Marilyn Manson bought a 19th century haunted house to record The Pale Emperor

We’ve been patiently waiting for Manson to reveal details about his new studio album that we’re expecting to be released this year, most likely around the same time he tours with Ozzy Osbourne in the summer. Last year, Manson revealed he’d been working with country music legend, Shooter Jennings, on the new record and he released a new video of Johnny Cash’s song ‘God’s Gonna Cut You Down’ in 2019. Manson had stated several times that his new album will be announced shortly.

To date, Manson has released 10 studio albums. His 2003 record, The Golden Age of Grotesque, arguably saw him launched onto a new level of stardom shortly before marrying Dita Von Teese. Manson has been known to hang out with a variety of famous actors and musicians, one such actor turned musician is Johnny Depp. Currently working with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry of Aerosmith on their side project ‘The Hollywood Vampires’. Manson has spent many years partying with Depp so it made sense for Manson to buy a house right next door to his. If you have the money, right?


In the lead up to recording his 2015 record, The Pale Emperor, Manson decided to buy a new home to write the record in. This home would turn out to be a haunted house. A nightmare for some but most likely a dream for Manson. “I needed a place that didn't have any distractions. So I bought a house that was next to one of Johnny Depp's houses,” Manson explains in an interview with Revolver Magazine. “I bought it the day before I started work on The Pale Emperor. It's haunted—doors slam behind me a lot, and I'm always hearing people walking up and down the stairs.”

At the time, Manson was working on an acting job for Sons of Anarchy where he played white supremacist, Ron Tully. The haunted house, situated in the Hollywood Hills, was owned by silent film actress from the 1920s so it’s reasonable to guess the house is at least 19th century. Although Manson wouldn’t give up the name of the actress for fear of a spooky reprisal. “it was owned by a silent film actress from the 1920s. I don't want to say her name, because she'll probably try to come out and give me a Satanic ghost blowjob or something one night,” Manson jokes. Manson says the name for The Pale Emperor was based on the first book given to him by Johnny Depp - Antonin Artaud's Heliogabalus: Or, the Crowned Anarchist - the biography of the first Roman emperor to deny the existence of God.

“He was young, in his teens, and his complexion was pale, so they called him "The Pale Emperor." He liked to have peasants cut up in the middle of the street, and then he would pour wine over them and make their families drink from their dying relatives” Manson explains.

Doris Hill could be the previous resident of the haunted mansion that Manson bought in the Hollywood Hills. Born in 1905, she starred in close to 20 silent films between the years of 1926 to 1929. She stared in a 1929 film, The Studio Murder Mystery.