Rob Zombie on his music: “I just want to make it, play it, get crazy with it”

Fresh from finishing crowd-funding for his next movie ’31’, Full Metal Jackie, from Loudwire Nights With Full Metal Jackie and Tony LaBrie, spent some time having a chat with Zombie, about movie memorabilia, filmmaking, his next album and his friendship with Alice Cooper.

To read excerpts from the interview, click >>> 

Read the interview in full: Rob Zombie on Filmmaking, Upcoming Album, Alice Cooper + More

Rob Zombie has done a masterful job of juggling his music and film careers over the last decade plus and the multi-tasker recently found a few moments to chat with ‘Loudwire Nights’ host Full Metal Jackie about how he goes about making movies, the confidence he has in the music he’s making these days and more. He also shared a little bit about the evolution of his friendship with Alice Cooper over the years. Check out the chat below.

Now that you’ve got a few films under your belt, what’s changed about the way you’ve made movies compared with your first one?

It’s hard to say, experience has everything to do with it. The first film was just the ultimate learning curve. You go into it and you know nothing, no matter what you think, you know nothing. You really learn how things function and how they work and I applied most of that to my second film, ‘The Devil’s Rejects.’ That’s why I think it’s a much more solid effort. But as time goes on you just try to be, the key thing — it sounds so boring but you try to be more efficient because time, the two things you never have enough of when you’re making a movie is time and money. You try to figure out a way to maximize that as much as possible. That’s really the thing I try to do. Even though the budgets of the films could get smaller, you can’t tell by watching the films because I’m just smarter with how I can actually make the films. It’s more like nuts and bolts stuff.

As you’ve developed as a filmmaker, have you discovered any aspects of the movie making process that you’ve been able to carry over to the recording studio?

Not that I can think of. It might be the other way around, if anything. They’re such different animals. The difference is, music is so much more spontaneous. That’s why I still like to play shows because it’s spontaneous. It’s only going to happen at that moment, you’re not going to do it again. Whatever happens, happens and it happens once. Whereas a film is very meticulously put together. It’s the furthest thing possible from spontaneous. The only thing that carries over from both is an understanding of pacing. I try to pace the live set like you would pace a movie. You want to have a big opening, an interesting middle and a big ending. I think that’s the biggest thing, but that’s just a three-act structure which is very common in any sort of situation.

Rob, you recently joined Alice Cooper onstage in Connecticut. What it is about Alice that never gets old in terms of his influence on you?

I just love Alice. I’ve always loved Alice Cooper. At first, as an artist when I was a little kid I can remember as far back as second grade listening to Alice Cooper. That seems to crazy because I know second graders, I have nieces and nephews in second grade, and they are certainly not listening to Alice Cooper. They maybe are just discovering the soundtrack to ‘Frozen,’ or Katy Perry. I was kind of ahead of the curve. I’ve loved Alice ever since I was a little kid. We’ve been friends for the past 20 years, so I always go see him because I just want to hang out with him. I really like him, his wife and the guys in his band. They’re just good friends, more than anything else.

I’m friends with all the guys in Motley Crue, so to go down to see the Alice Cooper / Motley Crue show is great to see all those people. Once a fan, always a fan. I love the songs. Especially, he always plays the ‘Ballad of Dwight Fry’ which is one of my absolute favorites. He’s just a great guy. That’s one of the things I love about him when someone is a great guy you just always want to be there for him.