David Lynch Bizarrely Compared a 1990s Star to Elvis Presley

As a director whose movies take a lot of influence from the 1950s and early 1960s, it’s no surprise that David Lynch had some interesting things to say about Elvis Presley. Lynch once compared a 1990s icon to Elvis. This comparison is simultaneously insightful and nonsensical.

David Lynch worked with a star he likened to Elvis Presley and an ‘egg-born offspring’

Lynch and Marilyn Manson were, in some ways, artistic kindred spirits. They both brought twisted avant-garde art into the mainstream. While they both knew how to disturb audiences, they also both had a good sense of humor. The two have collaborated in interesting ways. Manson had a small role as a porn star in Lynch’s Lost Highway. He also contributed the songs “Apple of Sodom” and “I Put a Spell on You” to the film.

Lynch also wrote the introduction to The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell, Manson’s 1998 autobiography. Lynch’s writing is about as unusual as Eraserhead. “Outside it was raining cats and barking dogs,” he wrote. “Like an egg-born offspring of collective humanity, in sauntered Marilyn Manson. It was obvious — he was beginning to look and sound a lot like Elvis. David Lynch — New Orleans 2:50 a.m.” I can’t imagine anyone who opened up The Long Hard Road Out of Hell because they enjoyed Manson’s alternate rock hits like “Lunchbox” or “The Beautiful People” would have expected the book to start that way.

Marilyn Manson once said he felt like Elvis Presley

Later in the book, Manson compares himself to Elvis. “I opened a fortune cookie and it said, ‘When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed,'” he wrote. “Well, I’ve gotten everything that I wanted. We’re the biggest band in America. We’ve got platinum albums. We got the Rolling Stone cover that Dr. Hook never managed to get. 

“But I’ve managed to destroy and lose everything that I’ve loved along the way,” he said. “The whole world now looks at me the way I looked at my grandfather. I hope they like what they see because now I finally do. I feel one part Elvis Presley, one part Jack Warner, and one part Reverend Ernest Angley, and this disturbs me.” For context, Warner was the infamously difficult movie producer behind classics like Casablanca and My Fair Lady, while Angley was a controversial Christian evangelist.

Why David Lynch’s analogy is only partly correct

Do these Elvis analogies make sense? On one level, they do. In the 1950s, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll helped cement his genre’s dangerous image. In the 1990s, Manson might have been the most controversial singer in the world. Between his criticisms of Christianity and his embrace of the Church of Satan, he upset numerous religious people. On top of that, he was the subject of horrific false rumors, such that he inspired the Columbine massacre or that he committed human sacrifices during his concerts.

On a commercial level, any comparison between the two rock stars fizzle. Elvis had numerous top-10 singles over a 20-year period. He even had a hit single or two after his death. Manson never managed to catapult one of his songs into the top-40, much less the top-10. In addition, Elvis cut gospel albums, something that Manson would never do.

Lynch, Manson, and Elvis are good reminders that great art should be provocative.