Rob Zombie (born Robert Bartleh Cummings;[1] January 12, 1965) is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. Zombie has also established a successful career as a film director, creating the movies House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, the 2007 remake of Halloween, its sequel, and The Haunted World of El Superbeasto.
His next film will be the upcoming The Lords of Salem which is scheduled to premiere in theaters sometime in 2012. Born Robert Bartleh Cummings in Haverhill, Massachusetts, he was the first of two sons. His younger brother Michael David Cummings was born on June 25, 1968, and is better known as Spider One, the frontman of alternative metal group Powerman 5000. White Zombie (1985–1998) Main article: White Zombie Based in New York, White Zombie was originally a noise rock band in the vein of fellow New York band Sonic Youth and Texas experimental punk band Butthole Surfers.
White Zombie was known for combining heavy-metal music with driving guitar riffs (as on “Super-Charger Heaven”), overlayed with lyrics heavily influenced by horror films and pseudo-Satanic imagery. Unlike other metal bands of the 1990s, White Zombie was almost exclusively a “fantasy” band, writing songs not about life but about the surreal. Following their signing to Geffen Records, White Zombie achieved commercial success, with a double and triple platinum album and a large number of their songs featured in movies and TV shows (notably Beavis and Butthead and Millennium).
The group officially disbanded in 1998 shortly after the release of lead singer Rob Zombie’s solo album Hellbilly Deluxe. In a 2008 interview[2] to promote the release of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, Rob Zombie made it clear that a reunion with his White Zombie bandmates was unlikely, saying, “I don’t want fans to think it’s the beginning of anything. ” Cummings legally changed his name to Rob Zombie, his former stage name, in 1996. [3] Solo career (1998–present) In 1996, Zombie collaborated with Alice Cooper on the song “Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn)” for the X-Files tie-in CD Songs in the Key of X.
It was Zombie’s first work outside of White Zombie. The song was nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance the same year. In 1997, Zombie contributed a song entitled “The Great American Nightmare” for the Howard Stern movie, Private Parts. Since January 6, 1999, it has been the opening theme for Stern’s radio show. Hellbilly Deluxe Zombie formed his own solo band in 1998. Drummer John Tempesta came directly from White Zombie, and was joined by Mike Riggs on guitar and Rob “Blasko” Nicholson on bass. They recorded and released Zombie’s debut solo album, Hellbilly Deluxe, in 1998, produced by Scott Humphrey.
The album was a success, selling three million copies domestically. This album contained the hit singles “Dragula”, “Living Dead Girl” and “Superbeast”. Zombie toured extensively to promote the album, then released American Made Music to Strip By in 1999, an album of remixes from Hellbilly Deluxe. The Sinister Urge Zombie released The Sinister Urge in 2001 (the title taken from a 1961 Ed Wood film), again produced by Scott Humphrey. This release contained the singles “Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)”, “Feel So Numb” and “Demon Speeding”.
While the album still featured Zombie’s signature heavy metal sound, it was also more experimental than Hellbilly Deluxe, including brass instruments on “(Go To) California. ” The album has been certified platinum. In 2003, Zombie released his first greatest hits album Past, Present & Future, containing hit songs both from his solo band and White Zombie. It also featured covers (The Commodores’ “Brick House” and The Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop”) and unreleased songs (“Two-Lane Blacktop” and “Girl on Fire”). After a 2002–2003 world tour, Mike Riggs and John Tempesta left Zombie to form a similar band, Scum of the Earth.
This put plans for another tour or new album on hold. Instead, between 2003 and 2005, Zombie directed and released two horror films, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. Educated Horses In 2005, Zombie returned to the music world by recruiting former Marilyn Manson guitarist, John 5, and former Alice Cooper drummer, Tommy Clufetos. Blasko and Humphrey remained, and the five began recording Educated Horses. Released in 2006, Educated Horses is a break from Zombie’s usual style. In contrast to the heavy metal sound of his first two albums, Horses features a more alternative metal sound.
The single “Foxy Foxy” can be described as his most mainstream and “party-going” song. The other two singles, “Let It All Bleed Out” and “American Witch”, featured his signature heavy metal sound. Also, for the first time, Zombie steered away from including horror references in the artwork and songs. Even his physical appearance is less of a persona (Zombie is dressed in regular clothes on the album cover, and his dreadlocks are gone). However, the songs “Seventeen Year Locust” and “The Scorpion Sleeps” do concern themselves with creepy-crawlies.
