BECOMING TWIGGY "OVERNIGHT WITHIN WEEKS" ?
In her statement in 2017, Jessicka claimed that Jeordie went "seemingly overnight" from a thrash metal guy to someone wearing dresses and makeup. Was that really the case though and would it matter if it was?
The change was pretty big, here's Jeordie before and after his dramatic transformation:
By the way, I made an instagram account where I collect pictures of Jeordie in his thrash metal times , follow thrashjeordie!
But yeah, jesus christ. That really was a transformation.
But it wasn't that fast, it really wasn't. Now, this has been a misconception since the start, probably because it was the time before the internet when Marilyn Manson really got big, and for many years the fans couldn't just check stuff online. A lot of people saw Jeordie for the first time in Phil Donahue 1995, even for someone who gets into the band decades later it usually is one of the first videos they see. (Like me, I got into Manson in 2009 and my first touch was the Coma White music video and Phil Donahue show)
For many the setting was this: They saw Jeordie as Twiggy Ramirez all over the TV and magazines and then years after they saw pictures of Jeordie before Marilyn Manson and thought "how the fuck did he go from that to this?"
But these pictures are years apart. And Jessicka does know that.
Jessicka interviewed by Jeff Cohn for a fanpage on November 24th,1997:
Jeff: I've heard rumors that you and Twiggy had been together for some time, is that a sensitive topic or ..?
Jessicka: No not at all, we dated for about 4 years and we used to live together, It's just he went on with his career and I went on with mine. We don't really look each other in the face. Last time I saw him was in NY at the MTV awards and we said about 3 words to each other. I have a better relationship with everyone else in the band than I do with him, it's uncomfortable still. I went out with someone named Jeordie White and then the last two years of our relationship Twiggy evolved, it was like dating a schizophrenic, so, I've always been Jessika. Then he started wearing my clothes! “hey where are my..huh? hey you asshole!” It got to that point, and he still owes me some clothes.
First of all, doesn't sound like she's very traumatized, rather joking at his expense. Comparisons between Jessicka and Jeordie's looks and whether or not he stole/borrowed/wore her clothes are on the Jessicka & Twiggy page.
Schizophrenic, through reading through old interviews and online discussions etc, it seems that generally people in the 90's were misinformed of what schizophrenia even means, and the word was used like that, for example in an interview around this same time, Jeordie was asked if he "feels schizophrenic as he dresses up in different styles". This is no different than the way in the 2000's, everything random, compulsive, surprising or hyper was "like so adhd XD!" Just thought I'd point it out before you read this part of the interview and take the "schizophrenic" to mean "it's said right here he was delusional!"
But yeah, they started dating in 1993, and in the last two years of their relationship, Twiggy evolved. Jeordie joined Marilyn Manson in December 1993 and from there, gradually the way he dressed started changing. It was only closer to 1995 that the dresses and really heavy makeup came along.
And it really wasn't a change that happened in the blink of an eye, as Jessicka claimed later in 2017:
Jeordie overnight went from dressing like he was in Metallica to unabashedly wearing dresses in Marilyn Manson within weeks
This change in the story throughout the years really shows she has talked about this so much that she has lost track of what actually happened.
Maybe we should look into how Jeordie came to join Marilyn Manson, so you can get the idea of how, Jeordie was not a random guy who just inserted himself into the band and had an overnight transformation...
How Jeordie White became Twiggy, a very short rundown:
Jeordie met Marilyn Manson in 1989 when he was working at a record store in Coral Springs mall. In this episode of the Hour Of Goon podcast, Jeordie says him and Manson were brought together by the mutual interest in gothic rock bands. The two soon became friends and Jeordie became a fan of the band Marilyn Manson and The Spooky Kids (which was shortened to Marilyn Manson in 1993). At the time, Jeordie played guitar in his own band, a thrash metal band called Amboog A Lard.
Jeordie frequently attended the early Marilyn Manson shows and was known by the band and the fans and discussed in the Spooky Kids newsletters, where he was called an "honorary spooky kid" and it was rumoured that him and Marilyn were a couple. He was referred to as Gordy White. Here's some scans from the newsletters, archived in mansonwiki.
Manson really wanted to work with Jeordie and have a band with him, but Marilyn Manson already had a finished lineup. (Jeordie would later join to replace bass player Gidget Gein, more about that on the Gidget page. ) This resulted in side projects: A "christian death metal band" Satan On Fire and then Mrs Scabtree a band built from friends in the scene, including Jessicka Addams, who shared vocal duties with Jeordie.
Mrs. Scabtree on Spookykids.com
Mrs. Scabtree played two shows, the last one of them in April 1993, and here already Jeordie appeared on stage wearing a dress. So, he had the idea to perform wearing a dress already over six months before joining Marilyn Manson.
Jeordie on stage with Mrs Scabtree and then also a flyer to the show in question:
Interview with Jessicka, conducted by phone on Friday, June 13, 1997.
c: what is your relationship with twiggy?
j: twiggy is a person that is part of marilyn manson, and always will be. he was my boyfriend of four years. we dated around the time of most of manson’s tours... nine inch nails, danzig... we kept the business aspect of our relationship separate, which was a good thing. actually, at one time manson wanted twiggy to join jack off jill. that was while he was in amboog-a-lard. we met through manson.
Think about it, would this "he stole my dress" be an issue at all, had Gidget stayed in Marilyn Manson and Jeordie joined Jack Off Jill? Jack Off Jill's guitarist HoHo Spade was a guy with black dreads and eyeliner too...
It was mentioned in Marilyn Manson's biography Long Hard Road Out Of Hell, that Jeordie's bandmates in Amboog A Lard were starting to notice him changing crowds, as his dressing style changed and he hung out with the members of Marilyn Manson.
