Chatting in a doctor’s crowded waiting room, Jawbreaker and Doom Generation star Rose McGowan breaks into song five times in 20 minutes, serenading fellow patients with the Sisters Of Mercy, Bon Jovi, the Verve, Loretta Lynn and Marty Robbins. “She’s singing, she’s scary, and she’s very odd,” she says imagining what everyone else must think. “They’re going to put me in a private room.” Between songs, McGowan explains why she doesn’t like Hole—the band her boyfriend Marilyn Manson, is about to tour with—and how she got on her knees for the Cure’s Robert Smith.

You’ve played lots of tragic teenage goth girls. were you like that in high school?
It’s funny; I still can’t wear all black because I’m afraid people will think I’m a goth girl. But, yes, I was one of those 4AD girls—Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil. I tended to gravitate towards people with physical similarities, or who wore a lot of black. So I was always friends with people no one was friends with, and those people always have the interesting taste. It was always a struggle—your indie cred was always being tested, but they’d turn you on to things. “You know New Order used to be Joy Division, right?” Well, of course! And then you’d go get those records, and the next time they asked, you could say, “Well, I was there when Ian Curtis died.”

What else did you listen to in high school?
When I was 13 or 14, running around with crushes on my brother’s skater friends, who were two years older and wouldn’t have anything to do with me, I listened to all these punk bands, like the Dead Kennedy’s and Corrosion Of Conformity. I honestly did not find it enjoyable in any way! That was just a way to make them notice you. It all makes you want to go back in time and pat yourself on the head and be like, “It’s going to be okay, sugar.” But I really did like some goth things, like the Sisters Of Mercy. The Cure was the first concert I ever went to, in Montreal. I had to weed my father’s goddamn backyard for about a month to earn money for the ticket. This was not normal weeding—it’s like a forest. I hope Robert Smith appreciates it.

So how has your taste changed since then?
My taste is really kind of the same as I am now. I like everything from Patsy Cline to Guns N’ Roses. I’m depressed a lot, and I love dark lyrics about being alone. My father got me into weird country, like Marty Robbins. I listen to a lot of George Jones and Loretta Lynn. I love it. Some of it is hysterical. Have you ever heard Loretta’s song “The Pill’ or “One Song Away”? She pioneered the whole acting-white-trash thing. In “One Song Away” she’s having a conversation with her husband on the phone—”What, honey? You’re bringing company home for dinner,” then she starts singing, “Here in Topeka, the boss is coming, the kids are howling, the dog is jumping.” It’s like a white-trash anthem. It’s so genius.

What kind of new music have you been listening to?
[Laughs] Well, duh.

So where you a fan of Marilyn Manson’s music before you started dating him?
It’s funny. I honestly was pretty oblivious to his music before I started going out with him. The year before I met him, I made like five movies. So I lived in hotels, where they torture you with VH1 and Celine Dion. So when he was taking off, all I was listening to was country: Buck Owens, George Jones, Dwight Yoakam. I missed all his stuff. But I have to say I find it really amazingly beautiful in so many different ways.

How about favorite new bands that aren’t Marilyn Manson?
I like Garbage a bit. I have to say I think Hole is really awful, and I really don’t understand how anyone could think otherwise. [Courtney Love] must terrify the reviewers, because they’re all afraid to give her a bad review, and there’s no way people can think that album [Celebrity Skin] is good. No way. The Verve record [Urban Hymns] was amazing. And Jawbreaker has a really great sound… Imperial Teen, the Donnas and the Scorpions– they rock. Otherwise I’m listening to a lot of talk radio.

Are you obsessed with the Monica Lewinsky scandal as I am?
Oh, I yell at the radio. I get so upset. People on the left side don’t have enough aggression. The right has all the aggression in the world. I like pulling along someone with an awful bumper sticker. I make them roll down their window with my smiling, cute, girlie face and shout, “You suck!” We need a couple of good hits on our side. That’s what I think. Take aim, people!