MARILYN MANSON Calls Former Bandmate's Allegations 'Ridiculous'

According to MTV.com, Marilyn Manson has responded to the lawsuit filed by his former keyboardist Stephen Gregory Bier Jr. — known to fans by his stage name, Madonna Wayne Gacy (also often referred to as "Pogo," John Wayne Gacy's clown name) — who claims the shock rocker has been using the band's money to fund his lavish lifestyle, drug habit and the production of his upcoming film, "Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll", among other things.

The suit further alleges Manson took assets belonging to the rest of the band (money generated through touring, and album and merchandise sales) to purchase Nazi paraphernalia, African masks made of human skin and the full skeleton of a 4-year-old Chinese girl, all of which he has on display in his Chatsworth, California, mansion.

Manson has denied the allegations in an exclusive interview with MTV.com on Thursday. "The fact that he's claiming that I've treated him unfairly, financially, is really ridiculous," the singer said. "And I would never spend my money on a Chinese girl skeleton. That would be crossing the line. It's a Chinese boy, for the record," he laughed, before continuing. "[Bier and his lawyers are] going for shock value, obviously, and I couldn't be less surprised by how unshocking these things would be to the public."

Manson, who noted that he hasn't yet seen the suit, said he will defend himself against the allegations; he added that he hasn't heard from Bier in more than a year. He claimed he and others in the Manson organization attempted to contact the keyboardist to work on this year's "Eat Me, Drink Me" LP, but when Bier did respond, it was with hostility.

"It's all a big question mark to me," Manson said. "I don't feel like this compares to any prior ex-bandmember situations, because those were all very clear conflicts, where somebody didn't get along with someone else. And this is just a situation where I stopped hearing from him, and I started making a record and kept trying to get him involved, and the only thing that came after that was hostility during a period where I could have used close friends more than ever." Manson revealed back in May that he had contemplated suicide this past winter.

"I wish there was some sort of legal angle to this whole thing, or some sort of common sense, or just even camaraderie after all the years that we knew each other," Manson added. "I don't have an explanation for it. It just seems like another ex-bandmember suing me and trying to assassinate my personality as a means to financial gain, and it just seems old. It's just not fair. If I spent my money on anything, it was my family, and paying his salary for a year when we weren't even touring."

Read more at MTV.com.