[11-25-97 Tues] Marilyn Manson has now spoken out on his role with violent lyrics. Recently Manson has been the focus of a congressional hearing to investigate the "social impact of music lyrics violence on today's youth." This comes after fifteen-year-old Richard Kuntz committed suicide last December in Montana. He supposedly shot himself while listening to Marilyn Manson. (for more on music hearing see this previous article) The boy's father, Ray Kuntz, testified during the first week of November in Washington in front of the committee. Kuntz talked about his son showing him the Manson CD, "I failed to recognize that my son was holding a hand grenade, and the grenade was live, and it went off in his head."
Now Manson has spoken his mind on this: "Obviously it upset me that someone [would think] I would encourage that type of behavior. I've always said that people [who] would harm themselves or others over music or film or books, [they're] just being ignorant. If people want to be ignorant there's nothing you could do about it." For any concerned parents, he added, "It's a wake-up call for parents to teach their kids to be more intelligent [ways], to interpret art with some sort of intelligence."
He continued, "If you want to blame music for someone hurting themselves, then you can just as easily blame Shakespeare writing "Romeo & Juliet" which is something I was taught when I was a kid, and that's a story about two teenagers that killed themselves because their parents don't understand them and I think the key lesson is that parents don't understand their kids. If you take more time to talk to your kids, your kids are going to live happier lives."
Marilyn Manson - November 25, 1997
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