Exclusive:Queen of the Castle Shirley Manson on bringing Garbage home

With their eighth studio album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light being praised by critics and fans, Manson is riding high as she anticipates bringing the band with her to a homecoming gig in the capital on 11 July and she’s ready to be crowned Queen of the Castle.

More than 30 years of success have seen the altrock outfit formed in Madison, Wisconsin in1993 with an unchanged line up of Manson, Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker release eight albums and hits including Queer, Only Happy When It Rains, Stupid Girl and James Bond theme The World Is Not Enough, amassing millions of sales, seven Grammys and two Brit Award nominations.

But longevity brings highs as well as lows and Manson herself has lived, loved and lost, most recently her father who died in October last year, and endured health challenges such as surgery on her vocal chords in the noughties and learning to walk again after two hip replacements in 2023 and 2024 resulting from a fall from a stage in 2016.

“At the risk of being accused of hyperbole, it doesn't really get much more magnificent than this for me, as someone who was born in Edinburgh.

“To have the chance to play the castle feels wildly, insanely incredible. We don't often get the chance to play medieval castles and to play in my own hometown, the most prestigious gig that there is in our city, arguably in the country, is very, very, very special to me. The whole band is excited, but obviously it means the most to me because it's my turf. I think it's glorious that Edinburgh is allowing this insane honour for musicians to grace the ramparts. It's really wild. I still can't quite believe it.

“My only sadness is my dear old dad just missed our performance by nine or ten months. I was really hoping he'd make it to see it. When I told him we were going to play he puffed up with pride and it brought tears to my eyes. It makes me so proud that he got to know his daughter was coming back to the city to play this prestigious gig. So, yeah, he knew.”

As she talks about the upcoming gig, she reveals that the huge world tours like the current one and headline gigs are less likely in the future.

“As a band we've been talking for a long time about how we need to restructure our touring life because the business is very different from when we first emerged in the 1990s and I doubt we'll come back to Edinburgh to play anytime in the near future.

“So for this to be somewhat a culmination of 30 years of work, it really does feel incredibly fitting, and I know a lot of Garbage fans are really excited. There are also people flying in from all over to celebrate with us, managers, former employees. It's going to be a Garbage mecca,” she laughs, enjoying the anticipation.

Read More - Sharleen Spiteri interview

But wait, is she saying this would really be Garbage’s final headline gig in Scotland?

“I'm not saying it's gonna be the final show ever,” she says, “but the likelihood of us touring like we do now is very low. For lots of reasons, not least we were an older band when we emerged 30 years ago and the clock is not on our side. That's just a reality.”

As she approaches her 60th birthday in August, Manson’s bandmates are also clocking up the years with Duke Erikson 75, Butch Vig 70, and Steve Marker 67.

“We want to go out eyes wide open instead of pretending everything is as it once was. We're gonna make another record after this tour so we will be another year older and God only knows what state the world is going to be in.

“Also touring Europe is harder because Brexit made things complicated and expensive. And it’s harder on the body. We are not what we once were physically, you know?”

Rather than see this as a negative, Manson is a glass half full woman who embraces the maturity and perspective that comes with age and sees many positives in longevity.

“A lot of people are accusing me in particular because obviously I'm the one with the big mouth, of being defeatist, but if you look with an honest eye, you see the beauty in it too.

“I want to be grateful for every day I get to play music for a living in front of people who love us. That is one of the greatest gifts of my life and I want to appreciate it every single day I'm alive.”

With 30 years of hit albums and singles to choose from, and a new album that has seen praise from critics and fans, what will be in the Edinburgh set?

“Pretty much what we're playing currently on tour because fans compare and contrast set lists so I just made it everybody gets the same.

“I sound like my mum,” she laughs, referencing Muriel, who passed away in 2008. “Such a Scottish thing, the way that she treated me and my two sisters, everybody got the same and that's how it's going to be on this tour so we don't hear any ‘we wanted you to play that instead of this’. I can't be bothered with it. All of Mary Poppins' children get served the same afternoon tea.” she laughs.

Read More - Deacon Blue interview

The Edinburgh Castle gig will also feature Manson’s former band, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, in a full circle moment that sees her on the same bill as the band she joined in her teens as backing vocalist and keyboard player before forming her own band Angelfish, then joining Garbage.

“I think it's a really glorious bill. They're a fantastic band and obviously old friends.Without Goodbye Mr McKenzie, for me, there would have been no Garbage. I learned everything I needed to learn in Goodbye Mr McKenzie, and was taught by amazing musicians, amazing people. I’m honoured they agreed to do this because it feels like a complete picture of my musical growth and adventure.”

Talk turns to the new album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, which sections of the media have dubbed a return to form, at which Manson bristles slightly.

“I don't fully understand it. All our records, we worked really hard to ensure they're of a very high calibre and what is very heartening is people have commented on how you can't tell which songs come from which era anymore because they are all of a high standard.”

“That reception is thrilling. We don't differentiate between our records and I don't think fans do either. I think it's been the media and for about 10 years we kind of got left to our own devices, and it's a testimony to the fans and I guess our band, our songwriting, that we’re here and get to play all over Europe this summer in beautiful venues, and to have returned to Wembley Arena last year, it was wild!”

Manson is a straight talker yet she does it with charm, grace and humour and a refusal to dampen her passion, as can be heard on the current album track Chinese Fire Horse. An anthem of defiance against ageism, it has particular relevance to Manson, born in 1966 and a fire horse in the Chinese zodiac.

