Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie (born Rob Cummings on January 12, 1966 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA) is a solo singer and formerly the lead singer of the heavy metal group, White Zombie. With his dreadlocks, gruff vocal style and fascination with B-movies, he has become a distinctive element in American heavy metal. He is probably best known as founder, lead singer and songwriter for White Zombie, as well as being a solo artist in his own right. However, in recent years he began directing movies and videos, including his debut horror exploitation feature, House of 1000 Corpses, and its sequel, The Devil's Rejects, released July 22nd, 2005.

Formation of White Zombie

Zombie, still known at this time as Cummings, supported himself through a mixture of jobs, including working as a cycle courier. Most famously he was a production assistant on Pee-wee's Playhouse, but he also worked as a designer on pornographic magazines. In this time, he became involved with Shauna Reynolds, another up-and-coming designer. Together they shared a love of classic horror and sci-fi, heavy music and the weirder corners of American underground culture. They finally decided to form a band that would draw upon all these influences and so White Zombie was formed. Named after the classic Bela Lugosi black-and-white shocker White Zombie, it combined the theatrics of goth-metal acts like Glenn Danzig with the loose, loud groove of Red Hot Chili Peppers and the greaser biker image of Cummings and Reynolds. There were two slight problems – namely that neither Cummings nor Reynolds was a musician. They split duties between them – Rob took vocals and the name Rob Zombie, while Reynolds became the bassist and was known as Sean Yseult. They were to be the only constants in the often-fluctuating band line-up.

Related Topics:
Pee-wee's Playhouse - White Zombie - Bela Lugosi - White Zombie - Glenn Danzig - Red Hot Chili Peppers

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White Zombie achieved a cult status in New York. With the line-up of Zombie (at this time sometimes credited as Rob Straker), guitarist Tom Guay, bassist Yseult and drummer Ivan de Prume, they released three EPs through indie label Silent Explosion – 1985’s Gods on Voodoo Moon, 1986’s Pig Heaven and 1987’s Psycho-Head Blowout. In 1987, they released their debut album Soul-Crusher through Silent Explosion, re-releasing it the following year through punk label Caroline: importantly, this saw the first regular use of the name Rob Zombie. 1989 saw the release of their follow-up album, Make Them Die Slowly, again through Caroline, but with John Ricci replacing Guay. Both of these albums have since been deleted. This was followed by God of Thunder ep, the first release with Jay Noel Yuenger, aka J, taking over guitar duties from Ricci. It was this line-up – Zombie, Yuenger, Yseult and Prume – that finally attracted major label attention and was signed to Geffen. However, there was little doubt that, as sole lyricist and designer of all the band's art work, Rob was the prime force behind the band.

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