--- title: Marilyn Manson: 'Columbine Destroyed My Entire Career' description: Singer Marilyn Manson says that the 1999 Columbine High School shooting has affected his record sales canonical: https://time.com/4954072/marilyn-manson-columbine-shooting-career/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-22T19:06:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:33:50.958Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Marilyn Manson: 'Columbine Destroyed My Entire Career' og:description: "Certain people blame me for the shootings at schools" og:url: https://time.com/4954072/marilyn-manson-columbine-shooting-career/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa5ada9b3e2737f/6988df0de76ad2e1cc62f466/gettyimages-117252170.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2006 Cannes Film Festival - Southland Tales Premiere og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marilyn Manson: 'Columbine Destroyed My Entire Career' twitter:description: "Certain people blame me for the shootings at schools" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa5ada9b3e2737f/6988df0de76ad2e1cc62f466/gettyimages-117252170.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Marilyn Manson: 'Columbine Destroyed My Entire Career' by [Lisa Marie Segarra](/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Sep 22, 2017 7:06 PM CUT  Marilyn Manson during 2006 Cannes Film Festival - Southland Tales Premiere at Palais des Festival in Cannes, France. Marilyn Manson during 2006 Cannes Film Festival - Southland Tales Premiere at Palais des Festival in Cannes, France.Photograph by Gianfranco Calcagno—FilmMagic/Getty by [Lisa Marie Segarra](/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Sep 22, 2017 7:06 PM CUT Singer [Marilyn Manson](http://time.com/4378569/kendall-jenner-marc-jacobs-fall-winter-16/ "undefined") says that the [1999 Columbine High School shooting](http://time.com/4220590/dylan-klebold-mother-columbine-interview/ "undefined") severely hurt his record sales. “The Columbine era destroyed my entire career at the time,” Manson said [in an interview with The Guardian.](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/21/columbine-destroyed-my-entire-career-marilyn-manson-on-the-perils-of-being-the-lord-of-darkness "undefined") Manson was partially blamed for the shooting, which left 15 dead including the two shooters, when the perpetrators were mistakenly believed to be fans of his music. However, The Guardian noted that he continues to fill arenas and get roles in shows like _Salem_ and _Sons of Anarchy._ “Give them the money and let them make their own choice: guns or records. If \[the Columbine killers\] had just bought my records, they would be better off. Certain people blame me for the shootings at schools – I think my numbers are low, and hopefully they go up on this record,” Manson said. He said he even received “hundreds” of [death threats ](http://time.com/4829459/johnny-williams-trinity-college-professor-social-media-comments/ "undefined")when playing in Colorado, the state where Columbine occurred, following the shooting. “No, I don’t miss that at all,” Manson said. “It made everyone around me upset. And I discovered that police bomb dogs are also drug dogs. So when there were bomb threats, I had a very difficult time hiding my narcotics.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4954072/marilyn-manson-columbine-shooting-career/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4954072/marilyn-manson-columbine-shooting-career/"},"headline":"Marilyn Manson: 'Columbine Destroyed My Entire Career'","datePublished":"2017-09-22T19:06:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:33:50.958Z","description":"\"Certain people blame me for the shootings at schools\"","url":"https://time.com/4954072/marilyn-manson-columbine-shooting-career/","keywords":["celebrities","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa5ada9b3e2737f/6988df0de76ad2e1cc62f466/gettyimages-117252170.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Marie Segarra","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa5ada9b3e2737f/6988df0de76ad2e1cc62f466/gettyimages-117252170.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2006 Cannes Film Festival - Southland Tales Premiere","caption":"2006 Cannes Film Festival - Southland Tales Premiere","creditText":"Photograph by Gianfranco Calcagno—FilmMagic/Getty","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4954072/marilyn-manson-columbine-shooting-career/","name":"Marilyn Manson: 'Columbine Destroyed My Entire Career'"}}]}] ```