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Rob Zombie/White Zombie
Rob Zombie’s music and lyrics are notable for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live shows have been praised for their elaborate Shock Rock theatricality. So it’s not surprising that he has sold an estimated 15 million albums worldwide. Here’s the story…
2024: Rob Zombie, along with Alice Cooper, launched the ‘Freaks On Parade” North American tour. The 21-date trek also included Industro-Rock acts Ministry and Filter in support.
2022: “The Munsters,” a film adaptation of the ’60’s television series was produced, written, and directed by Zombie, a lifelong fan of the show. The film premiered on Netflix and grossed $1,470,601 in home video sales.
2021: “The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy” marked Rob Zombie’s first new album in nearly five years. The extended break was due to the production of his movie “3 From Hell.”
2016: Produced by Chris ‘Zeuss’ Harris, “The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser” featured guitarist John 5 and drummer Ginger Fish (both Marilyn Manson vets). Selling 41,000 equivalent album units (including downloads) in its first week, the set debuted at #6 on the Billboard 200.
2015: Rob Zombie released “Spookshow International Live,” a 19-song set with a mix of solo Zombie and White Zombie tracks.
2013: Studio album “Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor” dropped containing a cover of Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re An American Band.” “I think for the first time this new album perfectly merges the old days of White Zombie with the future of what I am doing now,” said Zombie. The lead single was “Dead City Radio And The New Gods Of Super Town.”
2010: Zombie returned to his first love, comics. He announced Zombie Presents: Whatever Happened To Baron Von Shock?, with the first issue being a collaboration between Zombie and comic artists Donny Hadiwidjaja and Val Staples. “This comic venture is very, very different in tone for me,” wrote Zombie on his MySpace page. “. . . I wanted to create something that works more on a slice of life human level.” There was also a joint Zombie/Alice Cooper tour in the works. 2009: Never one to miss the most important holiday of the year – Halloween – Zombie kicked off his “Hellbilly Deluxe 2” tour (named after the album) in Phoenix, AZ, two days before Halloween. It was the first time he’d hit the road under the “Hellbilly” moniker since the original “Hellbilly Deluxe” trek in ‘98.2009: “Rob Zombie’s Halloween II” was in theaters. But he lost a promo battle. The trailer he crafted was rejected by the studio (it later surfaced online). “[I] spent forever trying to craft something special and they’re gonna market it like a generic piece of ’80s slasher-movie s**t,” complained Zombie.2007: Zombie wrote, directed and produced the remake/reworking of “Halloween,” the ’78 horror classic. Fellow horror director John Carpenter advised Zombie to “make [the film] his own.” Zombie wisely heeded that advice adding original scenes. Critics panned the $15-million film but it grossed more than $80 million worldwide.2007: “Zombie Live,” a concert album (makes sense), was unfurled. The 18-track set was recorded during the ’06 “Educated Horses” tour.2006: Zombie’s “Educated Horses” with “Foxy Foxy” and “The Devil’s Rejects” was issued.2005: Zombie directed “The Devil’s Rejects.” His script was a tale of murder, mayhem and revenge. Perfect “date movie.” It was the sequel to “House Of 1,000 Corpses.”2003: The horror flick “House Of 1,000 Corpses” was released. Many of the film’s characters were named after ones used by Groucho Marx. It was a simple tale of life in the Texas backwoods – inhabited by a sadistic backwater family of serial killers. There goes the neighborhood.2003: White Zombie/Rob Zombie compilation album “Past, Present & Future” was released. It included new and unreleased material.2001: Zombie’s “Sinister Urge” arrived in stores containing “Never Gonna Stop” and “Feel So Numb.”
Never Gonna Stop
Feel So Numb
1998: The morbidly funny single “Living Dead Girl” was from Zombie’s “Hellbilly Deluxe” LP. The album, his first post-White Zombie effort, was a mega-seller. The set also contained “Thunder Kiss ’65.”
Living Dead Girl
Thunder Kiss ’65
1996: “Astro-Creep 2000: Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions Of The Electric Head” was unleashed. White Zombie performed “More Human Than Human” at the MTV Music Awards. They walked off with the Best Hard Rock Video award and also appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman.1993: White Zombie made their major label debut on Geffen Records with “La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. I.” The title pretty much covered it. Beavis and Butt-head got behind White Zombie and later in the year, “I’m In Hell” appeared on “The Beavis and Butt-head Experience” CD.1989: Caroline Records signed White Zombie and released their first full-length CD “Soul Crusher” with John Rucci on guitar. Playing hard core primal Rock earned White Zombie a loyal underground cult following. This happened approximately two years after White Zombie’s debut EP “Psycho Head Blowout” was released on Silent Explosion Records.
Zombie Trivia
Trivia I: The name White Zombie is from a Bela Lugosi horror movie.
Trivia II: Rob Zombie (born Rob Cummings on January 12th, 1966, in Haverhill, MA) is an avid comic book collector. Well, of course.
Trivia III: In ’96, a Baptist minister, fearing satanic messages, got Johnson City, TN, to ban White Zombie. It would have been some show.
Trivia IV: When Barbra Streisand got married (again) in ’95 White Zombie music (“Thunder Kiss ’65”) was blasted at the paparazzi (photographers) to keep them at bay.
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