Gidget Gein

Real Name: Bradley M. Stewart.
Born: 11 September 1969 in Florida.

His stagename is from Gidget, a female TV character, and serial-killer Ed Gein.

Before joining the Mansons, Gein played lead guitar for Insanity Assassin. He replaced original MM bassist Olivia Newton-Bundy.

Taught by Daisy to play the bass parts just the week before, Brad/Gein's first show with Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids was on 3 July 1990. This was the same Miami club show where the band opened for Nine Inch Nails and Meat Beat Manifesto.

Of all Gidget Gein's talents, his looks were the most obvious. I've heard that Gein being the babe-magnet of the band didn't sit well with Scott/Daisy but I don't know really. What's a group without groupies anyway.

As well as co-writing MM's debut album Portrait of an American Family, Gein introduced lunchbox collecting to the band. Music by Gein is also on Smells Like Children, since it includes remix versions of songs Gein co-wrote for Portrait.

And he was the one who took Manson along - on 5 January 1991, Manson's 22nd birthday - to get the first of many tattoos; this one: the black goat head.

Gein has quite a few tattoos of his own. I don't know what they all are but the most obvious one is Charles Manson's face on his right arm. Then there's his favourite cartoon character, the bizarre Flaming Carrot. I think that was his first tat. The tat on his right hand is a leaping cat. When he took Manson along to Tattoos By Lou's in Miami to get him his first one, Gein got a Creepy Crawl Spider band inked onto his right wrist at the same time.

In his autobiography, Manson describes how, in '93, Gein's drug use becomes an addiction. With Gein's health and work suffering, Marilyn describes his feelings of anger, sadness and exasperation at the situation. Reluctant to let Gein go, Manson hoped for the best, but the split finally came in December 1993.

Despite leaving MM, Gein's influence on the band's image has stayed with them over the years. His replacement, Twiggy, clearly retained the spirit of Brad's onstage character by becoming a cross-dressing, dreadlocked, appealing kind of 'freak'.

In 1998, Gein formed a band, 'The Dali Gaggers' and they gigged for a few years. Since 2002, however, he has found the greatest satisfaction in his painting and sculpture. Examples of his work could be seen at GidgetGein dot com, where he was described as 'Artist, Musician, Writer, Bagboy, Surreal PoP Exploitationist', but at end of May 2008 it's offline.

In January 2004, Gein took part in Marilyn Manson's video for (s)AINT. One of his sculptures, 'In Case of Emergency Break Heart', - which I like very much - also appears in it and is now owned by the video's director, Asia Argento.

The video was finally released on the Lest We Forget bonus DVD, in September 2004. Thanks to all of this, I now know what the charming acronym MILF means. In the video, Gein plays 'a degenerate girl next door/MILF' type, you see.

That's Asia Argento on the left and Gein is holding up his creation in the photo on the right.

I know he's seemed unsettled for quite a long time, over a year I'd say, but I never realized just how bad it was, or that he was taking drugs again. It turns out he was in a rehab clinic in June/July 2008, but obviously the treatment wasn't enough to turn things around for him.

He'll be missed by so many people and I'm one of them.

I've made another page for him here: Gidget Gein photos and art.