| Background | solo_singer |
|---|
| Birth name | Robert Bartleh Cummings |
|---|
| Also known as | Mr. Zombie |
|---|
| Born | January 12, 1965Haverhill, Massachusetts, United States |
|---|
| Instrument | Vocals |
|---|
| Genre | Heavy metal, alternative metal, groove metal, industrial metal, horror punk |
|---|
| Occupation | Musician, songwriter, screenwriter, film director, film producer |
|---|
| Years active | 1985–present |
|---|
| Spouse | Sheri Moon |
|---|
| Label | Roadrunner Records/Loud & Proud |
|---|
| Associated acts | White ZombieScum of the EarthPowerman 5000Slipknot |
|---|
| Url | www.robzombie.com |
|---|
Rob Zombie (born Robert Bartleh Cummings; January 12, 1965) is a 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.
Personal life
Born
Robert Bartleh Cummings in
Haverhill, Massachusetts, he was the first of two sons. His younger brother Michael David Cummings was born on August 25, 1968, and is better known as
Spider One the frontman of
alternative metal group
Powerman 5000. Zombie married longtime girlfriend
Sheri Moon in 2002, whom he also frequently features in his horror films. He currently lives in
Woodbury, Connecticut and
Los Angeles, California. Rob Zombie has been a vegetarian for ethical reasons since viewing a video documenting slaughterhouse conditions while in high school in 1982.
Recording career
White Zombie (1985–1998)
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 two double platinum albums and a large number of their songs featured in movies and TV shows (notably
Beavis and Butthead). The group officially disbanded in 1998 shortly after the release of lead singer Rob Zombie's solo album
Hellbilly Deluxe. In a 2008 interview to promote the release of
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, Rob Zombie made it clear that a reunion with his White Zombie band mates was unlikely, saying, "I don't want fans to think it's the beginning of anything." Zombie legally changed his name to Rob Zombie, his former stage name, in 1996.
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 his band 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.
John Tempesta (drums) came directly from
White Zombie, and was joined by
Mike Riggs on guitar and
Blasko (Rob 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". The
Dragula title was inspired by the '60s TV series
The Munsters; the
DRAG-U-LA was a dragster built from a coffin driven by Grandpa.
White Zombie dissolved after the release of Hellbilly Deluxe. 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 film by
Edward D. Wood), 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, such as including
brass instruments on "(Go to) California." The album has been certified platinum.
Zombie released his first greatest-hits album Past, Present & Future, in 2003, 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 2 albums, this one has a more
alternative metal sound to it. The single "
Foxy Foxy" can be described as his most "party-going" song. The other 2 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 1st greatest-hits album, but there are also songs on this release from Educated Horses.
On May 31, 2006, Zombie was joined 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 Mötley Crüe 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 & 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.
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.
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."
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.
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." 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. 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. These newly recorded tracks were incorporated into a special edition reissue of Hellbilly Deluxe 2 which was released on September 28, 2010.
For the first time in 12 years, Zombie will return to the United Kingdom to play a string of six dates in support of the album Hellbilly Deluxe 2.
Other projects
Zombie is featured as a backing vocalist on the
Lynyrd Skynyrd album
God & Guns for the song "Floyd".
Zombie supplied the vocals for Drowning Pool's song "Man Without Fear" for the soundtrack to the 2003 film "Daredevil" starring Ben Affleck.
Rob Zombie also lent his vocals to the Powerman 5000 song "Blast Off to Nowhere" on their 1999 breakthrough album Tonight the Stars Revolt!, singing along side his brother Spider One (who is the front man of Powerman 5000).
On May 23, 2010 Rob released part 1 of a comic book series about a fictitious Horror Host titled "Whatever Happened To Baron Von Shock?", the first print sold out in less than a week's time.
Film and television
Film career
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. It would go on to gross over $78 million, his biggest hit yet and the highest grossing "Halloween" film of all time (when not adjusted for inflation).
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 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. Zombie will next be directing a new movie for Dimension Films known as Rob Zombie's Tyrannosaurus Rex. 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 with a tour following.