Following the release of the album, Zombie toured the U. S. with Lacuna Coil. 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection: The Best of Rob Zombie was also released in 2006 by his label, Geffen Records. It contains songs similar to his first greatest hits album, but there are also songs on this release from Educated Horses. On May 31, 2006, Zombie was joined onstage by guitarist Slash (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver), Gilby Clarke (formerly of Guns N’ Roses) on rhythm guitar, Scott Ian of Anthrax on bass, Tommy Lee of Motley Crue on drums and special guest Ace Frehley of Kiss also on lead guitar.
The occasion was a one-time supergroup tribute to Kiss for the first annual VH1 Rock Honors award show. They played one song, “God of Thunder,” before handing it off to the honoree. Zombie then went on tour with Ozzy Osbourne. Blasko, Zombie’s bass player, left the band shortly before the American Witch Tour (the second leg of the tour to promote Educated Horses), to play bass with Ozzy Osbourne. To fill in, Zombie hired Piggy D. of Amen and Wednesday 13 fame as a permanent replacement. In 2007 Zombie released Zombie Live, which was supposed to be accompanied by a live DVD and picture booklet.
So far, only the CD has surfaced. Hellbilly Deluxe 2 Zombie’s follow-up to Educated Horses was still unnamed as of May 2008. Zombie posted an update on his website, stating: “Well, we have for the first time ever written more songs than we need for an album. Everything isn’t 100% finished, but everything is moving along great. No release date yet. ” In August 2008, a new instrumental song entitled “Tyrannosaurus Rex”, featuring John 5 on guitar, was uploaded onto Zombie’s MySpace music page. In an interview published in December 2008, Zombie spoke about his new band lineup (John 5, Piggy D. and Tommy C), and how happy he was with his new band members, saying, “I’ve never had a band that I could call my good friends until now. [2] ” Meanwhile, also in December 2008, Zombie’s new single “War Zone” was featured in the soundtrack to Punisher: War Zone. Rob Zombie appeared on The Howard Stern Show on August 18, 2009, saying the new album was complete, although he had not yet set a title, and was scheduled for release on November 10. That release date would later move to November 17, according to his MySpace blog. Eventually, the release date would be pushed back to February 2010.
On October 3, Zombie posted a link to preview the track “Sick Bubblegum” on his Twitter page. The first single “What? ” was released on October 13. Zombie released the next new song, “Burn” for Rock Band, as well as two old tracks, “Dragula” and “Superbeast” on October 27. They are available via Xbox Live and PlayStation Network as well as the Rock Band online store. On October 29, 2009, Zombie began the Hellbilly Deluxe 2 World Tour in support of his album Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool, despite the fact it was not to be released until over three months later.
Zombie has commented that Hellbilly Deluxe 2 may be his last physical record release due to the growing popularity of iTunes and other methods of music downloading, but stated he will continue to make music. Hellbilly Deluxe 2 was set to be his last album released through Geffen Records, but in late October, Zombie announced that he had signed to Roadrunner Records and will instead be releasing Hellbilly Deluxe 2 under that label in early 2010. [4] On January 22, he announced that he would be touring with Alice Cooper for the “Gruesome Twosome” tour. Tommy Clufetos recently left the band to perform with Ozzy Osbourne on drums.
