The Dead to the World Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the American rock band Marilyn Manson. Staged in support of their 1996 album Antichrist Superstar, the tour visited theaters, nightclubs, arenas and stadiums from 1996 to 1997. The Dead to the World Tour was the band's fifth tour, counting their early independent touring and their supporting roles for Nine Inch Nails' Self Destruct Tour and Danzig's Danzig 4p Tour. It is also their first tour to span over several legs, eight in total, that alternated between multiple venues both in North America and internationally.
The band was on the tour from September 5, 1996 until September 16, 1997, playing a total of 175 shows throughout Europe, Japan, Oceania, and North and South America. The tour marked a period for the band wherein they reached new heights of attention and notoriety in news outlets for the unapologetic anti-Christianity of the band's outspoken frontman, Marilyn Manson, the proliferation of allegations and rumors of the band's purported stage antics, numerous bomb threats, successful and failed attempts by concert venues to block their shows, resistance from local and state legislators, legal challenge, and protests from religious and civic groups such as the American Family Association and Oklahomans for Children and Families. Multiple school administrations across the country also threatened expulsion for any student attending one of the band's concerts or wearing apparel "inspired" by, or directly sold by, the band.
Nearly every North American venue the band visited was picketed by religious organizations. Opponents of the band based their protests on exaggerated, unfounded claims of onstage drug abuse, bestiality, and satanic rituals – namely animal and human sacrifice – and claims that the band frequently engaged in homosexual intercourse with one another, and that underage concert attendees were violently raped by other audience members.
The tour was managed by major record label Interscope Records. Its name is derived from the song "Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World". Select backstage and archival footage from the Dead to the World Tour was chronicled in the concert film: Dead to the World on VHS in 1997 and released in 1998. The tour was also chronicled by the band's frontman in his tour diary which he published in his autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell.
Background
In 1996, America had grown culturally divided. The Baby boomer generation aligned itself with the political Right during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan. In 1992, former US presidential nominee and paleoconservative Pat Buchanan declared a "war for the soul of America" against what he deemed moral degradation being promoted by the ideals of political Liberalism. A year later, Reagan-era Secretary of Education William Bennett feared contemporary pop culture had become a corrupt influence that turned American youth away from traditional values and co-founded the Conservative advocacy group Empower America (now known as FreedomWorks). Similar to the non-partisan Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), Empower America sought to discourage what it deemed objectionable entertainment by passing legislation to punish the media companies promoting them. The Presidency of Bill Clinton was also under pressure from the United States House of Representatives following the successful takeover of the House by Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1994. To appease these factions, Clinton embraced a third way-style of governance that syncretized the socially conservative policies of the Republican Party into his own.
In 1996 Bennett coauthored Body Count: Moral Poverty—and how to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs alongside criminologist John J. DiIulio Jr. and former US drug czar John P. Walters. The authors argued the pop culture of the 1990s had turned the Millennial cohort (especially children of color) into an ultraviolent breed of amoral "superpredators"—"fatherless, Godless, and jobless" youths that are "radically impulsive, [and] brutally remorseless". Due to their sheer numbers (40 million below the age of 10—the largest in decades) the authors warned this cohort would soon unleash an epidemic of crime that dwarf the 1994 spike in the juvenile violent crime rate (despite its precipitous decline prior to the book's publication). DiIulio predicted America would soon face, "elementary school youngsters who pack guns instead of lunches" with "absolutely no respect for human life and no sense of the future." To combat this perceived imminent onslaught of nihilistic youth, the book prescribed expanding the war on drugs, increasing the legal drinking age, imposing stricter prison sentencing, reinstating school prayer, and impeding youth access to entertainment with violent and/or sexual content.
The book sparked panic and provoked the introduction of H.R.3565 - Violent Youth Predator Act of 1996 before the 104th United States Congress by Rep. Bill McCollum of Florida and cosponsored by 19 Republicans and 2 Democrats. Clinton pledged during his 1996 re-election campaign to tackle the threat with a law and order-style crackdown on teen behaviour dubbed "Order and Discipline."
This volatile climate coincided with the recording of Antichrist Superstar. Buoyed by the positive reception to their 1995 Eurythmics cover "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" the band hunkered down with mentor and producer Trent Reznor in Reznor's recording studio in New Orleans and began work on their sophomore album.
Promotion and Nights of Nothing
Following the conclusion of the recording sessions for Antichrist Superstar, acrimony between the band, Reznor, and Reznor's vanity label, Nothing Records, was at its peak. The band grudgingly agreed to fulfill their contractual obligation to promote the record, a little over a month prior to release, by performing on the second evening of the final leg of Nine Inch Nails' Self Destruct Tour at the Irving Plaza, on September 5, 1996. Dubbed Nights of Nothing, the show was a Reznor-organized industry showcase of his label's talent roster.
