| HE is pop's self styled Prince of Darkness, the music industry's answer to Lucifer with a long, white painted face that the devil designed. But as I chat to Marilyn Manson in an appropriately dimly lit bar, his theatrical mask of evil soon slips - to reveal a surprisingly sweet traditionalist who is planning a Christian church wedding. And don't get the straight-laced Mr Manson started on the scruffy tracksuit Britney Spears wore for her controversial did-she-or-didn't-she marriage to Kevin Federline. Manson disapproves of the couple's "dress down" ceremony, which unfolded in Los Angeles last month. "I found that really terrible," he says, "Ultimately, I suppose it's whatever makes you happy. "But I do have an old-fashioned sense of tradition - although it's not always what everyone might find conventional. "If you're going to do something like getting married, it should have a sense of celebration to it. It should be grand - it doesn't have to be in tracksuits!" Rake thin, 6ft 1ins and wearing full gothic regalia, Manson cuts an imposing figure at London's Met Bar. Born in Ohio as plain Brian Warner, now only his mother refuses to refer to him by his provocative pseudonym. The 35-year-old singer doesn't pretend to be clean living and cheerily admits to enjoying all-night benders on mind-altering absinthe. His Hollywood home is full of S&M fetishist video games, human skeletons and his prize sartorial possession - a jacket made from the skins of conjoined twin lambs. But his impending nuptials and his ambition to start a brood of mini-Mansons are certain to make Marilyn's mum proud. THE bride-to-be is 33-year-old Playboy beauty and stripper Dita Von Teese, a model who loves to show off her 16in waist in PVC corsets. After four years together, they're now ready to walk down the aisle. "We were thinking about doing it in Europe," says the happy groom-to-be. "We don't want to invite anyone from America. "A friend of mine is an artist and has a castle in Germany so we're thinking about that, too." Manson is no bed-hopping rock star. "I totally believe in monogamy with the right person," he says. "I do want lots of kids, too, but not any time soon. Ultimately, that's how you make yourself immortal - by passing down your ideas and values to your children. But I don't have the time right now... and I think pregnancy would cause problems with Dita's corsets!" Once he does settle down, he may have to wave goodbye to his favourite tipple - absinthe, the drink Vincent Van Gogh knocked back before hacking off an ear. "It's been my vice for the past eight years," says Manson. "With absinthe, you don't find yourself drunk where you can't function. "You either have incredible dreams - I often wake up and paint or write - or you don't sleep for three days... Which is how I'm feeling now." WHITE face-paint and black eye-shadow aside, Manson doesn't look too bad for a man with such a potent pastime. "Some people take ecstasy," he muses, "Some take pot. But I can see why the romantic writers and poets drank absinthe. And I still have both my ears!" Manson is in London to plug his greatest hits album - Lest We Forget: The Best Of Marilyn Manson - as well as his cover of the 1989 Depeche Mode hit, Personal Jesus. He reveals that the legendary Brit band were the deciding factor when he recently contemplated ditching music for some other career. Depeche Mode's song came on the radio while the star was compiling the Best Of album. "Yes, there was a moment I wondered whether the album would be my farewell to music," he explains. "But Depeche Mode's song came on and I realised that I now had a completely different interpretation of it than before. "And I knew that if I covered it, it would take on something that could be a very strong political and religious statement for me. "Some may hate it because of the way I look, some may love it because of the way I look. And people might think that it's nostalgic." Manson's sensibilities may not be everyone's cup of tea. His new greatest hits DVD, for instance, contains the controversial video for s(AINT), which features charming scenes of the singer snorting cocaine, masturbating, vomiting, having sex with transvestites and slicing his chest with a razor blade. Gareth Gates he ain't. But it was after the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 that he really became public enemy No.1 - something he still doesn't quite understand. The two pupils who gunned down students and teachers at the Denver school were devoted Manson fans and the beleaguered star received death threats. "People really need the security of a scapegoat to define who is the good guy," he says. "We live in a world where all the violence is inspired by religion. When I was a kid, I had to go to a Christian school. I thought God was about peace and love so now it seems strange that being labelled the devil is a bad thing. "The devil is often the more human character, the one you can relate to. After all, he was cast out of heaven for wanting to be an individual." Despite his fierce individualism Manson is planning some high-profile collaborations. But tracksuit scruff Britney won't be sharing his spotlight. "Working with Britney?" he laughs, "that's unlikely. There's nothing for me to gain from it. "I'd prefer working with someone I could learn from. I got to meet David Bowie recently. He didn't disappoint me. He was the person I always wanted him to be. We talked about writing a song together - and that would fulfil a childhood dream." Manson despises the instant fame recipe of reality shows such as TV's X Factor. "There's a real danger when you let an audience choose something in that way," he says. "Because it creates a sense of empowerment that ultimately defeats creativity. "I met Simon Cowell on Jonathan Ross's TV show recently. He wasn't rude to me but it really wouldn't matter if he was..." Manson can talk tough but there is clearly a softer side not far beneath that glacial surface. But does anyone dare to call him Brian? "Only my mother." So strip away the goth chic and it might just be that the "evil" Marilyn Manson is an old-fashioned mummy's boy at heart. -LEST We Forget: The Best Of Marilyn Manson was released last week. His new single, Personal Jesus, is released on Monday. MONSTERS OF ROCK If Marilyn thinks he's evil, he should check out these demented rockers... VARG VIKERNES SATANIC Scandinavian death metal groups have taken evil to awful extremes by burning down churches and even committing murder. The worst of the bunch is Varg of Norwegian band Burzum. He is serving 21 years in Bergen Prison for the brutal slaying of guitarist Oystein Aarseth of rival band Mayhem. He stabbed him in the head, neck and back 23 times in August 1993. OZZY OSBOURNE DON'T be fooled by his doddery dad routine in The Osbournes, in May 1981, bored at a press conference in LA, Ozzy bit the head off a dove. During a concert in Iowa the following year, someone threw a live bat on stage. When it bit Ozzy, he retaliated by biting its head off... and then needed rabies injections. And in front of Motley Crue, his support act on tour in 1984, he snorted a line of live ants. ALICE COOPER THE minister's son, who was said to have got his band's name from a ouija board, secured his place in rock history at the Toronto Rock 'N' Roll Revival in 1969. A fan threw a live chicken on stage, which Alice flung into the crowd. They tore it apart then chucked its guts back. The papers the next day said that Alice had bitten its head off and drunk its blood. BLACKIE LAWLESS BEFORE founding WASP (which stands for We Are Sex Perverts) in 1982, Blackie's act involved eating worms. But with WASP he put rats in a meat grinder and threw the guts at the crowd, simulated slitting a woman's throat and drank blood from a human skull. MARILYN'S EVIL NAMESAKE CHARLES Manson the convicted serial killer never actually murdered any of his victims. But his evil controlling influence over his followers led to the deaths of actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969. An aspiring rocker, Manson wrote a song for The Beach Boys called Cease To Exist. They re-named it Cease To Resist and released it as a B-side in 1968. Manson also released an album, Lie, on March 6, 1970 to help finance his defence. | 