He replaced drummer Mike Bordin who is on tour with his current band Faith No More. Joey Jordison has since replaced Clufetos and was announced to be drumming with Zombie for his upcoming summer tour dates. [5] [6] Rob Zombie was bothered that Clufetos was the second member to leave his solo band and join Osbourne after bassist Rob “Blasko” Nicholson left in 2006. Zombie commented, “If my guys that I have wanna go play with other people, that’s fine; I don’t own them. But I think there’s ways to do things in a respectful way and there’s ways to just be shitty, and I feel that the way things have gone down lately has been pretty shitty. [7] Rob Zombie performed at Edgefest in Little Rock, Arkansas as the co-headliner along with Godsmack on May 8, 2010. He also played on the main stage on the second day of the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio on May 23. It was widely reported that much of the crowd left after his performance, despite the fact that Limp Bizkit was still scheduled to take the stage. [8][9] Rob Zombie finished recording four new songs in July 2010 with John 5, Piggy D, and Joey Jordison. The new music, expected to be released in September 2010, was described by Zombie as “some of the fastest and heaviest tracks we have recorded in a long, long time. [10] Former White Zombie member, and drummer for Rob Zombie’s first two studio albums, John Tempesta was rumored to have recorded at least one song titled “Loving the Freaks” for this release. [11] While Rob Zombie did confirm that this collaboration was planned, his schedule was too busy and these recording sessions never took place. Working with Tempesta again in the future was not ruled out. [12] These newly recorded tracks were incorporated into a special edition reissue of Hellbilly Deluxe 2 which was released on September 28, 2010. 13] For the first time in 12 years, Zombie will return to the United Kingdom to play a string of six dates in support of Hellbilly Deluxe 2. On March 4, 2011, Rob Zombie said that he would record a CD after he completes his upcoming film The Lords of Salem. Rob Zombie will embark on a North American tour with Slayer and Exodus called “Hell on Earth” tour starting July 20 and ending on August 6. On April 22, 2011 on Zombie’s official Twitter account, it was announced that his new drummer is ex-Marilyn Manson drummer and former John 5 bandmate, Ginger Fish.
Other projects Rob Zombie sung alongside his brother, Spider One, on Powerman 5000’s song “Blast Off to Nowhere” on their 1999 breakthrough album Tonight the Stars Revolt! [14] Zombie supplied the vocals for Drowning Pool’s song “Man Without Fear” for the soundtrack to the 2003 film Daredevil. Zombie is featured as a backing vocalist on “Floyd” from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 2009 album God & Guns. On May 23, 2010 Zombie’s new comic book series about a fictitious horror host, Whatever Happened To Baron Von Shock? , began. The first print sold out in less than a week. 15] On March 14, 2011, praising him for inventing the rock show, glam rock, and punk rock, Zombie inducted Alice Cooper into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Film career Rob Zombie attending the 2007 Comic Con to promote Halloween. House of 1000 Corpses was Rob Zombie’s directorial debut and his first horror film. Zombie wrote the screenplay as well as directing the film. It took four years to make (1999–2003), and was finally released by Lion’s Gate Films in 2003, after Stacy Snider, then-head of Universal Pictures, sold the film to them.
It featured a great deal of violence and gore. The movie told the tale of a group of unlucky teenagers who stumble upon the Firefly Family, a family of sadistic and vicious murderers. The film was shot in a surreal and over-the-top style that alternated between dark and campy humor. The film was mostly panned by critics but has gained a cult following. The House of 1000 Corpses’ sequel, The Devil’s Rejects, which Zombie also wrote and directed, showcased a much different style. Whereas House aimed at being more gory and bizarre, Rejects was darkly comedic and gritty.
Released in 2005, Rejects had the Firefly Family on the run from the law and a particularly vengeful sheriff whose brother had been murdered by them in the first film. It had a better critical reception than Corpses. Zombie contributed to the 2007 exploitation film Grindhouse, by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino by directing a faux trailer, called Werewolf Women of the S. S. , starring his wife, exploitation veterans Udo Kier and Sybil Danning, and Nicolas Cage, who appeared free for fun. Zombie next wrote and directed Halloween, a reimagining of the 1978 classic that was released August 31, 2007.
Although it was a success and opened at number #1 at the box office with $26 million, it registered only 26% at Rotten Tomatoes. [16] It would go on to gross over $78 million, his biggest hit yet and the highest grossing Halloween film of all time. Zombie is the executive producer of the animated film The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, based upon his comic book series, The Adventures of El Superbeasto (which appeared in his Spookshow International comic book). The film was released directly to DVD on September 22, 2009. It features the voices of Tom Papa, Paul Giamatti, Zombie’s wife Sheri Moon, and Rosario Dawson.
