Marc Piasecki/Getty ImagesIt's easy to see how David Bowie influenced a musician like Marilyn Manson: both are theatrical performers that cultivated memorable onstage personae. For Rolling Stone, Manson wrote a poetic essay as a tribute to the late rock icon, who passed away on Sunday.
"My first introduction to David Bowie was watching 'Ashes to Ashes' on MTV. I was confused and captivated," Manson writes. "But it wasn't until my first real stay in Los Angeles, around 1997, that someone told me to take a moment to listen to something other than Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Hunky Dory. So I went for a dizzying car ride through the Hollywood Hills and listened to 'Diamond Dogs.'"
"All of my nostalgia, instantly turned to awe," he continues. "I was hearing him sing about fiction as a mask to show his naked soul. This changed my life forever. Every song of his was a way for me to communicate to others. It was a sedative. An arousal. A love letter I could never have written."
Manson then quotes the line "Hope, it's a cheap thing" from Bowie's song "Sweet Thing." "I don't need hope to know that he has found his way to the place that equals his untouchable, chameleon-genius beauty," he writes. "The black star in space, that only he belongs."
"Let's never let go of what he gave us," he concludes.
Manson recently contributed to country-rock singer Shooter Jennings' cover of the song "Cat People," which Bowie co-wrote with disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder. The "Cat People" cover is featured on Jennings' forthcoming album Countach (for Giorgio), which will be released on March 11.
Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.