Early life:
Brian Hugh Warner, artist name Marilyn Manson was born in Canton, Ohio. He is the only child of Barbra Warner and Hugh Warner. Manson is of German and Polish descent on his father's side, and is the fourth cousin twice removed of Conservative commentator, Pat Buchanan. In his biography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, he detailed his grandfather's sexual fetishes which led to the forming of Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids.
As a child, he attended his mother's Episcopal church, though his father was Catholic. Warner attended Heritage Christian School from first grade to tenth grade. He later transferred to Glenoak High School Canton and graduated from there in 1987, and later became a student at a local art college in 1990. He was working towards a degree in journalism and gaining experience in the field by writing articles for a music magazine, 25th Parallel. He would soon meet several of the musicians to whom his own band would later be compared, including My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, The Perfect, and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.
Music
Manson formed together with guitarist Scott Putesky, Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids in Florida in 1989 (the name was shortened to Marilyn Manson in 1992). While with The Spooky Kids, he was involved with Jeordie White (also known as Twiggy Ramirez) and Stephen Gregory Bier Jr. (also known as Madonna Wayne Gacy) in two side-projects: Satan on Fire, a faux-Christian metal ensemble where he played bass guitar, and drums in Mrs. Scabtree, a collaborative band formed with White and then girlfriend Jessicka (vocalist with the band Jack Off Jill) as a way to combat contractual agreements that prohibited Marilyn Manson from playing in certain clubs. In the summer of 1993, the band drew the attention of Trent Reznor. Reznor produced their 1994 debut album, Portrait of an American Family and released it on his Nothing Records label. The band began to develop a cult following,