Zombie directed a sequel to Halloween entitled Halloween II, which was released on August 28, 2009. Filming began on February 23, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia with Tyler Mane returning as Michael Myers. [17] Zombie will next be directing a new movie for Dimension Films known as Rob Zombie’s Tyrannosaurus Rex. [18] In an interview at Comic Con 2009 with his younger brother Spider One of Powerman 5000, Zombie stated that his album would be released in October, followed by a tour. Variety Magazine announced the weekend before the release of Halloween II that Zombie will be directing a remake of the 1950s/1980s films The Blob. 19] Zombie will also create a new comic called “Whatever Happened to Baron Von Shock? “,[20] which will be released by Image Comics in late 2010. [21] On October 3, 2009 received the Filmmaker of the Year title of the Chiller-Eyegore Awards. [22] In December 2009 he announced an interest to direct an episode of CSI. [23] On January 13, 2010, Associated Press reported that Rob Zombie’s CSI: Miami episode will air March 1. [24] He shot the part of the series with the full cast of the series and casted for minor roles Michael Madsen, Malcolm McDowell, William Forsythe, ZZ Top’s leader Billy Gibbons and his wife, Sheri Moon Zombie. 25] Rob Zombie and Universal Studios presents the Halloween Horror Nights – Rob Zombie Film Competition as part of the Halloween Horror Nights 2010. [26] Rob Zombie also was a guest host on WWE Raw. [citation needed] On September 22, 2010, it was announced that Rob Zombie’s next film project would be entitled The Lords of Salem. [27] On February 21, 2011, he announced in an interview that he will start filming Tyrannosaurus Rex after he finishes Lords of Salem. [28] The remake of The Blob will no longer be directed by Zombie. [29] Rumors circulated that Zombie would direct The Dirt, a movie about Motley Crue.
However, on his Twitter page on March 4, 2011, Zombie explained that he will not be directing The Dirt. Instead, he said, “I am not. I am directing The Lords of Salem. [1] Recording a CD after that. ” Tyrannosaurus Rex is not a dead project, he explained in an interview: “It’ll happen eventually. I don’t have a deal for it, but that was supposed to be my movie I did after Halloween and then it never happened. For some reason in the last six months or so, everybody seems incredibly interested in it again. So the goal is to make that the next movie after The Lords of Salem.
I don’t know if it will be, because it’s such a weird business. But Tyrannosaurus Rex has always been my pet project that I’ve always wanted to make. It’s the movie I’ve been dying to make forever. ” Music video direction Rob has directed all of his own music videos as well as all White Zombie music videos except for “Welcome to Planet Motherfucker”, “Black Sunshine” and “Thunderkiss ’65”. Zombie has contributed to other artists directing music videos such as Ozzy Osbourne’s “Dreamer”, Powerman 5000’s “Tokyo Vigilante #1” and Black Label Society’s “Stillborn” among others.
As a guest Rob Zombie has appeared as a guest on several talk shows including Late Night with David Letterman (several times), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (twice), Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Howard Stern Show, The Opie and Anthony Show, That Metal Show, The Nerdist Podcast, Criss Angel: Mindfreak (2005 episode “Buried Alive”) and even Space Ghost Coast to Coast (while he was in White Zombie). Zombie also made a few guest appearances in movies, including Airheads (with White Zombie on stage playing “Feed the Gods”) and the voice of Dr.
Karl (on the phone) in the movie Slither. He did a few voiceovers for cartoons such as the voice of Ichthultu, a creature from an alternate universe in Justice League Unlimited and Dr. Curt Connors (“The Lizard”) in Spider-Man: The New Animated Series. Rob Zombie appeared as the guest host for the June 28th edition of WWE Monday Night RAW. Zombie supplied music for the Twisted Metal III and Twisted Metal 4 soundtracks, and even appeared as a playable character in Twisted Metal 4. Zombie’s song “Dragula” was used in the Jet Grind Radio soundtrack.
Rob Zombie was the celebrity guest on the Oct 31, 2010 (Halloween Special) episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Personal life On Halloween day of 2002, Zombie married longtime girlfriend Sheri Moon, whom he also frequently features in all of his horror films. They currently live in Woodbury, Connecticut and Los Angeles, California. [citation needed] Zombie is also an avid ice hockey fan, specifically of the Los Angeles Kings. Zombie is very close friends with his hero Alice Cooper with Cooper saying “Rob could be my younger brother”. over the years they have collabarated so far as to joining a tour together.