Prior to the concert that evening frontman Marilyn Manson and bassist Twiggy Ramirez appeared on a special episode, dedicated to the showcase, of the MTV show 120 Minutes titled "120 Minutes of Nothing" for an interview about their album with host Matt Pinfield. They also discussed the dismissal of guitarist Daisy Berkowitz during the recording and his replacement, Zim Zum. Manson attributed the separation to "creative differences" stating that, "Our old guitar player, he couldn't really grasp the concept of Antichrist Superstar."
While performing the final song of that evening's five-song set, "1996", Manson threw a weighted microphone stand at the drum kit then walked offstage. The stand accidentally hit drummer Ginger Fish on the side of the head sending him face first to the floor and rendering him unconscious. Fish managed to crawl a few inches before he collapsed and was carried away by road crew to the hospital. Fish's injury required five stitches and a brief rumor spread the incident was a deliberate assault. Fish later recounted he would have been hit in the face if he hadn't turned his head at the last moment and said of the incident, "we just get a little carried away sometimes."
On September 12, 1996 MTV announced the launch date of the tour and the release date of the album. The tour launched on October 3, 1996, five days ahead of the album's official release date, on October 8, 1996.
First leg (North American/South American/European tour 1996) Stage show The band is known for their bombastic and controversial stage theatrics involving a massive production. In his tour diary, Manson noted the difference in venues and energy from their previous outings compared to the Dead to the World Tour.
Manson often wore his signature costume consisting of an elastic back brace, a jockstrap over a G-string, sheer stockings, leather straps around his calves and heavy-soled black shoes. The shows consisted of multiple set changes including a crumbling church vitral of Jesus depicting a statuary of figures impaled on spears and accompanied by a set of long stairs from which Manson walked down in order to perform the opening piece, "Angel with the Scabbed Wings". The band played while wearing chromed stahlhelms. In his autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, Manson described the performance as simultaneously both social commentary and self-critique meant to highlight the thin line between celebrity and demagoguery.
Self-mutilation was a recurring element. For "Man That You Fear" the microphone was covered with white flowers. There was also a snow- or ash-like effect used mostly for "Cake and Sodomy" and "Cryptorchid". Marilyn Manson played the guitar for "Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World" and "The Minute of Decay", also plays the pan flute for "Kinderfeld".
Theater tour (North America)
During the band's performance at New Jersey's Asbury Park Convention Hall on Halloween, rumor circulated that Manson intended to commit suicide on stage in front of a live audience. Manson dismissed the rumor as "probably hopeful parents thinking that they would have been ridding the world of Marilyn Manson, but unfortunately I plan on being around a bit longer to make things uncomfortable for everyone." The evening's performance was also delayed for an hour due to a bomb threat necessitating an explosives sweep of the venue by a K-9 unit's bomb-sniffing dogs. When the search turned up nothing, the show went on as normal. Local bands Helmet and N.Y. Loose opened the show. Manson further commented on the suicide rumor in his tour diary, "Tonight somehow the rumor got started I was going to kill myself. But I've died so much in the past year [referring to the tribulations of recording Antichrist Superstar], I don't think there's much left to kill."
Local police planned to videotape the band's two-night concert on November 13, 1996 and November 14, 1996 at Jannus Landing to ensure Manson didn't violate local obscenity laws. They were called away after both dates coincided with the St. Petersburg, Florida riots of 1996. Manson claimed in a later interview with Rolling Stone he was arrested that evening which was disputed by the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Europe
On December 11, 1996 William Bennett organized a bipartisan press conference, along with Senator Joseph Lieberman and Secretary of Pennsylvania State C. Delores Tucker, wherein they questioned MCA—the owner of Interscope—president Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s ability to head the label competently whilst profiting from "profanity-laced" albums by artists such as Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg and Marilyn Manson. Tucker had previously called the band's 1995 EP Smells Like Children the "dirtiest, nastiest porno record directed at children that has ever hit the market."
The day after the press conference, Snoop Dogg met with Manson after the latter's first UK stop at the London Forum on December 12, 1996. Snoop Dogg's label, Death Row Records, confirmed the two frontmen discussed plans to collaborate on a rap rock remix of "The Beautiful People". Snoop Dogg was also on tour in England to promote his own 1996 album Tha Doggfather and was first introduced to Manson at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards by a representative for Interscope Records. Snoop Dogg later told Spin he planned to have Manson do a guest appearance in his next record.
Second leg (North American tour 1996–1997)