Marilyn Manson has described the “devastating” toll this year’s coronavirus pandemic has had on his mental health.

Speaking in the latest print edition of Classic Rock, the 51-year-old singer said: “Being unable to perform live… it’s not a complaint, like some moody, arrogant rock star saying I can’t do my job so woe is me. But for the past 20 years, all I’ve known is to get on stage and sing. I can’t do that. So it is mentally devastating.

“When you’re in quarantine, your life becomes a macrocosm or a microcosm. You get confused. You don’t know what the reality is, apart from what’s around you. And that can drive you insane.”

Manson also said he wouldn’t be surprised if he was “blamed” for the global health crisis – an allusion to the various claims made against his work over the years, notably when his influence was spuriously attributed to the Columbine massacre in 1999.

“It’s hard to say if [the Christian right] is giving me a hard time right now, because I don’t think churches are even open,” he said. “Churches aren’t open. Schools aren’t open. So that rules out a lot of trouble spots.

“A lot of troublemakers are out of a job. I’ll probably somehow get blamed for causing the world to fall apart, I’m sure. But I’m not looking for that credit.”

Manson added that, while he acknowledged that the pandemic is a very serious issue that should not “be taken lightly”, his “dream of an apocalypse would be much more interesting and colourful.”

Last month (September 24), Manson shared a video for his latest single ‘Don’t Chase The Dead’, starring The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus.

The track is taken from the rock veteran’s new album ‘We Are Chaos’, which NME described as “his most human work so far” in a five-star review.

FOR HELP AND ADVICE ON MENTAL HEALTH:

• YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
• MIND – For mental health support, advice and awareness
• CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably for young men
• Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
• The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day