At one point he lamented, “the Columbine era destroyed my entire career at the time.”

Billboard’s latest issue features a gripping, personally-exposing Marilyn Manson interview, in which he recounts his last moments with his dying father as well as an elaborate (albeit rather one-sided) beef with Justin Bieber. However, it appears we got the veteran shock-rocker in one of his tamer moods.

On Thursday (Sept. 21), The Guardian published a Manson profile in which he inflicted interviewer Alexis Petridis with an array of very Mansonian hi-jinx. For Petridis, things got off and running as soon he walked into Manson’s chilly Berlin hotel room; his subject apparently leapt out from behind a door and pointed a “realistic” replica gun at the back of his neck. Later on, while asking him a question about David Bowie, Petridis writes, “Manson leans over and flicks me in the testicles.” This sort of stuff could get Manson in serious trouble in an interview setting, though from the story’s tone, it does not appear he left any lasting damage.

Manson provided plenty of provocative content in the actual conversation, too. At one point he lamented, “the Columbine era destroyed my entire career at the time,” looking back on how he was wrongheadedly blamed for the 1999 school shooting. He also erupts over the idea of Walmart selling censored versions of his albums and suggests children use their parents’ money to buy guns instead. Perhaps he’s heard about Walmart’s recent back-to-school shopping surprise.

He ends the interview by asking for good press and whispering in Petridis’ ear, “Or I’ll find out where you fucking live”… which just so happens to pretty much be the title of a single on his upcoming album, Heaven Upside Down!

It seems the one-time music journalist has at least some method to his madness.