Marilyn Manson, Who Once Said He Fantasized About Smashing Evan Rachel Wood’s ‘Skull In With A Sledgehammer,’ Denies Abuse

Amid news of actress Evan Rachel Wood’s allegations that her former relationship with controversial musician Marilyn Manson was abusive, a 2009 interview in which Manson discussed murder fantasies involving her has received new attention.

In the 2009 interview with Spin, Manson, whose real name is Brian Hugh Warner, detailed his breakup with actress Wood, explaining that he struggled with the aftermath in a way that involved self-harm and violent fantasies.

His “lowest point” was Christmas 2008, he said, explaining, “And I did have an experience where I was struggling to deal with being alone and being forsaken and being betrayed by putting your trust in one person, and making the mistake of that being the wrong person. And that’s a mistake that everyone can relate to. I made the mistake of trying to, desperately, grasp on and save that and own it. And every time I called her that day — I called 158 times — I took a razor blade and I cut myself on my face or on my hands.”

Evan Rachel Wood alleges that ex Marilyn Manson subjected her to years of abuse. Photo: Getty Images

He then revealed that the song “I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies” was written about Wood.

“I have fantasies every day about smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer,” he said.

Manson's UK-based public relations team later issued a statement to Metal Hammer claiming that he was not serious when he made such statements.

"The comments in Spin ... [were] obviously a theatrical rock star interview promoting a new record, and not a factual account," their statement, issued last fall, reads. "The fact that Evan and Manson got engaged six months after this interview would indicate that no one took this story literally."

Wood, 33, has spoken out about having suffered domestic abuse in the past, but named her alleged abuser for the first time in an Instagram post Monday. Warner, she said, began grooming her when she was a teenager and abused her for years.

“I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission,” she wrote. “I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”

Wood and Warner, 52, began dating in 2006, when she was 18, and were reported to be in an on-again, off-again relationship for a number of years before their final breakup in 2010.

Following Wood’s statement, Warner’s record label Loma Vista Recordings announced that they were cutting ties with Warner, and pledged to halt promotions of his recent album. They also stated that they would not work with him in the future.

Warner addressed Wood’s claims in an Instagram statement of his own this week, calling the allegations “horrible distortions of reality.”

“Obviously, my life and my art have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality,” his statement reads. “My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how — and why — others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.”

Wood has been a long-time advocate for survivors of sexual violence, having testified in front of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations in 2018 and sharing her story, CNN reports. The following year, she played a key role in creating and helping to pass the Phoenix Act in California, which would give survivors of sexual violence more time to pursue legal action against their abusers, according to PEOPLE.

Without identifying her abuser by name, Wood said that she was starved, raped, and tortured during a relationship that began in her late teens, and that she at times considered taking her own life.

Wood is one of numerous women who have come forward to allege that Warner subjected them to domestic violence. Four other women came forward in a Vanity Fair piece published this week.