He spent 21 years in prison for the murder of Euronymous. Whether you dig Varg’s politics and rap sheet or not (he’s a fervent anti-semite, admitted church burner, and convicted murderer), you can’t really say he didn’t walk the walk. Born Kristian Larsson Vikernes, he changed his name to Varg Vikernes, then created his black metal alter ego “Count Grishnackh” due to his love of Lord of the Rings. Black metal is basically to this list what the Golden State Warriors are to the Western Conference’s All-Star team, making up four of the top five of this list of our most deranged singers and musicians of all time. Yet another Norwegian black metal figurehead.
Beiber can be the son Manson never wanted and Manson can be the father that Bieber never had.
In days of late Manson sounds and acts more like a frat guy, spending his time texting back and forth with Beiber. What a sad day for rock and roll that was. However, in recent years, Manson has had his share of embarrassments, one of which being his appearance on Talking Dead where he pretty much got handled by the guy who used to host Singled Out, summarized here in this article. To this day his music videos have some of the most haunting imagery ever shown on late night MTV (back when they used to actually show music videos).
Manson was no stranger to decadence and using Satan as inspiration for live shows. It seems like the myth was always bigger than the man, stories like Manson removing his rib so he could give himself some mouth love was on the tips of every high schooler’s tongue in the late 90s. In recent years Manson has given up being America’s “Antichrist Superstar” and has enjoyed his celebrity status a little more. Marilyn Manson was on track to become probably the most infamous frontman since GG Allin. Some of them lived up to these personas in real life, and some were actually very nice fellows when the music stopped. With some, their stage identities were merely personas others lived a life of the macabre 24/7. These are some of the most warped crooners of all time. It’s also a love letter to these incendiary beings and often troubled souls who gave their blood, sweat, tears, feces, and in some instances, much, much more to the Gods (and demons) of rock and roll. This list is more about those types of lead singers, musicians and performers who pushed the envelope, who engaged in and practiced cultural taboos as a part of experiencing their music in person. The performers highlighted in this list were deliberately trying to make people uncomfortable through subversion. That would be a completely different list with names like Bowie, Jagger, Cobain, Beiber. Keep in mind that this is not a “best frontmen/musicians of all time” list. In a world where punk and metal, for some, is just a tough look, these showmen and performers took their bodies to the limit most nights they were conscious enough to do so, giving fans and censorship jockeys something to talk about at the water cooler, all in the name of rock and roll. It’s true that rock bands ain’t what they used to be these days, and, to prove it, here’s a look at some of the most vile, infamous, deranged frontmen and musicians in the history of rock and/or roll. The term “deranged” is used with the utmost affection in this article.