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.

Solo Artist

In 1998, Rob Zombie pushed beyond the confines of the band environment. First, he founded his own label, Zombie-A-Go-Go, signing surf and horror acts like The Bomboras and The Ghastly Ones, as well as compiling the mix album Halloween Hootenany. He was managing the new band of his brother Michael, now known as Spider, the punk-tinged Powerman 5000, but also looked to his own career.

Related Topics:
The Bomboras - The Ghastly Ones - Powerman 5000

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For his first solo project, Zombie entered into a close working relationship with producer Scott Humphrey, co-writing the music with him. John Tempesta came straight from White Zombie, and was joined by Riggs on guitar and Blasko on bass. The resultant album, Hellbilly Deluxe: 13 Tales of Cadaverous Cavorting Inside the Spookshow International, was seen by many as Zombie redux – a sleek, short and crazed album. Outside of the confines of a band, Zombie was in complete charge of the product. While the themes remain the same – monsters, hot pants and hot rods – the finished product was less metal and more industrial than anything White Zombie had produced. It was a massive success, with the videos for Dragula and Superbeast achieving heavy rotation.

Related Topics:
Scott Humphrey - Hellbilly Deluxe

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The album also saw the beginning of Rob Zombie’s very public creative relationship with his long-time girlfriend (now his wife) and muse, Sherri Moon aka Sherri Skerkis. As a regular in his videos, she became the iconic female of his work. Tall, blonde and similarly influenced by EC Comics and Herschell Gordon Lewis movies, she was placed front and centre in his work from that point on.

Related Topics:
Sherri Moon - Herschell Gordon Lewis

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If it marked the public announcement of one relationship, Hellbilly Deluxe marked the end of another. After huge opening week sales, dwarfing those of any White Zombie release, it was announced that the band had split up. Sean Yseult left to form female horror-rockers Famous Monsters and, later, Rock City Morgue. Zombie toured extensively with the album and released a re-mix disc, American Made Music to Strip By, in 1999.

Related Topics:
Famous Monsters - Rock City Morgue

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In 2001, Zombie re-united the team of Tempesta, Riggs, Blasko and Humphrey to produce his second solo album, The Sinister Urge. Yet again it sealed Zombie’s unique reputation for playfulness and horror, with tracks like Dead Girl Superstar and Scum of the Earth indicating that he had not undertaken an unexpected shift in style.

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As of 2005, Rob Zombie updated his official site with news of an Hellbilly Deluxe re-issue titled "Hellbilly Super Deluxe" which contains the original album, with new artwork, and an bonus DVD with a full length music video for each and every song on Hellbilly Deluxe, release date is tentatively aimed before Christmas time.

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