Slipknot sharing their stage with a man accused of wrongdoing by more than a dozen women is the antithesis of everything the genre should stand for, even if he denies it

This week, Marilyn Manson was confirmed to support Slipknot in front of 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium next July. He was booked despite the wave of sexual misconduct allegations levelled against him, plus a lawsuit from his former assistant alleging physical, emotional and psychological abuse that’s set to go to trial in November 2027. (The singer denies any wrongdoing, and in 2025 a four-year investigation into his alleged crimes was dropped with no charges filed.) If metal is supposed to uplift the downtrodden, then putting a man accused of wrongdoing by more than a dozen women on one of Europe’s biggest stages feels like the antithesis of everything the genre stands for.

Manson, whose real name is Brian Hugh Warner, retreated from the public eye after the start of the allegations against him in 2021, but he returned in 2024 with a new record deal and a string of high-profile tour dates. He’s far from the only allegedly problematic figure to have recently made a successful musical comeback. Chris Brown, who in 2009 pleaded guilty to felony assault of his ex-girlfriend Rihanna, and Ye (formerly Kanye West), who made a string of antisemitic statements in 2022, are playing massive venues. Earlier this month, the Guardian published an op-ed about Queen of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme’s cosy image rehabilitation after he kicked a female photographer and his ex-wife accused him of domestic abuse.

Metal, with its long-established identity as a dangerous and anti-mainstream force, appears to be particularly lenient with this kind of figure. The news of Manson touring with Slipknot came three months after Pantera supported Metallica on their second night at the 62,500-capacity London Stadium. In 2016, Pantera singer Phil Anselmo faced widespread backlash for raising his hand and screaming “white power!” onstage at a charity concert. He eventually apologised, but in 2017 gave an interview where he called some of his detractors “phonies”. None of it stopped his band from reuniting to much celebration in 2022. In November, Nuclear Blast Records, the same label to which Manson signed in 2024, will release a new album by Anselmo’s other group, Down.

In February, As I Lay Dying are poised to release a new album. The band split in 2014 after its sole constant member, singer Tim Lambesis, was sentenced to six years in prison for soliciting the murder of his ex-wife. Then, in 2024, everyone bar Lambesis quit the band, and some disturbing video surfaced online where he’s seen flipping a table that another ex-wife was sitting at. (The former couple have each accused the other of abuse.) As I Lay Dying’s latest single, aptly entitled Polarized, has amassed 560,000 YouTube views in two weeks regardless.

  • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
    6·
    22 days ago

    Beyond his act as Pee-wee Herman, Reubens had been known as a collector of many kitsch, camp, and vintage items. In 2001, police came to his house to investigate his art collection on a tip that he owned child sexual abuse materials. During said investigation, police found vintage homoerotic art and examined hundreds of thousands of photos, magazines, and films of archival gay erotica — some of which Reubens had reportedly not even opened yet.

    In the end, no pornographic materials containing underage people were discovered. “I could find the exact collections in some of the biggest universities in the country in their LGBT archives,” attorney Blair Berk says in the documentary. “I had defended folks in child pornography cases, and this was just not child pornography. This was a homophobic witch hunt. You know, there’s a trope that’s quite dangerous about pedophilia and the LGBTQ community. It goes on today.”

    The district attorney investigating the case decided that no charges should be filed. However, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who had political aspirations, decided he would file one count of misdemeanor child pornography.

    “Delgadillo was the newly elected city attorney,” Berk says in Pee-wee as Himself. “He was very ambitious and had announced that he was particularly focused on child abuse issues. It was increasingly clear to us that this was a political case. Had Paul been a regular citizen, none of this attention would have been given to him.”

    Ultimately, to avoid a public trial, Reubens pleaded guilty to an obscenity charge. He was forced to go to mandatory counseling, couldn’t have unsupervised contact with children, and he had to register as a sex offender for three years.

    Reubens’s friend, Allison Berry, who worked on several Pee-wee projects and raised her daughter around Reubens for her entire life, said she had to sign a letter saying it was okay for Reubens to be alone with her children.

    And yet, the damage was done, and Reubens never fully recovered from the scandal.

    Source

    • deliriousdreams@fedia.io
      33·
      22 days ago

      I know. I’ve read that article and several others on this topic.

      You will note that I didn’t call him a pedophile because that’s not the problem I have with him. I don’t believe he was a pedophile. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t caught in possession of items depicting sexual acts of minors and that is exactly what I am pointing out. I am not claiming that he abused children or that he had any urges to do so. I am pointing out that he admitted to knowing that such images were in the collection (when previously news outlets reported and the public was led to believe he did not know his collection contained the images).

      You can stop quoting whole articles I have already read to me.

      Reubens turned himself in, admitting that he did contain pictures and other materials that had the minors engaging in sexual pursuits but his representative added that the objective was to add the pieces as a part of his ‘art collection.’

      • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
        5·
        22 days ago

        He did it to avoid a public trial.

        I’ll continue to quote whatever the fuck articles I want. You’re free to ignore me if you so choose.

        This was an attack on a gay man because he was gay and they smeared his name for no good reason.

          • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
            6·
            22 days ago

            And yet you continue to put Paul’s name up with P Diddy and Michael Jackson as if their crimes are in any way comparable.

            Disgusting.

            • deliriousdreams@fedia.io
              33·
              22 days ago

              It’s incredibly funny you bring up Michael Jackson because there’s quite a lot of controversy around whether or not the testimony about his acts towards children are even true because the stories don’t match up and at least one of the people who accused him has since recanted.

              But go off.

              • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
                4·
                22 days ago

                There were never any accusations of Paul Reubens being inappropriate with a child. You’re engaging in baseless homophobic attacks by asserting that Michael Jackson and Paul Reubens are in any way similar in their crimes.

                • deliriousdreams@fedia.io
                  22·
                  22 days ago

                  I never claimed there were any accusations of Paul Reubens abusing children. I said the exact opposite.

                  Additionally my point in bringing up Michael Jackson (and only when you did) was to point out that the court of public opinion took over and the actual court system didn’t even press charges against him. These two people don’t have a whole lot in common except that the court of public opinion played judge, jury, and executioner without the actual court system ever proving their crimes.

                  Being gay doesn’t mean you are a good person. It doesn’t somehow absolve you of any wrong doing ever.

                  Paul Reubens has addressed this in his own words and that is what I am basing my thoughts on. Not what the court says he did, but what he said he did. If you skipped over the part where I blatantly stated that I don’t believe he was a a pedophile that’s on you.

                  • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
                    1·
                    22 days ago

                    It’s incredibly funny you bring up Michael Jackson because there’s quite a lot of controversy around whether or not the testimony about his acts towards children are even true because the stories don’t match up and at least one of the people who accused him has since recanted.

                    Why is it incredibly funny for me to bring up Michael Jackson then?

                    I will die on this hill so fucking hard about PeeWee Herman.

                  • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
                    1·
                    22 days ago

                    It seems like this scenario where a popular artist does something terrible and that has been general public knowledge or rumor for a long time ends up becoming a well publicized scandal, there are always going to be people who ape for them regardless of what they have done. We have seen that specifically with P Diddy and Cosby, and Michael Jackson (who I will admit has a questionable chain of events implicating him at best). We saw it with Pee Wee Herman both before and after his death.

                    You brought up Michael Jackson first and put P Diddy and Paul Reubens in the same category.

                    Being gay doesn’t mean you are a good person. It doesn’t somehow absolve you of any wrong doing ever.

                    Never claimed that. Paul was targeted because he was gay. It’s well documented.

                    Paul Reubens has addressed this in his own words and that is what I am basing my thoughts on. Not what the court says he did, but what he said he did. If you skipped over the part where I blatantly stated that I don’t believe he was a a pedophile that’s on you.

                    It’s not enough to say he wasn’t a pedophile. He was unfairly targeted and prosecuted for being in a gay erotic theater minding his own business.

                    You are continuing to smear his name when you put him with the likes of P Diddy and Michael Jackson. You fell for a disinformation campaign designed to take down a gay man. Own it.

                    Also it’s considered rude to edit your comment after someone replies to you.