Rob Zombie was born Robert Bartleh Cummings in Massachusetts today in 1965. Rob is the son of Carnies, traveling carnival workers. He is a huge comic book and horror movie fan who idolized Bela Legosi, Stan Lee and Alice Cooper, and he's best known as the singer for White Zombie.
Equal parts comic books, metal, 70s kitsch and monster movies, White Zombie came to life in 1992 with the release of their major label debut “La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One”. Much like an actual zombie, the band had been shuffling about lifelessly long before that.
White Zombie, named after a Bela Legosi movie of the same name, is Rob Zombie. That is not to diminish the contributions of others but the band would not have survived without anyone but him at the helm. He was the jolt of lightning that resurrected Frankenstein’s monster. Without the jolt you have some very nice parts but that’s about all you have.
In 1985 Rob was in art school in New York City and his girlfriend, Sean Yseult, was a keyboardist in a local band. Rob taught her to play bass, recruited a drummer and started the band White Zombie. The same year they released a punk EP titled “Gods on Voodoo Moon”. Their noise punk sound would quickly evolve through a succession of EPs as well as their first album “Soul Crusher” in 1987.
“Soul Crusher” marked the start of White Zombie’s practice of mixing audio clips of old horror movies and TV shows into their music. 1989 saw White Zombie release their second album, “Make Them Die Slowly”. The band had moved from their punk roots to the melodic groove metal we know them for now.
At this point the band’s guitarist left due to health problems and was replaced by a guitarist by the name of J. White Zombie’s sound would evolve again due to the superior guitar playing that J. brought. The band released another EP in 1989, “God of Thunder”, which contained a cover of the KISS song of the same name.
None of White Zombie’s work up to this point had been particularly successful. That would change once a Geffen records promoter heard “God of Thunder”. White Zombie signed with Geffen and finally had the resources of a solid label to work with.
The result was the 1992 breakthrough album “La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One”. The album was a perfect combination of all of Rob Zombie’s fetishes, quirks and strengths. Deftly mixing head-nodding, groove riffs bordering on funk with a distorted layering of lyrics, Zombie sprinkled in the right mix of horror movie quotes and jive talking 70s movie quips to create a 90s metal masterpiece. Singles like “Thunderkiss ‘65” and “Black Sunshine” captured the attention of the Beavis and Butthead generation.
White Zombie went from an unheard of band to MTV darling overnight. The success was earned over years but the recognition was instantaneous. White Zombie started touring with Pantera and Megadeth and then graduated to headlining shows of their own. “La Sexorcisto” reached #26 on the charts and went platinum.
White Zombie brought in former Exodus and Testament drummer John Tempesta for the 1995 album “Astro Creep: 2000”. This album also went platinum and reached #6 on the chart. “Astro Creep” was the final proper album for the band though they did release some remixes.
Rob Zombie has continued as a solo artist and his first solo album, “Hellbilly Deluxe” spawned well known songs like “Dragula” and “Living Dead Girl”, and sold over three million copies. He has gone on to release five more albums, all of which debuted in the top ten. Rob has also directed successful horror movies of his own, including “House of 1,000 Corpses” and “The Devil’s Rejects” along with a remake of the classic “Halloween” and several other films.
Repurposed from an old Sunday Metal Shop episode: http://www.elevenwarriors.com/forum/anything-else/2015/11/62501/sunday-m...