This book is not a very good source, though since the story has had a lot of colouring pen added to it, but;
In the Demystifying The Devil Documentary, there's a clip of Marilyn and at the time girlfriend Missi Romero, Jessicka and Jeordie at Disney World, and it's said right before by Missi that this took place before Manson got signed. In this video clip Jeordie has black hair with green and red colour added to it. So he didn't go from curly brown hair to black dreadlocks overnight in 1993.
Former Amboog A Lard bass player Barry Alpert on his website faithinchaos.com, archived on waybackmachine:
From before I left the band up until the release of AMBOOG.A.LARD's independent CD titled "A New Hope", Jeordie was spending A LOT of time hanging out with the Mansons and their kooky, lunchbox-toting friends.
Around this time, the Spooky Kids were getting a lot of publicity for their bizarre stage shows (which were far more "cartoonish" than satanic at the very beginning...). But Brian (Marilyn) knew he needed to get at least one "real" musician in the band if The Spooky Kids were going to get off the ground.
So, Jeordie was a close friend to the band, someone who knew what they were about, what their stage antics were like. So when Gidget Gein needed to be replaced,he was probably the first option to be the new bass player because he knew exactly what to do.
Let's look at how the Twiggy look got started then. Because contrary to the popular belief, he didn't just put on a dress and makeup and jump on stage.
But first; what if he did? Would it matter? This claim seems to come across as implying that the style was somehow fake and Jeordie had no interest in such things before. But does he have to dress like a goth before joining a "gothy" band to somehow earn the right to dress like that on stage? He was already into gothic rock (bauhaus shirt!) and he was going out with a "Riot Goth" Jessicka, he was already a frequent concert goer in the scene. Would it even matter if he actually did wear some of his girlfriend's clothes in the start?
Just, I know a lot of people who play in bands, have played in a few myself, and many times before a show I've had someone ask if they can borrow something from my wardrobe to look good on stage. That's not a problem at all, who gives a shit. And these friends have no issue admitting their stage clothes were borrowed from me, if someone asked, but no one cares so no one asks, why would they? Them not crediting me for being the owner of a piece of clothing isn't them implying I wasn't there or disregarding my input, that issue is just irrelevant.
I remember when my brother actually played a show with a very Manson influenced band, it was almost more a tribute act than anything. And he was a metalhead, so he put on my black lipstick and my jacket, a bandmate of his wore my fishnet stockings.
Joining a band with a specific aesthetic, you are expected to adopt the style into your stage look, because the band is there to entertain and if you look out of place, it's really not impressive for the people watching. I've played in black metal bands, I've seen guys with blond hair, white t shirt and blue jeans put on my goth capes, demonia boots and that's fine, that's cool. They're not dressing as me! I don't really understand the problem at all.
Now, let's look at some photos:
Let me remind you what the claim was; Jeordie joined Marilyn Manson in December 1993 and went from a thrash metal guitarist Jeordie White to wearing makeup and dresses in Marilyn Manson as Twiggy Ramirez "overnight, within weeks."
You're going to see very clearly how that is not true and doesn't make any sense either. Jessicka is simply weaponising a fanbase myth. Jeordie can shapeshift and Manson removed his own ribs to suck his own dick.
Let's go.
Jeordie's last promotional pictures with Amboog A Lard, 1993. He looked like this. (black shirt, middle)
Then, he joined Manson in December 1993; haven't been able to find photos specifically dated to this month, but the earliest pictures with Jeordie in the band look like this:
According to Jessicka, Jeordie's wearing a dress, heavy makeup and dreadlocks here? I mean yeah I should get new glasses my eyesight has gone worse again but come on now. Okay next; This seems to have some sort of a "restoring" filter on it, please send me the original if you find it. Anyway. He's not wearing makeup or dresses here, why would he even do so, even MANSON isn't wearing makeup? Was there some sort of an attempt at straightening his hair actually?
What about this, still early 1994, based on later photos before May: And of course, the ones that have the Get Your Gunn single for example know that Jeordie doesn't have makeup on in those promos either. Based on the outfits and how the colours of this and the photo above have been heavily edited, these could be from the same photoshoot session.
These next photos are by Wade Wright and according to him, they are from the beginning of the Self Destruct tour with Nine Inch Nails, May 1994: If Jeordie "stole Jessicka's identity, became someone else to escape his self hatred" he would wear the "Jessicka look" all the time wouldn't he? But he's not. The beginning stage of the dreads can be seen here though, still curly hair, a few yellow/red strands in there. This is already five months since his alleged overnight transformation.
More Manson band photos from around this time? Sure, you'll see a total lack of dresses and makeup and "goth kinderwhore dead girl", well, makeup for the whole band at it's "heaviest" at this time seemed to be eyeliner, which Jeordie seems to be wearing here. But the only green dress is on Daisy here and a lot of people wouldn't even recognise Jeordie as Twiggy from these photos yet.
These next photos are from around summer 1994, some dated to the release party of POAAF in June 1994. So the black dreadlocks coming along could be dated somewhere between May and July 1994. You can also see that Jeordie had the dreadlocks before Jessicka, as Jessicka has earlier claimed on her website that Jeordie copied her hairstyle. Still no heavy stage makeup or dresses, Jeordie's shirt is discussed on the Gidget page more (it's not copied from Gidget, but actually seems to be given to him by Manson)
7 months already. It doesn't look like a crazy overnight transformation does it? Oh well I'll add more when I have the patience to think about this again.
Anything said on social media or this site is a fan's ramblings, I don't know Jeordie personally. THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL WEBSITE AND HAS NOT BEEN MADE IN ANY CONTACT TO JEORDIE/TWIGGY.