Well aren’t I the lucky little bastard. I got the chance to do a phone interview with one of the most hard working and successful working individuals in the music industry, Rob Zombie. Now a lot of people may have their preconceived notions of what Rob is like. I mean come on, his last name is Zombie. From what I hear Rob is a very health conscious person who rarely even drinks alcohol, let alone touches drugs.  Rob has been busy making movies as well as music and took some time to talk to me from his home in California…

Jake: So…I heard you were recently in the studio at New York. What were you working on?
Rob: Yeah, about two weeks ago I was in New York in the studio with Paul Giamatti recording his voice tracks (as Dr. Satan) for this new movie “El SuperBeasto,” which is the new animated movie I’m doing.
Jake: How did you make the transition from writing songs to writing movies?
Rob: It was a long, long transition over many years. In a nutshell it started in '95. I had directed a video for a White Zombie song that was from the movie Crow 2. The producers of that movie really liked the video, and then I started talking to them about making what would have been Crow 3 at the time. I worked on it for a long time and that’s sorta what started the whole process. I wrote a script for that which never worked and then kept working and writing and writing and writing, and then I wrote House of a Thousand Corpses and sold that to Universal and that got mad, then Devil's Rejects and on and on…started about 12 years ago, seriously working.
Jake: So it’s always something you’ve been kinda interested in?
Rob: Yeah, it’s always been something that I’ve wanted to do. You know it was just finding the way to break in. Like anything else, it’s incredibly difficult.
Jake: What would you say your favorite part of making movies is?
Rob: My favorite part of making movies is everything essentially; I mean I don’t really have a favorite moment. The favorite thing I guess is like anything else, you have some crazy idea, you can sit there and just say any idea and just the process of bringing it to life, that’s my favorite part.
Jake: What’s your favorite part of making music?
Rob: Sorta the same thing. It’s all sorta the same. It doesn’t matter if it’s music or movies, it’s just the creative process of just creating something that didn’t exist before. I find that really exciting that you walk into the studio, it’s quiet, you start coming up with something, playing something, it becomes a song, then a couple months later it’s on the radio then you’re playing it in front of thousands of people. Just that process of making something out of nothing.
Jake: You work with your wife a lot. Does that every get hard or stressful?
Rob: No, it never does. It’s actually quite easy cause I know there’s gonna be at least one person who’s 100% prepared.
Jake: Ok, say someone came up to you and said you could only produce one thing…movies, art or music. Which would you choose?
Rob: I would probably choose making movies, not because I like it necessarily more than making music, but I’ve been doing music non-stop for over 22 years and I love it still, but I feel with movies I feel there are greater challenges yet, still. And I think movies you can do forever. In fact, in one of my favorite directors, Robert Altman, is in his eighties and his new film is opening next week. Can’t really do that with music.
Jake: Coming up on June 30th you guys are gonna start the “American Witch” tour with Anthrax?  How do you end up hooking up with these guys?
Rob: Well, I first met Anthrax when White Zombie opened for them in '92 and that’s how I met, I always knew who they there were and stuff but I had never met them before. They’re good guys and over the years I’ve become better friends with Scott Ian. So when we were looking for a band to open they just kinda seemed like the perfect choice. You have to tour with these people and be around them everyday and you need to be around people who are cool or it’s a nightmare.
Jake: So what can your fans expect the stage show to look like this year?
Rob: Well, it keeps changing, it’s always evolving and getting bigger and bigger again. It’s just an explosion of everything, I don’t even know how to describe it anymore.
Jake: What is your band line up for this years tour?
Rob: The band, as it stands now, is John 5 on guitar, who of course has played on the new record and done all the tours since then, and Tommy Clifteous, who played drums on the record and plays for us now. We have new bass player Picky-D who just joined in the last month or so, cuz our other guy left.
Jake: We did an interview with John 5 in one of our recent issues and he seemed like a really smart guy.  What were some of the reasons you hired him?
Rob: There are really just two reasons. First, he’s an awesome guitar player, ya know? Incredible. I think he’s one of the best guitar players out there. That was the first reason I ever paid attention. But the main reason that I hired him was that he’s a super cool guy. He’s funny, he’s nice and he’s great to be around. You could be a great guitar player and be a fuckin' asshole, and I don’t wanna be in a band with you. But for how talented this guy fucking is, he’s the most egoless I’ve ever met. He’s just the coolest, most down-to-earth guy.
Jake: Any special routines to prepare for a show?
Rob: Not really, and if we do then I don’t noticed. We probably do, because you definitely become a creature of habit and you probably end up doing the same thing everyday, but nothing really.
Jake: Does White Zombie ever play anymore or do you own that name?
Rob: No, White Zombie hasn’t played since 1995 or '96 or something like that.
Jake: Is there any chance of a reunion?
Rob: No.
Jake: Why?
Rob: I have to go…
Jake: Wait, wait, WAIT, I’m almost done. What would like on your tombstone?
Rob: Oh I don’t know, I’ve never thought about it. My plan is that by the time I’m old enough science and medicine will have made such great leaps and bounds that my brain will be implanted inside of some robot body, so I’m not really worried about tombstones.
Jake: You’ve been on Geffen for 15 years. What is it about them that keeps you stickin' with them?
Rob: Well, I signed a contract, that’s the main thing…the main thing and the only thing (laughs). That’s how it goes sometimes, for good or bad.
Jake: What are some of your all time favorite horror movies?
Rob: I like a wide rang of things. My favorite stuff is the early stuff from the 30’s, the original Universal movies like Dracula, The Mummy, Wolfman and all that stuff, and then I love all the sorta hammered remakes of all those movies that they did in the '50’s. From the '70’s I loved all the things like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, all that brutal stuff, ya know, Dawn of The Dead, that was always one of my favorite.
Jake: Is there any one movie in particular that sorta acted like a catalyst, really got your attention and started getting you thinking about horror movies in a different way.
Rob: Probably the original King Kong. It could be one of the first movies I ever even saw. That pretty much blew me away when I was a little kid.


Jake: I’ve heard a little bit about your new movie El SuperBeasto, give us a little info about it?
Rob: It’s an animated movie, it’s an ADULT animated movie, it’s not for kids, it’s probably the first real animated adult movie from this country in a long, long time. And it’s basically a super-hero sex comedy about a washed up ego-manic Mexican wrestler/superhero who just basically parties and gets laid. Then this villain Dr. Satan, played by Paul Giamati, has his eyes on Superbeasto’s latest stripper infatuation. The movie is basically based one guy trying to marry a stripper and the other guy trying to rescue her, or world domination.
Jake: Honestly the first animation clip I’ve ever saw from you was the clip from Beavis and Butthead Does America…
Rob: That’s really the only thing I’ve ever done.
Jake: Well, ever since then I’ve been waiting for you to come out with a full-length motion picture.
Rob: Well, it doesn’t look that did, but yeah, it’s crazy like that.
Jake: Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans?
Rob: I would say to our fans that if you haven’t seen us in our newest incarnation, the time is now because this is the best band I’ve ever had and these are definitely the best shows I’ve ever played. As we’ve been touring I’ve seen people that’ve been like “Oh man I’ve seen you play over 30 times over the last 15 years and this is the best you guys have ever been,” and I truly believe that too.