Scribd
Upload
18 views5 pages

Charles Manson's Music Interview Insights

Interview with song writer

Uploaded by

sharky2919
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
18 views5 pages

Charles Manson's Music Interview Insights

Interview with song writer

Uploaded by

sharky2919
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

KALX RADIO: On February 27th KALX producer, Arnold Woods and I went to

the California Medical Facility at Vacaville where Charles Manson is currently being
incarcerated. We made the trip at the invitation of Manson who contacted the station
through an intermediary. When asked why he'd chosen our station, Manson stated that
he liked Berkley, and so being a Berkley Station he thought he'd offer us a chance at
the interview. After being searched by guards at the main entrance to the prison,
Woods and I were escorted to a point outside a heavy metal gate. There we waited for
Manson to be escorted to the room on the other side of the gate where the interview
was to be conducted. Manson arrived shortly and was walked inside the room. The
gate was then opened, and we too were led to the interview room. The door was locked
behind us, and we proceeded to set up our equipment for the interview. Music being the
intended topic of discussion. I began the interview by asking Manson about his
friendship with Alvin Karpis, the last surviving member of the Ma Barker gang who had
taught him how to play the guitar.
CHARLES MANSON: Karpis showed me some -- you know guitar players
change rubs all the time. They show each other different things that they play. He just
showed me some of the different things that he played, but his style of music was not
my style of music but even though I incorporated some of his repertoire. He was just a
good old man that I met on the road. He had been done wrong also. Uh, he never did
anything, J Edgar Hoover just put him in jail because he was friends of people that did
something and he wouldn't snitch, and he wouldn't tell; another words, he held his mud
for 48 years.
KALX RADIO: How about yourself, do you categorize yourself in the same way?
CHARLES MANSON: I don't categorize myself.
KALX RADIO: No.
CHARLES MANSON: Do you?
KALX RADIO: Do you think you've been done wrong?
CHARLES MANSON: Oh, yeah, they're way off base. They said I was a hippie.
I'm not a hippie. I was a beatnik before the hippie's even started. I was beatnik down in
Venice pounding on bongos and reciting poetry, uh, in the 50's, 54, and when I got out
and I seen what they did with the beat generation. They ate the beat generation up,
and they had the hippies on the block, and they was fixing to eat the hippies up like they
ate the beats up. That's where they made the mistake with me they picked me up with
the hippies and said I was a hippie. I wasn't a hippie; I was a beatnik. Before the
hippies, you know, you guys were kids. They were kids to me, you know, uh, I had
already went through that. I was Elvis Presley before he was.
KALX RADIO: Uh, I understand that you are now going to be producing an
album with the punk rock band, Black Flag?
CHARLES MANSON: If you look at everything backward Terry Melcher came to
me, I didn't go to him. They came to me to play music. Dennis Wilson came to me in
the mountains. I wasn't going down there trying to play music. The D.A. would say --
the D. A would say, "Hey man. You was dying for a record career. " I had a record
career. I didn't want a record career. I'd just gotten out of one prison. I didn't want to
go into another. When you do music, or you do anything for the public, you gotta be a
slave to that. You got to be there on time; you got to carry clocks and dollar bills and
tax, uh, trips. You got all kinds of things to do. I was free in the mountains I didn't want
a -- what did I want a music career for? I got a music career. I don't need, you know, I
play music for music. I don't play music for attention; I don't play music to little girls, I'm
not selling records. I don't play music like you guys play music. You're blocked up in
little squares to play music. I don't play music like that.
KALX RADIO: Okay, so you aren't doing it for the public's interest it's purely for
your own enjoyment?

