When Marilyn Manson [ tickets ] recently stepped out of a convertible that transported him to MTV's Times Square studio, he reminded the crowd that John F. Kennedy died in a similar car.

It's a somber but fitting thought for the shock rocker. His life has been riddled with death threats since many Americans placed a large portion of the blame for the Columbine High School massacre on him. But in a test of mind over matter, Manson just goes on with his life.

"Um, there's always, you know, a sense of fear, but I try not to ever let that get in the way of me doing what I want to do," Manson explained via telephone from his Washington, D.C. hotel room. "I don�t know if I would be able to describe [how I do it]. I suppose it's just a blind courage. Just having the, I suppose, bit of insanity to think that you're invincible in some ways, I suppose."

He stammered through his answer, but his message is loud and clear on his latest album, "Holy Wood (on the Shadow of the Valley of Death)."

"Rather than avoid the subject," Manson said, "I made it the focus of my album to talk about violence and why people behave the way they do, and the fact that we're just tracing it back to the beginning of evolution--it's man's nature to be violent. There's no need for entertainment to inspire it.

"Also, [I wanted] to point out things like: the image of Christ on a cross can be looked at as just as offensive, sexual or violent as any work of art, film or music." The cover of "Holy Wood"--on which Manson has his arms outstretched, as though he were crucified--has gotten the album banned from several chains, including Wal-Mart.

Of the writing and producing of "Holy Wood," Manson said, "I wanted to be much more experimental. I wanted this album to be as electronic as 'Anti-Christ Superstar,' but as rock-and-roll in song structure and as traditional as 'Mechanical Animals.' It made it exciting and interesting, because heavy music is almost a cliche at this point, because all bands have heavy records. Half the time, there's no reason for it to be heavy. I wanted to use dynamics and use aggressiveness in a much more relevant way. So I tried to make a smarter heavy record."

To accomplish that, he recruited Bon Harris, formerly of the industrial outfit Nitzer Ebb, who also worked with Marilyn Manson on the band�s cover of "Highway to Hell" for the "Detroit Rock City" soundtrack.

"[Harris] kind of became a member of the band," Manson said. "He was there with us every day until 6 in the morning. When we were writing, he was basically recording and engineering us. We had him do a lot of sequencing on different things. He would throw in ideas just like everyone else."

Recorded in a mansion once owned by magician Harry Houdini, as well as in Death Valley, "Holy Wood" was a group effort, with guitarist John 5, bassist Twiggy Ramirez and Manson all receiving writing credits--something that John 5, in a separate interview, said that he didn�t expect.

"It was like a great band project because we all collaborated and we all put in our two cents," John 5 said. "It was just like a band. It was very surprising to me, because I heard all these horror stories. [People said,] 'You won't be able to write,' and all this stuff. Luckily, we all got together great and just wrote. I'm very proud of the record, that's for sure."

Unfortunately, John 5 explained, protests have been a recurring theme on Marilyn Manson's God, Guns and Government tour, which is expected to continue through the summer of 2001. In its last run through the States, Marilyn Manson canceled a stretch of dates in the wake of the Columbine killings. Two years later, protestors still haven't given up.

"I think we did some Japan dates and other European things [immediately after Columbine] but, gosh, everybody shut us down," John 5 said. "Christian leaders just shut us down so fast. It�s weird to drive in to the show and see all these protestors and everybody still trying to shut us down. It's just the way that people think and perceive this, which is understandable. But people can do what they want. It really doesn't bother me that much.

"But there's a lot of protestors [on this tour], that's for sure. I think it's getting worse, a lot worse. It's really getting bad. There�s been protestors every single night. Just lots of them. [But] all the shows have been--knock on wood--so good."

However, John 5 seems to be worried about the Colorado performances.

"I'm going to wear a bullet-proof vest. What happens is meant to be, that's for sure. Hopefully, there�s going to be no angry parents, but we'll see."

But in Manson, John 5 and his bandmates have a strong leader who lets his music speak for him in times of fear. Manson feels that he has succeeded in sharing his message on "Holy Wood."

"It's worked in a couple ways," Manson said. "It's worked because every time they protest, or censor things like my album cover, or try and ban our concerts, or make bomb threats, or whatever they try to do, they're really just proving my point. They're proving that they're offended by the image of Christ on the cross, and they're proving that their behavior is far less Christian than mine is, because I'm not going around protesting their churches or trying to blow up their houses."