Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson performed their joint cover version of THE BEATLES classic “Helter Skelter” live for the first time at the kick-off of the two rockers’ co-headlining North American tour last night (Wednesday, July 11) in Detroit. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be seen below.
Zombie told Rolling Stone about the track: “We had been talking about doing something together for these shows — that he should come onstage during my set and we’d do a song. But we couldn’t think of what song. After we talked, later that night I was home and I just thought the obvious song is ‘Helter Skelter’… It’s so obvious that neither one of us thought of it! And then I figured, ‘Well, rather than us just doing it onstage, why don’t we take it one step further and record it and put a new spin on it?'”
Regarding how they approached the song, Zombie said: “My thought when it comes to covers is to stick close to the original. Because in my mind, what’s the actual point of doing a cover if no one can recognize it? So with our version, I think it varies as much as it can from the original, but not so much that it becomes a different song.”
Zombie said that although his band was used during the recording sessions for “Helter Skelter”, he and Manson did their parts separately. He explained, “I was on the East Coast and he was in, like, Spain or something, on tour. We were communicating the whole time, but it wasn’t possible to get in the studio together.”
Zombie and Manson next play this Friday (July 13) at the Rock USA festival in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