CHARLES MANSON: It's for -- yeah, it's for my own enjoyment. And I found
out that in California that in order to get justice you must buy it. They do not give you,
uh, what they call fair trials. If you have the, uh, the rights that our fathers died for I
would have had my trial, and I would have had my rights and my day in court, but I
didn't. All I got was you guys blame me for the sixties. And then Jerry Rubin and Abbey
Hoffman and Timothy Leary and the Bobbarondas and all the Holy Marocos, they all ran
the other way, and when it got too nasty, they would tell their children, "Raise up and kill
your mom and dad.", but then when they raised up and killed their mom and dad then all
the people that said that ran. And then they blamed it over on me and said, "Uh, well,
Charlie Manson's a hippie cult leader, and he made us -- he made the kids do all that,"
but none of the kids that got busted said that.
KALX RADIO: At one time did you feel any affinity for them?
CHARLES MANSON: Sure, I still love them, sure -- sure. They're still like mine.
They're like me. They're like street people. It's like this, man, back in the -- back in the
40's when I'd be on the basketball court for example, and all the kids would say, "Hey,
your mom's calling you, Billy." You know so Billy would leave and then John would
leave, and Tom would leave, and I'd be out there sitting on the basketball smoking a
joint, you know, and I was unaccepted. I was the outcast. So I'd end up stealing a
bicycle, and I went to reform school, and then I get out ten years later, and I go back to
the neighborhood, and I go back to the basketball court, and everybody is grown up,
and there's a whole new wave of kids there. So we set, and we talk, and I said,
"Whatever happened to Johnny?" well he died in Korea. "Whatever happened to Joe?"
well he's an automobile engineer in Detroit. "Whatever happened to so and so? " Well,
he moved to Chicago. And then I steal a car, and I get a gun, and I go rob, and I come
back out of prison after ten years, and I go back over on the basketball court, and, uh,
the time for Johnny to go home, Johhy doesn't go home and the basketball court there's
ten or 15 kids and its all the way after dark. And what are you kids doing out after dark?
Well, ain't you going to go home for dinner? Oh, no, my mom kicked me out of the
house. Uh, my mom's a drunk. She don't like me, uh, another words the last time I got
out in 67 the road that I was walking on hey there's a whole bunch of kids walking on
the same road. I said, "Well I didn't know you knew this place."
KALX RADIO: So, another words you feel you had your bed laid for you early
on.
CHARLES MANSON: No, when I heard Timothy Leary say, "Tune in and drop
out." I knew where they were dropping out too because I had been on that -- under
that-- on the under road; on the backside of what's happening. You know, another
words in the darkness.
KALX RADIO: Do you have a resentment for types of things that you did
encounter when you were a child?
CHARLES MANSON: No, I don't waste my time with those silly little
resentments and hate and all that bitterness and all that.
KALX RADIO: Did it have an effect on you at one time?
CHARLES MANSON: Uh, just to the point of where I found out what it does to
you. Another words I'm not going to destroy myself because, uh, someone else is
suicidal. Someone has got problems, that's their problem. It's not mine. I got my own
road I walk.
KALX RADIO: So another words you don't feel any remorse for your childhood,
but you do feel it did affect you in your outcomes?
CHARLES MANSON: No, I'm glad. I'm glad to be raised by myself. I think it
worked out better. Sometimes the best parents are the worst parents. Sometimes the
worst parents are the best. Because the worse parents don't teach you anything and
leave you to learn for yourself.
KALX RADIO: But you do understand that from somebody else's perspective
they may have felt that they were, uh, detrimental, you know. Do you regret anything
that occurred in your lifetime?
CHARLES MANSON: Not to this point, no.
KALX RADIO: Okay, well let me get back to your music. Uh, I'd mentioned
earlier you are uh cutting an album with the group, uh --
CHARLES MANSON: No. No. No. No. I got a little tape recorder like this little
mickey mouse thing here, and, uh, in fact, it's not as good as that. I play a little music,
and I sing a little music and what happened was, I gave a couple tapes that I had made
to a friend of mine about four years, and he said, uh, he wanted to do something with
him. And I told him go ahead and do whatever you do. So he go in touch with some
kind of lawyer somewhere doing something, and then they got this thing going, and now
they're talking about they're coming out with an album.
KALX RADIO: Oh this is the Us Magazine article?
CHARLES MANSON: Yeah, yeah. But it's not an album done in a studio it's a
mickey mouse little trip, for uh, but knowing the way the news media has dealt with me,
they'll take it and make it in to the best thing that I could do, but it's actually not really a
reflexion of any music that I play. It's a reflexion of me passing my time and practicing.
You know, I guess you'd call it practicing. Not really practicing, I just like to play.
KALX RADIO: You mentioned that back in 67 that you strike up a relationship
with both Terry Melcher and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. Now Terry Melcher was
the person who had owned the home that Sharon Tate was murdered in earlier and
obviously there were some connections made between the previous ownership of the
home and the eventual death of Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring and Abigail Folger and
Voytek Frykowski. Was there any connection between those events?
CHARLES MANSON: That's my neighborhood. I run that neighborhood. I run
in that neighborhood. I live on the beach. I live in Venice. Santa Monica in the
mountains. I went to that house four or five time with a friend of mine that's named
Dean Moorehouse. He's a religious type fella, a Deacon in the Methodist Church and
I'd been to the house at parties and uh Watson, Tex Watson, knew the house because
he was on the edge of what I was doing. He was watching the way I was doing what I
was doing. Putting together whatever I was putting together so he picked that house he
just went to the house because he knew that house, but it didn't directly have anything
to do with me.
KALX RADIO: So it's just a coincidence that it happened to be owned by Terry
Melcher?
CHARLES MANSON: Yeah. Total coincidence.
KALX RADIO: Tell me about your relationship with Mr. Melcher, and how you
happened to strike up --
CHARLES MANSON: I liked Terry. Terry's a nice gentle person. He's a
peaceful person. He doesn't lie. He's, uh, treated me right. I would consider him a
friend, but I think all this madness scared him. I think it scared him to thinking I'm
somebody that I'm not, you know, a lot of people think that Manson is some great
monster. But, the only monster Manson is, is what the media created, and the District
Attorney created. You guys realize what's going to happen to this country because of
that case? When you can go to college, son, and learn to be a lawyer and then you can
go to the District Attorney's position and do anything you want; that makes you the
leader of this country. You can put anybody on trial and say anything you want to say
and tell any lie you want to lie. Why spend millions of dollars for a school to study
criminology when all they do is set up on the witness stand and lie. You just lie and you
don't need the schools, you know, and the whole thing was a big sham it was a big act
for the world man. It was a big play. They put the children on trial for trying to stop the
war and then all the people like Joan Baez and what's that uh -- what's that other
chick's name?
KALX RADIO: Oh you mean Jane Fonda?
CHARLES MANSON: Yeah. Jane Fonda and all those people they'll scream,
and they'll holler for the kids to do something and then when the kids do it then they say
the kids are all fucked up. The only ones that bring change since time began is the
young people. The young people are the ones that have to suffer the sufferings to
change the system. Well, we're still working to change the system. We're still
improving the system and working within the system.
KALX RADIO: So are you saying that the murders of Sharon Tate and the
LaBianca's was a political act?
CHARLES MANSON: My goodness man have you seen Jerry Rubin stand up in
the TV camera with an M-16 and say raise up children kill your mom's and dads? You
didn't see that? You don't remember that?
KALX RADIO: Sure.
CHARLES MANSON: Well you didn't put him on trial.

