Creativity Quote by Maynard James Keenan

Keenan’s line lands like a refusal to keep feeding the monster. By blaming “the media” for “made Manson,” he’s not absolving Charles Manson of his crimes so much as indicting the cultural machine that converts brutality into brand. The phrasing is careful: “larger than life,” “mystery,” “shady glamour.” Those aren’t neutral descriptors; they’re the ingredients of celebrity mythmaking, the exact aesthetic that sells magazines, moves ratings, and fuels the lurid curiosity that true crime has always monetized.

The intent is twofold. First, it punctures the fantasy that notoriety is an organic byproduct of evil. Keenan suggests it’s manufactured: attention is a kind of production line, and the media is the factory. Second, it challenges the audience’s complicity. “Surrounded him” implies an active, almost protective circle - as if coverage doesn’t merely report on violence but creates a vibe around it, a narrative fog that makes a murderer feel like a character.

Context matters: Keenan comes from a rock ecosystem that has long been accused of glamorizing darkness, while also being repulsed by how quickly transgression becomes commodity. His critique reads like a boundary-setting move: don’t confuse art’s flirtation with taboo for the culture’s habit of turning real suffering into entertainment. The subtext is uncomfortable and pointed: Manson’s most enduring power may not be his ideology or charisma, but the spotlight that kept him culturally alive.