Not pandemic issues-key in “stuff”; actual objects.
“I don’t want anything,” the 56-year-old singer and filmmaker says.
“Imagine your whole life was in a backpack.
Rob Zombie’s creative process? “Every record has no plan, let’s put it that way. It just starts.".TRAVIS SHINN PHOTOGRAPHY
That’s the greatest feeling in the world.
That’s why I love being on tour.
You have your suitcase, and that’s all.
After a while you go, ‘This is all I need.'”
It’s an odd statement from a man who seems very much a maximalist.
His songs and stage shows are chock full ofstuff: lyrics, sound effects, creatures.
Even his arms are covered in colorful, intricate tattoos.
But with Zombie, everything isn’t as it appears.
(Match Game 74during breakfast; before bed,Hogan’s HeroesandPerry Mason.)
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: SoThe Lunar Injectionwas done by the time the pandemic started?
ROB ZOMBIE:Completely finished.
That way, you live with it longer.
I’m like, “What!?”
On the new record, there are some lyrics that work as both literary and film references.
Is that the book or movie?
When I was a kid I would read more.
In the seventh grade, I read theLord of the Ringstrilogy.
Now I don’t think I’d be able to get through them.
Oh my god, so many pages!
But as a kid you had nothing better to do.
One of my favorites from the record is “18th Century Cannibals.”
It seems like there should be square-dancing cannibals in the video for that.
Every record has no plan, let’s put it that way.
If I can remember properly, that song, we’ll just have that “boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom” shuffle beat.
And we’ll just build the music around it.
Then [guitarist] John 5 will come in.
Meanwhile,“The Satanic Rites of Blacula” starts off sounding like the Bay City Rollers.
I always liked records that had a lot of variety.
People like the song “King Freak” because it’s heavy.
Well, that’s great.
Something doesn’t sound heavy unless it’s mixed with something else that maybe isn’t so heavy.
you’re gonna wanna have an ebb and flow.
The later Beastie Boys records are like that too.
There’s always surprises to be found in those records as the years go on.
Is that a sitar at the beginning of “Get Loose”?
Yeah, it’s a sitar guitar that John borrowed from someone.
It was really cool.
Are you into Middle Eastern sounds, or just how the Stones or Beatles used them?
Well, I think that’s how, obviously, we all got exposed to it.
I love bringing other instruments into things.
Because guitar, bass, and drums are awesome.
I couldn’t do that.
I don’t think like that.
Let’s see how that sounds.”
I like mixing it up.
Some of those came out when you were just a little kid.
What were your most formative years of absorbing culture?
I can remember by kindergarten being fully immersed in things.
By then I was really obsessed with things.
I was always like, if it was on TV, it was goodbye me.
By second grade, the ’70s, I remember bringing records to listen to at school.
I’d bring in like an Alice Cooper record, another kid would bring a Cheech and Chong record.
This is a bunch of second graders listening to it!
I figured you got an early start.
When I finally met him, we’d start talking, and he was a very TV-obsessed person.
I go, “No way!
Alice, you’re the only [other] person I ever heard [to do that].”
I didn’t even know what they were talking about.
But once they ended,Mighty Mousecame on or something.
So we bonded on that weird crop reports thing.
There are also references on the record to the moon.
Was that fascinating to you?
Did you want to be an astronaut when you were 10?
No, not particularly.
These days I kinda feel like going into space is a big waste of time and money.
Because I look at things like that, and I don’t know what people think today.
You don’t even know what’s on this planet, and you take everything for granted.
What was that great movie I just watched, about an octopus…
My Octopus Teacher?
I’m like[snorts]space.
Give me a break.
I always feel that science-fiction writers are sort of like prophets.
They come up with something, and then the whole society gravitates towards what these guys just made up.
You see it all the time.
Why do we have these things?
Because some guy wrote it in a story one day.
This interview has been edited and condensed
Related content:
