The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

Coliseum Commissioners
    c/o Executive Director Bill Holmes
    Dear Commissioners:
    I encourage you to cancel the Marilyn Manson appearance at the Coliseum.
    I feel that Manson’s appearance and giving him a forum to spout his poisoned philosophy is not in the best interest of the Mississippi Coast community.
    During this holiest of the Christian seasons celebrating the risen Christ, I believe that this controversy is an affront to the taxpaying citizens who built and support the Coliseum.
    In the interest of unity and cohesion in the community, I ask that you take action to cancel this concert!
    Â Â Â Â  Sincerely,
    Â Â Â Â  (signature)
    Â Â Â Â  Ken Combs
    Â Â Â Â  Mayor
    Â Â Â Â  KC/jw

    Â Â Â Â Â  JANUARY 5, 1997
    Tonight was my birthday. Too tired to go into details, but you can be sure that since Rolling Stone came out today (ironically), we snorted lines off my face on the cover as Dr. Hook played at an ungodly volume. I told you so.
    Â Â Â Â Â  UNDATED
    Tried to call Trent again today. They gave us some lame excuse, the same kind of excuse he would have us give when he didn’t want to accept calls from people he hated.
    Â Â Â Â Â  JANUARY 16, 1997, ON A HIGHWAY SOMEWHERE
    Shitty hotels, shitty drugs, shitty shows with shittier after-parties, shitty conversations, shitty blow jobs, shitty buses, shitty bus rides, shitty fights, shitty reconciliations, shitty television with shittier Spectravision, shitty Gothic bars, shitty interviews, shitty photo shoots, shitty Christians, shitty atheists, shitty demo tapes, shitty moods, shitty food, shitty shit.
    Â Â Â Â Â  JANUARY 17, 1997, SEATTLE
    Jimmy has warts.
    Â Â Â Â Â  JANUARY 27, 1997, 7 A.M., LOS ANGELES
    Tonight—or this morning—I can’t get to sleep, as usual, and I’m actually feeling happy. Trent surprised us all and showed up at our show. We hadn’t talked to him—or he hadn’t wanted to talk to us—since we finished the album. Right after the show I was taking a shower and he came in to the room and it was just like old times. We hugged, we were joking around. And it was a total holocaust night. We were totally high and we had Quiet Riot play at our after-show party at the Dragonfly. I think we reunited them, just like we did W.A.S.P. We take sole responsibility for the return of retro heavy metal, and I’m ashamed.
    But I digress. What happened was Trent and I walked out on the balcony of the hotel room later that night and I just said to him, “Whatever happened happened, let’s just put it behind us. I don’t care.” And then he said, “Well just for the record, I didn’t…” He defended himself for about an hour, I defended myself for an hour. Then we told each other, “Listen, it doesn’t matter, it’s over, I don’t care, it doesn’t matter.” And we meant it. Everything that had happened was necessary for the birth of Antichrist Superstar . It was a difficult birth but it was worth it. So supposedly everything is fine now. I hope it is.
    Â Â Â Â Â  JANUARY 29, 1997, SAN DIEGO, 7 A.M.
    A horrendous night. Daniel Ash from Bauhaus and Love and Rockets knocked on my hotel room door and wanted to hang out, which seemed strange since we’d never even talked before. Twiggy had lines of coke out in my room and Daniel Ash was with an entourage of six people. None of them touched the drugs. They just kept putting their drinks on the tabletop the drugs were on. I was getting sick because I was kissing Daniel Ash’s ass, telling him what a big influence his guitar playing was on me, and he was kissing mine, telling me he wanted to remix a Marilyn Manson song. Then, out of nowhere, he turned on me.
    He hissed something like, “I don’t believe in what you do and I think it’s a bunch of bullshit. I don’t know about your music but your message—I worked with someone who hung out with you for a couple of days, and they told me what you were all about!” The rest of the band was totally cool—Kevin Haskins, the drummer, asked me for my autograph and David J. is just a weird creepy lizard man. Daniel Ash’s girlfriend kept trying to shut him up, but he wouldn’t. “I’ve been where you are, and I don’t ever want to be there again. It’s a hot trip to heaven, that’s what my album was about. You’re