Industrial metal’s two behemoth’s Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie have teamed up for a sinister cover of the Beatles’ classic 1698 track ‘Helter Skelter’.
The two, who are currently on tour together as part of the Twins Of Evil: The Second Coming tour have put their signature distorted, dissonant, bass-heavy spin on one of the Beatles’ most raw tracks. The cover makes perfect sense, considering Charles Manson, who Marilyn based his name off, told his followers that ‘Helter Skelter’ was part of the Beatles’ coded prophecy of an apocalyptic war.
Ron Zombie revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that the pair joined forces on the track with the intention of performing it live together on their current tour.
Zombie said, “We had been talking about doing something together for these shows — that he should come onstage during my set and we’d do a song. But we couldn’t think of what song. After we talked, later that night I was home and I just thought, The obvious song is “Helter Skelter”… It’s so obvious that neither one of us thought of it!”
He added, “And then I figured, well, rather than us just doing it onstage, why don’t we take it one step further and record it and put a new spin on it?”
The recorded version features members of Zombie’s band, guitarist John 5, bassist Piggy D and drummer Ginger Fish.
Listen to Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson’s ‘Helter Skelter’ cover:
The two last toured together in 2012 for the first Twins Of Evil tour, with rumours of bad blood between the two circulating following the tour.
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Zombie has squashed rumours of beef ever existing between the two in a recent interview with Billboard, explaining that touring together again was something the pair had always planned on doing.
“We’re both from the same mindset of putting on a rock show, we’re both rock stars. We were never from the world of guys in cargo shorts staring at our shows.”
Marilyn Manson last toured Australia in 2015 as part of the last ever Soundwave tour, whilst Zombie’s last tour of Australia was in 2014 as part of Soundwave, so it’s fair to say they’re both well overdue for a tour here.
