Prior to an upcoming tour of our shores, most overseas artists reel out the company line about how they love Australia and how they can’t wait to get back here.
Prior to an upcoming tour of our shores, most overseas artists reel out the company line about how they love Australia and how they can’t wait to get back here. Virtually all of them seem absolutely sincere, which is nice, but legendary singer/songwriter/film director /general renaissance man Rob Zombie leaves no doubt whatsoever as to his sincerity: "I can’t wait , it’s gonna be awesome ," he emphasises, the enthusiasm fairly dripping from his voice. "We are dying to play there, just dying!" he laughs.
Tempering this, however, may be the fact that Zombie has only been here one single other time, and it was a long, long time ago. Which is damn surprising considering the man has been making music for a quarter of a century, had a hit band in the ’90s with White Zombie and is now the captain a flourishing solo career, having released eight albums between the two phases of his music career.
But that one time proved to be a memorable one, "I’ve only been there one other time," he recalls, "and I remember it very clearly. I was there one time with White Zombie, the day after we played was the day that the OJ Simpson verdict came down, if you can believe it!" he laughs at the memory.
"I remember the front page of whatever the local paper was, said ‘OJ Verdict’ and the story underneath that was that there was a gang riot outside of the White Zombie concert, which is really funny. I still have the newspaper; I can’t remember what city we were in," he ponders, "I guess Melbourne or something, but yeah there was a big gang riot outside our concert that night! I think that might have been 1996? Probably between ’94 and ’96." (It was 1995)
Whatever the case, a decade and a half is a long enough period for Zombie fans here down under, and that wait ends this coming February and March when he and his ripping solo band finally return for the Soundwave Festival. As he has quite the sizable back catalogue now, and he gave a few insights for his Aussie fans into what his setlist may consist of.
"I’m gonna try to play what I think everybody wants to hear," he states. "A couple of songs off every record I guess, and all the White Zombie records. Not just all the new songs. We’ll play one, or maybe two of the new songs but that’s it. I want to play all the stuff from all the records, to make everybody happy."
Zombie’s history is so long now, he has difficulty remembering his earlier days and first albums. "When I look back at those things, I don’t even remember ’em!" he chuckles. "It seems like a million years ago. Mainly because I can’t remember it that well and I have no communication with any of the people that I worked with back then. So, it kinda seems like it never happened.
"But that’s a weird thing when you keep moving along, and keep getting new band members, new people, the other stuff seems further away. Basically anything with White Zombie seems like another lifetime for me, ‘cos it basically is.
"I’m pretty excited about it," he adds, ruminating on his long and storied career in both music and movies. "In some ways I feel like I’m just getting started. So it’s all good. Even when I look back on the last five years and some of the things I’ve gotten done, a couple of records, a lot of touring, a couple of movies. You just never know where you’re going to be every couple of years.
"It’s been good," he reiterates, "and the main thing I’m happy about is that I did it all on my terms. I didn’t have to change for the industry. So that’s good."
And as for the future, Zombie plans to keep making music, touring the world and cranking out the nasty horror movies that he’s become notorious for. He’s quite succinct in the manner in which he explains his plans for the coming few years.
"Yeah, that’s the main thing," he agrees of the continuing to be on the move. "I mean, I wanna do more world touring, we’re heading to England, heading to Australia, then I’m gonna come back and shoot (his next movie project) Lords Of Salem, then I’m gonna head back to Europe and do more shows in countries I haven’t been to in a thousand years!" he quips. "Come back, finish my movie, do a new record, go back on tour. So, pretty much 2011 is jam packed, and I’m already trying to figure out 2012, so I’m good to go!"
So does Zombie feel that the two streams of his career feed and complement each other? "I think so," he muses. "The most obvious way is that movies have brought a lot more fans in, because movies reach more people.
"Music is very compartmentalised these days," he philosophises. "If you like metal you like metal. If you don’t like metal, you don’t listen to it. But movies, everybody likes movies. Sometimes people come up to me and say ‘I love your movies!’, and they’re very normal people. They don’t even know that I make music too, they don’t have a clue," he laughs. "So that’s been kinda cool.
"I just like the fact that the basic Rob Zombie fan likes both; because it all involves the same world. And that’s cool, I get a kick out of that!"
ROB ZOMBIE plays the SOUNDWAVE festival alongside Iron Maiden, Slayer, Queens Of The Stone Age, Slash, Primus, Stone Sour, Devildriver and heaps, heaps more at the Melbourne Showgrounds on Friday March 4. it’s sold out. He does, however, play a MASSIVE Sidewave with Murderdolls, Monster Magnet and Dommin at Festival Hall on Thursday March 3 (with licensed and unlicensed areas) – tickets from ticketmaster.com.au and 136 100. His latest album Hellbilly Deluxe 2 is out now through Roadrunner.
