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IT'S SIX in the evening and goth rock god Marilyn Manson is still in bed. He flew in from LA the day before and had been partying at London’s hottest A-List hangout, Chiltern Firehouse.

But the self-dubbed Pale Emperor, who is due to perform in Glasgow in November, is showing no signs of stirring without his early evening alarm call.

It all makes for an even bigger shock when the 46-year-old Antichrist Superstar finally turns up in London’s Met Bar.

Despite an intimidating array of skull rings on both hands, a threatening set of grills over the top set of his teeth and smudged black eyeliner, Manson somewhat surprisingly declares that he is actually trying his hand at living more...normally.

Marilyn – so notorious he found himself unfairly blamed for the 1999 Columbine school massacre – then reveals how he’s spent the past year turning his life around.

While he might look morbid, he’s anything but. With wit as sharp as the switchblade he claims to carry, he’s charming and within minutes, tells me we’re friends.

But Marilyn, whose real name is Brian Warner, has clearly been as dark inside as he is out. A bleak period after his split from actress Evan Rachel Wood left him suffering depression so extreme he spent Christmas Day in 2008 self-harming on his own, surrounded by cocaine.

(Image: Rex)

In the years that followed, he distanced himself from friends and said: “I became a recluse. I had the windows blacked out, it was freezing cold, and you could never tell whether it was night or day. The backyard was a parking lot for a liquor store where hobos slept. It was a haunted house – haunted by behaviour.”

The first thing he had to change was his schedule. “I used to go to bed at 6am. Now I get up at 6am. I used to think 3am was my peak hour creatively because the wheels were going. But it becomes something that can drive you insane because you can’t sleep.”

The next step was for Marilyn to ditch his favourite tipple – absinthe. As he swigs his less alcoholic alternative, a neat double vodka for breakfast, he explains that despite owning his own range of the stuff, called Mansinthe, he can’t handle its effects.

He says: “The absinthe I was drinking had wormwood, which not only biblically was what God sent down to poison all the sinners, it affects your temporal lobe. It can convince you you’re not

schizophrenic… or that you are.”

Finally, Marilyn bought a house. And the decor sounds very… Manson.

He said: “I fashioned it after the TV show Hannibal, I have a lot of taxidermy, a prosthetic limb collection and a seven-foot tall, 100-year-old ­skeleton I call Ernie. My cat, Lily White, likes to sleep in his pelvic bone.”

If reports are to be believed, he also owns a canister of Zyklon B gas, the deadly agent used in the gas chambers during the ­Holocaust, a painting by serial killer John Wayne Gacy Jr, and an abortionist’s chair he has adorned with a beaver rug, given to him by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

Marilyn is not just a name-dropper. The Jolie-Pitts are unlikely good friends – he particularly loves the “beautifully handsome” Brad’s love of practical jokes.

But it’s actually another Hollywood star, Johnny Depp, who Manson is best friends with. He’s even godfather to Johnny’s 16-year-old daughter, aspiring actress Lily Rose.

Johnny reintroduced him to Lily Rose two years ago, telling her: “You remember Uncle Manson? He gave you your first pair of heels when you were still in diapers.”

Marilyn dotes on Lily and has been known to help her study and even drive her to school.

Livings on the same estate in Los Angeles, the two bonded over a shared love of music – Depp has even played guitar alongside the rocker.

But there’s more than that to their friendship. Marilyn said: “Whatever’s happening in his life, romantically, professionally… it always seems to sync up.

“We’re always going through the same situation in life. It could be because we both always just want to be kids.”

(Image: Getty)

While he might be friendly with the stars, anyone would be unwise to call Marilyn a celebrity. He coined his stage name as a comment on celebrity culture and what makes someone a “celebrity” – it’s Marilyn Monroe’s first name and mass murderer Charles Manson’s last.

Marilyn, who grew up in Florida, said: “It’s not anything new that people are famous for not doing anything, or for killing people.”

The stage name has won him unwanted fans. Charles Manson wrote him an open letter from prison in 2012 but he didn’t respond.

His dislike of the culture extends to certain celebs. Joking about his jailbird cameo in violent US TV biker drama Sons of Anarchy, he said: “I’m waiting for Justin Bieber to get arrested again. I’ll get arrested to go to jail and give him it, SOA style.”

His disdain also extends to inevitable interest in his love life. Marilyn, who was married to Dita Von Teese for a year and dated 19-year-old Evan Rachel Wood when he was 36, had been seeing photographer Lindsay Usich until he made comments about his “newly single” status a few months back.

He admitted: “I say things,” then added: “Lindsay is in this country, with me.”

Marilyn, who played Download festival in Leicestershire at the weekend, is in a good place at the moment, thanks to his life changes.

(Image: Getty)

This year’s album The Pale Emperor, which he will perform on his UK tour in November, was released to rave reviews and widely accepted as a return to form.

He said: “2014 was my year of changing how I thought and lived, realising you can’t blame others. If you want to be in control you have to take responsibility.”

The death of his mother last year, who had suffered from dementia, seems to have catalysed Manson’s change.

He said he’s now looking on the bright side and added: “I’d made peace with losing my mother. She had been sick a long time. I was more concerned with making my father proud.”

What could be more normal than his video for disposable teens?

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The rocker plays Glasgow, London and Manchester in November. Tickets are on sale Friday 9am at www.kililive.com , www.seetickets.com & www.triplegmusic.com .

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