Marilyn Manson announced on his Instagram page today (February 17, 2026) the return of Tim Skold to the band following last months departure of Tyler Bates. He did this with two photos of him and Skold together, captioning one with the anticipated announcement: "We are the things of shapes to come. MM + TS." According to the dictionary, "If you say that something is the shape of things to come, you mean that it is the start of a new trend or development, and in the future things will be like this." Tim Skold likewise posted the photo on his Instagram page, after wiping out everything else, including those who he follows, choosing to follow only Marilyn Manson. This indicates that he is all in on his return to the band. Skold was a pivotal member of the band from 2002 to 2008, serving as producer, bassist, and guitarist. He was the primary collaborator on the albums The Golden Age of Grotesque and Eat Me, Drink Me . Tim Skold has been one of Marilyn Manson's mos...
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Throughout his career, Marilyn Manson has been asked by various interviewers about things he regrets, and in lyrics of his songs he has talked about both regretting and not regretting, but the last time he was asked about his regrets was in 2019, in an interview for the German magazine Numero Homme Berlin (Spring/Summer 2019) for which he graced the cover. I translated his response below:
Sina Braetz: Looking back, what do you regret most about your life?
Marilyn Manson: I regret that I was naive enough to let people believe that my kindness was weakness and that I allowed them to take advantage of it. Many people believed that I was actually stupid or naive because I was so friendly and they betrayed me. But that was my fault, not theirs. That's why I regret not having been competent enough to understand that my desire to have companionable friendship - or whatever you want to call it - to have friends or family, made me make a lot of mistakes that I wish I hadn't made. But I learned from it and try not to repeat these mistakes.
To me, this can be interpreted in a few relevant ways. I won't explore what it could specifically refer to, since he didn't get into the details. But I do think there is a lot of truth to it, and there are quite a few examples where I know this could be applied, both in his past romantic relationships and his friendships. It is certainly seen in the various accusations made against him in the past few years, especially when accusers have twisted the truth to interpret an act of kindness from years ago into a heinous crime that is absolutely baseless. And it should not be lost on us how quickly and unquestionably many associated with him were to embrace these accusers falsehoods when they became public, adding to the betrayals in an unprecedented way beyond what he was referring to in 2019.
Sina Braetz: Looking back, what do you regret most about your life?
Marilyn Manson: I regret that I was naive enough to let people believe that my kindness was weakness and that I allowed them to take advantage of it. Many people believed that I was actually stupid or naive because I was so friendly and they betrayed me. But that was my fault, not theirs. That's why I regret not having been competent enough to understand that my desire to have companionable friendship - or whatever you want to call it - to have friends or family, made me make a lot of mistakes that I wish I hadn't made. But I learned from it and try not to repeat these mistakes.
To me, this can be interpreted in a few relevant ways. I won't explore what it could specifically refer to, since he didn't get into the details. But I do think there is a lot of truth to it, and there are quite a few examples where I know this could be applied, both in his past romantic relationships and his friendships. It is certainly seen in the various accusations made against him in the past few years, especially when accusers have twisted the truth to interpret an act of kindness from years ago into a heinous crime that is absolutely baseless. And it should not be lost on us how quickly and unquestionably many associated with him were to embrace these accusers falsehoods when they became public, adding to the betrayals in an unprecedented way beyond what he was referring to in 2019.