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| Regardless, the band would go on to have its most successful year ever in 1997 both in terms of popularity and headlines generated. The tour in support of Antichrist Superstar was met with protests in many American cities, some of which successfully forced venue changes and even cancellations. Religious outlets like the 700 Club took up the cause, as did one U.S. Senator � all the while, Manson was laughing his way to superstardom. The anti-Manson campaign crested in June with a well-publicized battle to force the band from an Ozzfest tour stop at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The group eventually won and played the gig, though the Ozzfest tour wound up as something of a sidestep for Manson and his mates, who had grown too popular to share a festival bill. |
| The high (or depending on your perspective, low) point of Manson's triumphant year was a September 1997 appearance on the MTV Video Music Awards, at which the dark master himself addressed the crowd from a mock presidential podium before launching into "The Beautiful People" and exposing the better part of his naked buttocks to millions of viewers the world over. The group capped the year by releasing a five-song EP, Remix & Repent, in November. Manson also solidified his relationship with the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan (who would help to shape the direction of the band's next album) by joining him onstage at the annual Bridge School benefit concert in Mountain View, Calif., in October, and again at a Pumpkins gig in Florida in December. |
| For the first half of 1998, Marilyn Manson maintained a low profile while recording what would become the band's third full-length album. With the completion of the record, however, the Manson lineup suffered another casualty Zim Zum departed for a solo career and was replaced by former Two guitarist John "John 5" Lowery. The first hint of a new musical direction for the group surfaced in August in the form of a reverent cover of David Bowie's "Golden Years," featured on the Dead Man on Campus soundtrack .(The album also contained "I Only Want to Be With You," a humorous duet between Twiggy Ramirez and '60s supermodel Twiggy.) Six weeks later, Manson's third album, Mechanical Animals, hit stores (though many chains refused to carry it due to its provocative cover art), which saw the band wholeheartedly embracing glam rock styles. Manson fans bought 220,000 copies of Animals in its first week on the shelves, enough to send the album to No. 1 charts. |