With lyrics including ‘I may be much older, so much older than you, but I've still got the power in my brain and my body, I’ll take no shit from you,” and culminating ‘Wait a f***ing minute, I'm not dead, I'm not done,’ the track was born of Manson’s indignation at ageism, particularly towards women.

“That's a story about what happened to me, what happens to women in our society where once a woman is past her peak she's considered over the hill. There is still a lot of ageism and misogyny and sexism directly aimed at women, and Chinese Fire Horse is an acknowledgment of me being 60 this year.

“I was born in the year of the fire horse, which happens every 60 years so now there's a new generation Chinese fire horses. It felt like the perfect time to celebrate the idea of this fire and disobedience.

“Allegedly in previous centuries, if a little girl was born under the fire horse sign, they were put to death because they were considered dangerous to society and I thought this was a really interesting analogy about women who are ageing but no longer conforming to the idea they should fold up their wings and hide in the shadows once they're considered no longer f***able. It's a ludicrous idea that men continue to age and acquire wisdom and societal power and women are supposed to shrink and disappear.”

Manson came face to face with this attitude doing press for their previous seventh album No Gods No Masters, released in 2021.

“It was day one of our promo and this Irish male journalist and a female German journalist both asked me when I was going to retire.

“I thought it was astounding they should say this to a female artist who was 53 years old, arguably in my prime. My male compatriots in my band who are considerably older than me are not getting asked when they’re going to retire.

“I was rendered a bit speechless for once and it simmered in the back of my mind so this song is my rebuke, my answer. Women like me, we are not gonna politely sit down. Sorry. We’re just not going to do that, are we?”

“There’s a new generation of women holding space in our sixties, seventies, eighties. Artists like Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks, Grace Jones, Chaka Khan, they're in their f***ing late seventies, eighties, holding agency in the workplace, and that is so inspiring to all women.

“Women are realising there's so much more out there past the age men have decided we have any worth. Women are finally deciding for themselves what their future will be and not allowing the patriarchy to do that for them.”

Read More - Debbie Harrie and Chris Stein Interview

Picking up on the Patti Smith reference Manson and I fan girl about Patti Smith, both having seen her as she’s aged and taken inspiration from how the extra years only add to her voice and power.

“Yeah, says Manson, “And this applies to men too - so much of our ageing experiences have remained untouched by art because age is such a societal taboo.

“I went to see Patti Smith about 15 years ago and had a sudden epiphany of ‘holy shit, here she is magnified by her age’. It felt powerful, wasn't taking anything away and instead augmented her and that thrilled me. I realised age is not something to be feared. Age is a tool and can be used as fuel, and that's exciting.”

This combination of strength and vulnerability amplified by experience can be heard in Manson’s voice on the album track, The Day That I Met God, a song describing a breakdown when all that remained was a sense of ‘everyone I'd ever loved’, and ‘everything I ever wanted’.

Was there ever a time in the middle of her ill health, that she thought she might not make it?

“I knew I was gonna obviously survive,” she says, “but you're right. I had that horrible moment after the second hip replacement and my dad was dying, all within the space of three years, straight after COVID and I felt beaten down and depressed. And trying to learn to walk again for the second time was complicated and a very sobering experience.

“But in the end it was glorious because you start to learn about tiny increments of improvement and I have since applied that to any situation in my life. I don't feel the same panic when I meet an obstacle and take things one tiny push at a time.
It really has taught me about patience, which I never had before, not only with myself but with the world. That has been a great gift. I sound like a happy clappy idiot,” she laughs, “but to have gone through that particular kind of suffering - hip replacements are nothing compared to what other people go through - I’m grateful for it.”

What the experience brought Manson was the realisation that paradoxically, as we age we discover a new relationship with time.

“It's learning as an artist and a human that you have time. When I was young, I was always in a state of panic, ’my career isn't where I want it to be, I'm not a good enough singer’, and everything has to be immediate. As you get older there's an awareness you have time, to change your life, get better, improve situations, get out of a bad marriage, meet someone new again no matter your age. You've got time.”

Manson had success at a young age, even though for her it felt late compared with some musicians, so is there anything she would change about how she navigated it?

“Probably not, because I realise how lucky I am. I have a career that's the envy of many artists. I had no idea I'd have such a long career and that's the greatest luxury I can imagine. Also not many women of my age get to do it at this level. We're still few and far between. I realise I'm a rare breed.

“I don't know how it happened to me. I know I've worked really hard to get better as a writer, singer, performer and kept my shit together, but there are a billion people out there who've done that and haven't enjoyed my luck. So I wouldn't change a thing in case I tempted the gods. Sure I've made a billion mistakes. There are many, many things I wish I hadn't said or done, but I did them and I'm still here.”

Read More - Jim Kerr Interview

With houses in Edinburgh and LA, the US being where her bandmates live and her studio and record label are, she says: “I still think of home as Edinburgh. I come back a lot, especially the last few years because my dad was ailing. But my business is still run primarily from America so it's practical to be there for the time being.”

And wherever she lives, as she says of musician, record producer, audio engineer and mixer Billy Bush, to whom she’s been married since 2010: “He's my home.”

Talking of home, the Edinburgh Castle gig will always be special.

“It's your home turf that is always the most resonant,” says Manson. “It's like you just want the love from home.”

Garbage play Edinburgh Castle on Saturday 11 July 2026, for information see Edinburgh Castle Concerts | Garbage | Saturday 11 July 2026