Common questions

Powered by AI

Charles Manson criticized the judicial system as being unfair and biased, claiming that justice in California required payment and that his trial was not fair. He argued that the judicial process involved manipulating narratives and that media representations contributed to a fabricated public persona. Manson suggested that this manipulation allowed figures in authority to govern public perception and justice, turning trials into theatrical performances rather than truth-seeking exercises .

Manson's rejection of societal narratives while maintaining connections with cultural figures highlights a complex interplay between self-definition and perceived manipulation by the media. While he distanced himself from the hippie label and mainstream culture, his associations with figures like Terry Melcher and Dennis Wilson created ties to these same systems he criticized. This reflects a broader theme where identity is constructed both internally and externally, with Manson's attempts to control his narrative clashing against societal attempts to define him through these associations .

Charles Manson conveyed a message of personal agency as intrinsic and distinct from societal influence. Through discussions on music, he emphasized his pursuit of it for personal enjoyment rather than public approval or commercial success. Manson depicted societal labels, such as being a "hippie," as misinterpretations imposed by others, reinforcing his narrative of self-definition. He suggested that one's identity and actions should be self-authored and free from external pressures or judgments, asserting control over his narrative despite pervasive societal attempts to redefine it .

Charles Manson viewed his relationships with Terry Melcher and Dennis Wilson as connections that were more incidental than intentional. He noted that they came to him for music, rather than him seeking out a music career. Manson claimed that Melcher was a peaceful person who treated him right, suggesting a perception that Melcher was a friend before events became too overwhelming for him. He also mentioned that contrary to the media portrayal, the house where the Sharon Tate murders occurred was chosen because it was familiar to someone else, namely Tex Watson, and not directly related to Manson's ties with Melcher .

Charles Manson argues that he was falsely labeled as a hippie, claiming that he was actually a beatnik before hippie culture even emerged. He emphasized having been part of the beat generation, engaging in activities like pounding on bongos and reciting poetry long before the 1960s counterculture. Manson indicated disdain for how these cultural movements were co-opted and commercialized, which aligned with his efforts to distinguish himself from the image put forth by the media .

Charles Manson implied that youth movements are the primary drivers of social change, as the young must "suffer the sufferings" to alter the system. He positioned himself as someone who understood the motivations and feelings of the youth but also critiqued the leaders of these movements for abandoning the youth when issues became serious. By likening himself to the youth, Manson presented himself as both a participant in and observer of these transformative efforts, simultaneously aligning with and distancing himself from their radical actions .

Charles Manson described his upbringing as isolated and self-directed, contrasting it with more traditional narratives that involve parental guidance. He recounted being an outcast and engaging in criminal activities from a young age due to a lack of acceptance and guidance. Despite this, Manson expressed no remorse for his unconventional upbringing, suggesting it empowered him to learn self-reliance. He dismissed negative emotions like resentment and interpreted his past as beneficial in shaping his independence .

Manson attempted to reframe his connection to the Tate murders by describing the choice of the residence as a mere coincidence due to Tex Watson's familiarity with the place, rather than a directed plan by Manson. He placed blame on the media and the judicial system for creating a "monster" persona, arguing that the events were exploited to promote a misleading narrative about his influence. By criticizing the media and questioning societal systems, Manson sought to shift responsibility away from himself onto the structures and figures that propagated these narratives .

Manson addressed the concept of responsibility by deflecting it onto broader societal dynamics, denying personal culpability for infamous actions attributed to him. He critiqued other cultural figures for inciting youthful rebellion and then abandoning responsibility when consequences ensued. Manson positioned himself as a scapegoat improperly burdened with society's ills, arguing against the authenticity of his media-crafted image and suggesting that systemic failures, rather than his actions, were to blame for adverse outcomes .

Charles Manson described the influence of Timothy Leary and similar figures as guiding individuals toward a rebellious and alternative lifestyle. He recognized Leary's call to "tune in and drop out" as aligning with his experiences on the margins of society. Manson claimed that he was already acquainted with the lifestyle Leary advocated, suggesting a validation or legitimization of his own path of rejection of conventional norms .

You might also like