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". Zombie will also create a new comic called 'Whatever Happened to Baron Von Shock?', which will be released over Image Comics in late 2010.
On October 3, 2009 received the Filmmaker of the Year title of the Chiller-Eyegore Awards.
In December 2009 he announced an interest to direct an episode of CSI.
On January 13, 2010, Associated Press reported, Rob Zombie's "CSI: Miami" episode will air March 1. 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.
Rob Zombie and Universal Studios presents the Halloween Horror Nights – Rob Zombie Film Competition as part of the Halloween Horror Nights 2010.
Rob Zombie Also Was A Guest Host on WWE Raw.
On September 22, 2010, it was announced that Rob Zombie's next film project would be entitled "Lords of Salem."
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's been 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, (Buried Alive episode) and even
Space Ghost Coast to Coast (while he was in White Zombie).
Zombie also made a few guest appearances in movies: such as 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. He also voices Dr. Curt Connors a.k.a. the Lizard in . Rob Zombie appeared as the guest host for the June 28th edition of WWE Monday Night RAW.
Zombie supplied music for the soundtracks of Twisted Metal III and Twisted Metal 4, and even appeared as a playable character in Twisted Metal 4. Dragula was used in Jet Grind Radio soundtrack.
Rob Zombie was the celebrity guest on the Oct 31, 2010 (Halloween Special) episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
Collaborations
Rob Zombie had casted certain actors in more than one of his films.
Filmography
;Feature-length films
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
The Devil's Rejects (2005)
Halloween (2007)
Halloween II (2009)
Lords of Salem (2011)
Tyrannosaurus Rex (TBA)
;Animated films
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009)
;TV work
Pee-wee's Playhouse (production assistant, unknown episodes)
Headbangers Ball (guest, numerous episodes)
Space Ghost Coast to Coast (guest, 1 episode, 1997)
(director, 1 episode, 2010)
Monday Night Raw (Raw Guest Host, 1 episode, 2010)
Extreme Makeover Home Edition (Guest, Season 8 - Episode 6, 2010)
;Other
as himself (interview)
Discography
with White Zombie
Soul-Crusher (1987)
Make Them Die Slowly (1989)
(1992)
(1995)
Solo
Hellbilly Deluxe (1998)
The Sinister Urge (2001)
Educated Horses (2006)
Hellbilly Deluxe 2 (2010)
Solo band members
;Current
Rob Zombie – vocals (1997–current)
John 5 – guitar, vocals (2005–current)
Piggy D. – bass guitar, vocals (2006–current)
Joey Jordison – drums, percussion (2010–current)
;Former
Mike Riggs – guitars, vocals (1997–2003)
John Tempesta – drums, percussion, vocals (1997–2004)
Blasko – bass guitar, vocals (1997–2006)
Tommy Clufetos – drums, percussion (2005–2010)
References
External links
interview with X103 (pt. 1)
Zombie FAQ, a Rob Zombie/White Zombie FAQ site
Piggy D on Maximum Threshold Radio Show
Rob Zombie at FEARnet
Rob Zombie Icons of Fright interview
Rob Zombie interview for Bakotopia magazine
Rob Zombie interview for MarsDust.com
Rob Zombie talks about new album set for Nov 2009
Rob Zombie and Sheri Moon Zombie interview on RadioPlanet.tv, Sept '09
Rob Zombie Interview in Real Detroit Weekly
Category:1965 births
Category:1980s singers
Category:1990s singers
Category:2000s singers
Category:2010s singers
Category:American film directors
Category:American heavy metal singers
Category:American male singers
Category:American music video directors
Category:American vegetarians
Category:Living people
Category:Musicians from Massachusetts
Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts
Category:People from Essex County, Massachusetts
Category:People from Haverhill, Massachusetts
Category:Pratt Institute alumni
Category:Rob Zombie
Category:Rob Zombie members
Category:White Zombie members
Category:Horror film directors
Category:American baritones
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