Marilyn Manson took to Instagram on Wednesday to reveal that Netflix documentary star Joe Exotic once came to him asking the musician to support his unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign.
At one point when Tiger King star, whose real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was running for governor of Oklahoma, he reached out to the infamous shock rocker for political support. On Wednesday, Manson posted a screenshot of a Twitter DM he received from Exotic back on January 16th, 2018. In the message, Exotic asked for Manson’s endorsement, while maintaining he was “not asking for money. Just to use your name as an endorsement.”
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For the few who have yet to watch Netflix’s Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem And Madness, Joe Exotic is a proud “gun-toting gay redneck” who operated one of the largest big cat private zoos in the United States. Throughout the seven-episode series, viewers are taken through the turbulent business of owning and breeding big cats, and meeting the colorful characters involved. At one point in the saga, which involved over five years of filming, Exotic decides to run for president in 2016. When that doesn’t work out, he turns his sights on running for governor of Oklahoma in 2018. Enter Manson.
In Exotic’s pitch to Manson, he asserted that he is “Trying to speak for the real people for a change and get some people help with addiction in this State that no one cares about.”
Why Exotic came to Manson for an endorsement is not entirely clear, though there are several plausible explanations. The first, and most obvious, is that they are both societal outcasts. Exotic and Manson both act in such outlandish ways that have removed them from the norm of society, whether it be Manson’s stage persona or Exotic’s larger-than-life personality (however real that may be). There are also some elements in Exotic’s pitch that seem to be tailored to Manson.
One of Exotic’s main points in his 52-word pitch was that he plans to “Get some people help with addiction.” Manson has never been shy about his use of drugs, as he told Rolling Stone in 2017 that he has even smoked human bones to get high (though he does not recommend it). Although Manson hasn’t publicly sought treatment, it appears that Exotic thought that helping people with addiction would be a way to win Manson’s favor. There is also Exotic’s phrasing of “this state that no one cares about.” That could refer to the people struggling with addiction or the state itself. Either way, Manson was born Brian Warner in Canton, OH, another “State that no one cares about” that is also suffering an unprecedented drug epidemic. Perhaps Exotic hoped to touch Manson’s Midwestern heartstrings in an effort to gain his support.
Whatever his motivations were, his move was ultimately unsuccessful. Manson captioned the Instagram post with a simple, “Nope. Don’t F*ck With Cats.”
Read Exotic’s full pitch below and try for yourself to decipher his motives.