Robert Bartleh Cummings (born January 12, 1965),
better known by his
stage name,
Rob Zombie, is a
Grammy-nominated American
musician,
film
director,
screenwriter and
film producer. He founded the
metal band
White
Zombie.
He
currently lives in Woodbury, Connecticut
. He married longtime girlfriend
Sheri Moon in 2002, whom he also frequently
features in his horror films. 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
Tyrannosaurus Rex.
He is the brother of
Spider One (Michael
David Cummings), lead singer for
Powerman
5000.
Recording career
White Zombie (1985–1998)
White Zombie was an American
rock band named after the 1932 horror film
White Zombie, which
starred
Bela Lugosi.
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."
Solo career (1998–present)
In 1996, Zombie collaborated with
Alice
Cooper on the song "
Hands of Death " 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.
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.
Episode footage of the drag race was included in
House of 1,000 Corpses. White
Zombie dissolved after the release of
Hellbilly Deluxe.
Zombie toured extensively to promote the debut album, releasing
American Made Music
to Strip By in 1999, an album of remixes from
Hellbilly Deluxe. Zombie next 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 ",
"
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 released two
self-directed horror films,
House of 1000 Corpses and
The Devil's
Rejects.
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, which was
released in 2006. Stylistically,
Educated Horses is
Zombie's most experimental release. 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. It was also his 1st album to not contain heavy amounts
of horror—either in the artwork, songs, or even his physical
appearance (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" featured song topics of
creepy-crawlies. Following the release of the album he 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. In 2007 Zombie released his
first Live CD, which was supposed to be accompanied by a live DVD
& picture booklet. So far, only the CD has surfaced. Blasko,
Zombie's bass player, left the band after the Educated Horses Tour,
shortly before the American Witch Tour (The 2nd leg of the tour),
to play bass with
Ozzy Osbourne. To
fill in, Zombie hired
Piggy D. of
Amen and
Wednesday
13 fame as a permanent replacement.
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.
Zombie has also started work on a currently untitled follow-up to
2006's Educated Horses. In May 2008 he 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."
Zombie has his own official
Youtube channel,
which he created on 12 December 2005. He has two "blog" videos
explaining his tours and another one wishing his fans a happy
Halloween. On the latter video, Zombie
recommends Halloween horror videos to his fans. Rob Zombie recently
released a new single entitled "
War Zone"
from the
Punisher: War
Zone soundtrack. The song entitled "The Great American
Nightmare" is the opening theme for the
Howard Stern Show on
Sirius Satellite Radio. Rob Zombie's
new album is rumored to be released in 2009. Piggy D. stated on a
Metal Messiah Radio interview with DJ Lovely Laura that the band
had been working on material since February 2008 and the album had
been finished since late December 2008 with no release date
yet.
John 5 gave an interview to http://www.artisannews.com/ on May 28,
2009 about the new album saying, "It's finished. We do not have a
title but it is finished and mixed. Not mastered but it is
unbelievable. He says and people say it's his best work. So, I love
it." He also stated that it should be out sometime later in the
year. Rumored song titles (from MTV.com) are "Jesus Frankenstein"
and "Sick Bubblegum".
Rob Zombie appeared on "
The Howard
Stern Show" on August 18, 2009 saying the new album is
complete, although he has not yet set a title, and scheduled for
release on November 10.
Zombie recently commented on his Twitter saying, "New album is
mastered and ready to go! Tour dates coming soon!"
Zombie is featured as a backing vocalist on the upcoming
Lynyrd Skynyrd album
God & Guns for the song "Floyd".
Rob Zombie
performed on day two at Japan
's Loudpark Festival on October 2009 along
with Megadeth, Judas Priest, Slayer,
Anthrax, Dokken, Lynch Mob, Arch Enemy, Children
of Bodom, Anvil, Regurgitation, plus many others groups for the two-day
event. He is listed on the Loudpark Festival website (
Loudpark.com). Rob has not performed in Japan for
fifteen years, with that in mind, Rob added two additional venue
dates in Tokyo and Osaka on October 15 and 16 2009.
Starting Oct. 29th, Zombie will headline the "Hellbilly Deluxe 2
Tour" in support of his new album "
Hellbilly
Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic
Dehumanization of Cool" set for a November 17 release as said
so in his MySpace blog.
On October 1, Zombie announced that his first single will be
"What?".
On October 3, Zombie posted a link to preview the track, "Sick
Bubble-Gum" on his Twitter page.
The new single "What?" was released on October 13.
News of the upcoming album reveals that Hellbilly Deluxe 2 has been
pushed to an undetermined 2010 date. There is supposed to be a "big
announcement" coming soon. Rumour has it that Hellbilly Deluxe 2
may be Zombie's last record because of his belief that CD's will
soon become obsolete and due to the fact that this is the last
album he is obligated by Geffen records to release.
Zombie will release the next new song, "Burn" for
Rock Band, as well as two old tracks,
"
Dragula" and "
Superbeast" on October 27. They will be available
via Xbox Live and PlayStation Network as well as the Rock Band
Store.
Zombie announced that he has signed on to
Roadrunner Records and will be instead
releasing Hellbilly Deluxe 2 under that label in early 2010
Rob has announced on an interview radio DJ "Duece" with radio
station WRZX (X103)in Indianapolis, Indiana that his new album has
been set to a February 2 release date.
Film and television
Film career
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 had its share of
fans.
The
House of 1000 Corpses' sequel,
The Devil's Rejects, which Zombie
also wrote and directed, showcased a much different style. Whereas
House was at times comedic and bizarre,
Rejects
was darker, more serious and grittier. 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 higher 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 27% 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 forthcoming 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 is due for a
2009 release. It features 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. The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is
officially announced with a Sept. 22nd release date. 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?'
[58591]
On 3 October 2009 received the Filmmaker of the Year title of the
Chiller-Eyegore Awards.
TV host
On Friday, October 13, 2006, Zombie became the host of
TCM Underground on the
Turner Classic Movies channel. It
premiered with the screening of a double feature of
Ed Wood's
Plan 9 From Outer Space and
Bride of the Monster.
Until January 2007, Zombie hosted a different double bill every
Friday night at two in the morning. He also hosted Fearfest '08 for
AMC, counting down eight
horror films before and during
Halloween.
Music video direction
As a guest
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,
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 Ichthulthu, a creature from an
alternate universe in
Justice
League Unlimited. He also voices
Dr.
Curt Connors a.k.a. the Lizard in
Spider-Man: The New Animated
Series.
Filmography
Discography
with White Zombie
Solo
Guest work
Solo band members
- Current lineup
- Rob Zombie – lead vocals (1997–present)
- John 5 – guitars, backing
vocals (2005–present)
- Piggy D. – bass, backing
vocals (2006–present)
- Tommy Clufetos – drums,
percussion (2005–present)
- Previous members
References
[58592]
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