Last month, a mysterious video by horror director Eli Roth titled Sturmgruppe 2013 Reel surfaced online and featured scenes of Lana Del Rey being raped intercut with images of Marilyn Manson. Though Manson's representatives immediately denied that the shock-rock singer had anything to do with the video, Manson himself has now come forward and explained how the disturbing video came to fruition.
"It was not meant to be a Marilyn Manson video," Manson told NME. "The editor of the company that put it out was somebody who's edited my videos. That video was something that was done with a camera that Eli, who's my friend, and I both wanted to test out, so I let him test it out.
"[W]hat they filmed was put in context seemingly as if it were a Marilyn Manson video," he continued, "and that was in no way the intention."
Although the video that leaked online was not meant to be a Marilyn Manson video, Manson did want to make a music video with Roth and Del Rey, though it proved too difficult to organize.
"Eli and I wanted to do a music video with her," Manson explained, "but she was being such a problem, for me personally, although I still respect her, I'm friends with her. I just left, I was tired, I was not willing to make that part of the video. Eli and I originally had intentions of making a video with her, but that is not the intention that is represented in that film clip because that is not what I filmed, not for my video."
Though "testing out a camera" seems like a pretty strange reason to film something so upsetting, it's easy to believe Manson when he says he was not involved, as he is famously the type of person who would have no problem taking credit for something like this and stirring up controversy.
You can watch the controversial video in question here — but be warned, it is upsetting and NSFW:
Marilyn Manson's next album, The Pale Emperor, is set for release Jan. 20. It will be his ninth album, his first since 2012's Born Villian.
