Not bad for someone who had been mercilessly bullied at school for her "red hair and gawky features", who had once considered herself "the ugliest creature alive" and who would mutilate her own legs with razor blades. She modelled for both MAC cosmetics and Calvin Klein. Shirley Manson, who had confessed to suffering from "body dysmorphia syndrome" - wherein you have acute problems with how you perceive your physical appearance - leapt from the music pages to the fashion pages. Over the course of three albums, Garbage fused a post-grunge rock sound with cutting-edge electronica superlatively - selling 10 million albums in the process.
There were known, none too subtly, in their early days as "three producers and a girl". One phone call later and Edinburgh's Shirley Manson, ex shop assistant at the Miss Selfridge counter in the Scottish capital, was a member of a band called Garbage.
The singer - flame red hair, whiter-than-white skin and a vocal gymnast - proved to be an arresting image. Idly watching MTV one night, they happened upon a video by an obscure Scottish band called Angelfish. Butch Vig, Steve Marker and Duke Erikson had impressive CVs - not least Vig who had produced the era-defining Nevermind album by Nirvana.
Sometime in 1994, three of the US's biggest music producers decided to move to the other side of the recording booth and form their own band. Shirley Manson and Butch Vig tell Brian Boyd what happened after 'it all went horribly wrong' Garbage are back, and they sound like a sophisticated Garage band.