When pop and heavy metal collide, things can get pretty weird. Take last year's exchange between Justin Bieber and Marilyn Manson. After the singer was spotted wearing a Marilyn Manson T-shirt onstage, the shock rocker responded by sporting a Bieber shirt of his own; the two even posed for a selfie together, uploaded to Bieber's Instagram with the head-scratching caption "Night out in la [sic] with the boys." Then came the drama. Last July, Bieber's team began selling reworked vintage Manson T-shirts emblazoned with the singer's name, claiming that Manson had given them permission to "reinterpret" his designs for the shirts (which were subsequently sold at haute superstore Barney's, for the low, low price of $195 a pop).
Manson recently spoke up about the T-shirt situation in a new interview with Consequence of Sound. In it, he claims that Bieber told him the Manson-inspired merchandise had been a boon to the Antichrist Superstar's career. "He said to me, 'I made you relevant again.' Bad mistake to say to me," Manson said of his chat with the Biebs, who was reportedly wearing one of the pricey upcycled shirts during their exchange.
"He was a real piece of shit in the way he had the arrogance to say that," Manson says of Bieber. "He was a real touchy-feely guy, too — like, 'Yo, yo, bro!,' and touches you when he's talking. I'm like, 'You need to stand down, you're dick height on me, OK?"
Manson made sure to get the Biebs back for his comments, of course. "The next day, I told him I'd be at his soundcheck at Staples Center [in Los Angeles] to do 'Beautiful People,'" the musician recalled. "He believed that I'd show up, because he was that stupid." Better yet, Manson received all of the proceeds from the controversial merchandise line. "They didn't even fight," he said. "They were just like — 'Yeah, we already know, we did wrong, So here's the money.'"
Having treated Mr. Bieber to a thorough, well-deserved roasting, Manson now turns his focus to his new album Heaven Upside Down, due out October 6th. Earlier this week, he unveiled the album's latest single, the incendiary "WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE."
