Foundations April 1995
All Hail The Zombie King!!!
by Michael Moses
An Interview With Rob Zombie

What A Difference One Album Can Make.

After ten years and five releases of being looked upon as nothing more than Lower East Side mutant scum, the members of White Zombie are now hailed as brilliant psychedelic freaks. The change in perception came with the discordant racket of last album La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume 1, a fire-breathing, acid-farting, colossal groove of a record that combined b-horror camp with hard rock chutz-pah. Thanks to the success of singles like "Thunder Kiss '65" and "Black Sunshine" and non-stop touring (not to mention a little help from cartoon retards Beavis and Butthead), the album wound up going double platinum. From there, the band contributed to various compilation albums (the Airheads soundtrack, the Nativity in Black: A Tribute To Black Sabbath record and the Beavis and Butthead album), got nominated for a Grammy, moved to L.A., started their own comic book (through Marvel Comics) and got a new drummer (former Testament/Exodus stickman John Tempesta). Not bad - especially when you consider that it wasn't all that long ago that the band was broke and practically homeless, struggling to scrape together a few bucks just to buy guitar strings and food (in that order). This month sees them releasing the new album Astro-Creep: 2000, Songs of Love, Destruction, and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head, a record that blends the ear-bleeding crunch of overamped guitars with the mechanized electrobeats of dance floor techno - in other words, "What if Trent Reznor joined Black Sabbath?"

"I hated the way our last record sounded," mumbles band vocalist and brains Rob Zombie. "I'm really sick of albums that are just guitar, bass and drums. They're so fuckin' boring. I wanted to bring more sounds in on this album; I wanted to experiment." And although it took them a few records, White Zombie have finally carved a niche all their own: industrial go-go music.

MM: A friend of mine heard the album and said it made her want to "dance in a cage."
RZ: That's cool. I think.

There's a lot happening on the record - how are you going to pull it off live?
I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Right now I'm not worried about it.

What's going on with your Marvel comic? I heard you were working with (artist) Simon Bisley.
Well, we started working on a book, but it kind of got put on the back burner for awhile because of the record. It'll come out sometime.

Were you a big comic collector as a kid?
Oh yeah, definitely. I still buy stuff now, but not quite as much as I did back then.

What are you buying now?
These days I'm going back and buying old stuff that I missed or couldn't afford back then. There's not much new stuff that I really like.

Are you doing anything special for the album art?
The CD booklet is pretty elaborate - it's like 16 pages, full color, with different illustrations for each song, and there's tons of photos.

Did you do all the illustrations yourself?
Yeah. It should definitely keep people pretty busy for awhile.

I remember the days when looking at the artwork of a KISS album was almost as much fun as listening to the music.
Oh, definitely. These days it takes bands three or four years to make a record and then when it finally comes out, there's not a fucking thing inside of it. And you're looking at it, saying, "I waited four years for this?" It's ridiculous. I always try to make things that I would want to see, assuming that's what someone else wants to see. I think most bands these days don't really care - they just pump it out.

I know you went to art school as a kid - was there ever a toss up between a career in art and a career in music?
I never conciously made a career choice. I always did both and then worked some crappy jobs to make money. You can't really choose being in a band as a career choice. You can just do it and maybe it'll happen and maybe it won't. I was working as a bike messenger and I had a band and one just kind of happened.

I read somewhere that you used to do layouts for a porn magazine.
Yeah, I did that for awhile. It was this company that put out a whole bunch of magazines - really lame, cheesy ones. I can't even remember the names of them.

What was it like working at Pee-Wee's Playhouse?
It was one of those jobs that sounds was cooler than it actually is.

Did you ever catch Pee Wee masturbating?
No. He didn't do much except wander around. He showed up the first day with long hair and a beard and no one knew who the fuck he was. It was pretty funny.

I know you grew up listening to KISS and Alice Cooper - was there ever a desire to create an alter ego a la Alice? I'm talking about going beyond the name change from Rob Cummings to Rob Zombie - but rather doing something along the lines of what Bowie did with Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane.
No, I don't look at it that way. It's just me. This is what I'm always like.

What was it like presenting Alice Cooper with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Forum? Was that your first time meeting him?
Yeah. I had gone to a special radio broadcast he did at Electric Ladyland like four or five years ago, but it wasn't until recently that I got a chance to really talk to him. He was really cool - he turned out to be exactly what I thought he'd be like.

