assembled a band with bassist Gidget Gein, keyboardist Madonna Wayne-Gacy and drummer Sara Lee Lucas; in the early years the group started gigging around Florida shocking the Alternative-Metal scene for their stage show, which featured naked women, bizarre clothes and satanic images; in late 1993 Gein was fired and Twiggy Ramirez, AKA Jeordie White, replaced him on bass.
"Portrait Of An American Family", the band's debut album, appeared in the summer of 1994, on Nothing Records, the label founded by Nine Inch Nails' frontman Trent Reznor; that same year, Manson had gained the title of 'Reverend' by Anton Szandor LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan.
During the next year Lucas was replaced by drummer Ginger Fish, the founder member Scott Mitchell quit and Marilyn Manson pulled in guitar player Zim Zum; in October 1995 the group released its second effort, "Smells Like Children", the cover of Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" cracked the top 30 of The Billboard's Rock charts and helped push the album platinum reaching the #31 slot on Billboard's Top 200 chart.
The group's big commercial break came a year later when "Antichrist Superstar" soared to #3 on The Billboard 200 Albums chart, it generated two Mainstream Rock top 30 hits, "The Beautiful People" and "Tourniquet".
In September of 1998, shortly after John '5' Lowery joined as a new guitarist, the band released the instant North-American #1 album, "Mechanical Animals", its main single, "The Dope Show", climbed into the top 20 on both Billboard's Active and Modern Rock charts, it was followed by two more Mainstream Rock top 30 hits: "I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)" and "Rock Is Dead"; also in Europe the album became a huge hit, cracking the top 10 in the British chart.
Another two years passed before Manson and his crew returned with their fifth album, "Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death)", the record missed the top 10 of The Billboard 200 Albums list and included only one Billboard's Rock charting single, "Disposable Teens".
In December 2001 the band recorded a remake of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" for the film "Not Another Teen Movie", the single entered the top 30 of The Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
During the recording sessions for the next album, longtime collaborator Twiggy Ramirez (Jeordie White) left the group to join A Perfect Circle, his replacement was bass player Tim Skold. In May of 2003 Marilyn Manson issued "The Golden Age Of Grotesque", the record rose to #1 on both The Billboard Top 200 and the Canadian Albums charts, it also smashed into the top 5 in Australia, Britain and several other European countries charts; the lead single, "Mobscene", reached the #18 on Mainstream Rock chart.
The band returned a year later with the retrospective collection "Lest We Forget The Best Of" which featured the cover-single of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus", the track hit #12 on The Modern Rock chart and the album peaked at #9 in the States, at #4 in the U.K. and at #3 in Canada.
