Billy Corgan on Why He’s Stood By Marilyn Manson: ‘I Don’t Want the World to Tell Me Who My Friends Are’

Billy Corgan is standing by Marilyn Manson. In his Thursday (Oct. 22) appearance on The New York Times Popcast, The Smashing Pumpkins frontman explained why he’s maintained his friendship with the controversial shock rocker.

“As a Christian person, you have to stand by your friends, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have an opinion, and it doesn’t mean you’re not critical,” Corgan began, pausing to choose his words carefully. “In his case — and I’m not here to adjudicate it — but the [district attorney] looked at the case for five years.”

“In some cases, I knew personal things behind the scenes that are not in the public sphere,” the Chicago musician continued. “I personally didn’t feel that he was guilty of the things that he was being charged with, and ultimately the fact that the DA didn’t pursue … [it] was commensurate with the person I knew.”

Corgan and Manson — whose real name is Brian Warner — have known each other for decades. A couple of years after they became friends in the ’90s, they went through a rift that lasted up until 2015, when they reunited to embark on their joint End Times Tour.

It was about six years after the two men buried the hatchet that Evan Rachel Wood named Manson as her alleged abuser after years of advocating against domestic violence, which was followed by multiple other women coming forward with accusations of sexual assault and misconduct against the rocker; Manson has continuously denied all of the claims. In January 2025, Los Angeles DA Nathan J. Hochman announced that after investigating for four years, Manson would not face criminal charges due to the statute of limitations on the charges and a lack of ways to prove them.

“While we are unable to bring charges in this matter, we recognize that the strong advocacy of the women involved has helped bring greater awareness to the challenges faced by survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault,” Hochman stated at the time.

Manson’s attorney Howard King told Billboard shortly after the decision, “We are very pleased that, after a thorough and incredibly lengthy review of all of the actual evidence, the district attorney has concluded what we knew and expressed from the start — Brian Warner is innocent.”

On Popcast, Corgan shared a bit of his point of view on the legal proceedings. “I knew the inside baseball of the case, and so you make those evaluations,” he said. “At the end of the day, I feel I made the right determination.”

“I don’t want the world to tell me who my friends are and who I should associate with, politically, socially,” Corgan also noted. “In Brian’s case, we have a relationship that goes back 30 years. Manson’s wife, Lindsay [Usich] is a twin, and her twin is Ashley, and Ashley is married to James Iha of the Pumpkins. So Manson’s basically a part of our family. There’s a deeper set of relationships there.”

Though the criminal investigation into Manson was dropped, he has been dealing with civil lawsuits filed by some of his accusers for years. In January, his former assistant Ashley Walters successfully reopened her sexual assault lawsuit against him for a second time after two prior dismissals. He has also been sued by Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco — with whom he settled in 2023 — and model Ashley Morgan Smithline, whose case was dismissed that same year.

Again, Manson has always vehemently denied all of the allegations against him in each of the aforementioned cases, as well as the initial set of accusations made by Wood that sparked the chain of women coming forward. “The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson,” she alleged on Instagram at the time. “He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander or blackmail.”

“Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality,” Manson in response to the actress, with whom he was romantically involved for four years before parting ways months after getting engaged in 2010. “My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how — and why — others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.”

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can reach out to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. The organization provides free, confidential support to sexual assault victims. Call RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline (800-656-HOPE) — which is available 24/7, 365 days — or visit the anti-sexual violence organization’s website.