Sioux City Journal catches up with Rob Zombie

Last Thursday Rob Zombie played the Tyson Events Center as part of the Rob Zombie/Megadeth co-headliner.  Before the show the Sioux City Journal chatted with Rob in a phone interview about the tour, his movie The Lords of Salem, and politicians.

Enjoy!

Theatrical Rob Zombie ready to bring some controversy to Sioux City by  Laura Johnson

Call Rob Zombie anything – spawn of Satan, master of horror, in need of a shower – just don’t call him lazy.

This year alone he’s touring with longtime friends Megadeth along with playing multiple music festivals, wrapping up his latest film “The Lords of Salem” and planning to record a new album. Rolling through Sioux City Thursday for a quick tour stop, Zombie took time to talk about how he balances it all.

“I just go from one thing to the next to the next,” Zombie said in a recent phone interview. “I was just in post-production of my movie. Now I have to put it on ice for a bit to go on tour.”

He said the biggest problem is just not having enough time in the day to get it all done. Take touring with heavy-metal rockers Megadeth. The last they time they hooked up in concert it was the 1990s.

“I’m surprised it took so long for us to play together again,” Zombie said. “I don’t know why anything takes so long – just one of those things.”

The prospect of making new music is also daunting because he hasn’t even started writing.

“Well, we’re never ready. We don’t write the record beforehand – my days of spending hours jamming are over,” he said. “Once we get in the recording studio everybody comes up with stuff. It comes down to whatever I like is what the record is. I have to ‘hear’ it.”

It’s Zombie who has the final say in his movies, too. But that took a long time to accomplish. Even from the beginning when he said he wanted to direct his own music videos, his label told him “no” and brought in a co-director. Once they saw he was capable – and he won an MTV music video award for his effort — it was game on. But that didn’t mean big studios were going to let him waltz in and direct.

“Rightfully so, I guess,” Zombie said. “People don’t expect you to have success in two fields. It’s becoming more prevalent now but even so you have to build trust.”

The super-gory “House of 1000 Corpses,” which he wrote and directed,  took four years before the film was finally picked up by a studio. Riding on the success of its release, Zombie went on to make “The Devil’s Rejects” and “Halloween.”

The last time Zombie played Sioux City — the late ’90s — controversy followed. Council members felt the show should be cancelled and community members were wary about what his music was teaching their kids. With song titles like “Meet the Creeper” and “Superbeast” this isn’t completely without reason.

Zombie feigned outrage at the news that  not one person had protested his upcoming show this time around.

“Parents should be out there picketing – they should be outraged by my music,” Zombie quipped. “Don’t they love their children?”

As for politicians, Zombie explained they’re too busy now with other things like gay marriage to be concerned about what a musician has to say.

“Back in the old days when there was controversy it always seemed like there was an election coming up soon,” Zombie said. “Nothing will get you more attention than talking about music or a video game — taking some rigid stance on it.”

Known for mind-blowingly theatrical concerts, Zombie continued his sarcastic rant when he said people can expect a giant-rage satanic monster from his show and all the kids will have their minds blown out literally.

Asked if he remembered his last Sioux City show when multiple female audience-members took off their tops in a frenzy, Zombie had to think for a moment.

“I don’t know, I don’t remember, that’s kind of a common occurrence,” he said. “It’s like ‘Oh that time … every single night of the tour.’ We can only hope it happens this time, too.”