Have you gotten to meet any of your other heroes?
As far as musical heroes go, most of the people I really like are dead or senile. The few current ones like Alice Cooper and Gene Simmons have both been cool.

What about the rumor that you had a problem with Simmons back when you did the God of Thunder EP for Caroline?
No, we never did. Someone just made up a story and everyone believed it.

What do you think about that high school student who was arrested after wearing a White Zombie t-shirt?
Whatever. It's pretty silly. High school sucks, obviously (laughs).

Are you guys confirmed for Lollapalooza?
No, that's just... an option.

Is it something you'd like to do?
It all depends on who else is on the tour. If it's a bunch of bands I hate, then it isn't going to be fun, it's going to be torture.

What are you listening to these days?
Nothing.

Nothing?
I can't thing of anything current I'm listening to.

Okay, so what are you listening to that's not current?
Well, the newest record I just bought is this German release of three Russ Meyer movie soundtracks: "Ultra Vixen," "Super Vixen," stuff like that. I don't pay attention to a lot of the current music.

What do you listen to when you're on the tour bus?
A lot of boxed sets like Elvis and Sinatra.

One thing I've always heard from day one is that we're a bunch of junkies and that's just so fucking stupid. Maybe it's because we're so skinny (laughs) or something. I don't know. That always cracks me up.

Does it piss you off that people still think Beavis & Butthead broke the band?
I could care less what people think.

Do you ever watch the show?
Sometimes. I think it's funny.

How has your life changed since the success of La Sexorcisto?
It hasn't really changed at all.

No? Not even financially?
Well, there's not really a lot of money to be made at this point...unfortunately. It took a long time for the record to break and we were pretty far in debt by the time it did. There was a lot of money to pay off. People don't understand how many different people are getting paid off that same amount of money - you're paying your road crew, your managers and all these other people. But it's cool. I'm stable and that's all I ever wanted.

What was your initial reaction when you were told you were being nominated for a Grammy?
That we would lose.

(Laughs) What did your parents say when you told them?
I don't remember telling them.

What's the biggest misconception about success?
(Pause) I think people who want to be successful just for the sake of it never do.

What has the success of the last two years taught you about yourself?
Nothing.

Again with the "nothing"...
Well, I don't really get caught up in that crap. I don't sit back and go "Wow! We sold a million records!" I'm always busy working on something else.

Yeah, but isn't it hard to downplay that when you're on the cover of several major magazines and playing to thousands of kids every night who are screaming your name? You don't sit back and smile to yourself when you're alone and say "That is pretty cool?"
I wish I could. I'm just not that type of person. I'm the type of person who goes "Fuck! I wish that show was better." I'm always worrying about the next thing. I've never been able to sit back and enjoy the moment. Maybe I can when I'm sixty.

Why - are you worried that you could wake up tomorrow and it could all be gone?
No, 'cause I'll just do something else. It's not like this all fell out of the sky, y'know? It was a lot of work and I realize how it happened. I would just work really hard at something else.

How do you react to the hero worship?
I kind of understand where people are coming from. I'm the same way - I get excited and ask for autographs, too. I don't mind it, that's just the way it goes.

Do you really prefer living in LA as opposed to New York?
I'm not big on being surrounded by a lot of people and New York is just too intense in that way. LA is more spread out, and here you can get away from people.

Were you intimidated by the city when you first moved here from Boston?
No. New York is one of those places that gets more intimidating the longer you've been there because you understand it all. When you first get there you're real naive and stupid and you just walk around at all hours of the night and you don't pay attention to anything. Once you figure it all out, it gets a little weirder.

Do you ever look ahead to a post-Zombie day when you'll want to leave this behind and do something else?
Oh yeah. Definitely.

And do what? Films?
After this tour is done, that's what I want to concentrate on for awhile. I'm already working on a couple of things.

Directing or starring?
Definitely behind the camera. I don't care about being in front of the camera.

Have you worked on any of the Zombie videos?
The new one is the first one that I've completely directed.

Is there a concept to it?
It's hard to explain. I have footage from the '60s of me as a little kid mixed in with new and old footage and it's almost like an explanation of it all.

What do you think your songs say about you?
(Long pause) I don't know if they conciously say anything. I don't know if they make sense to anybody to tell you the truth (laughs).

Are you guys doing anything special for your ten year anniversary?
Nah. (Pause) Who cares?