Rob Zombie returns to concert touring

The musician-director has released his first concert CD.

By JOHN BENSON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

Rob Zombie remains a busy man.

After releasing his remake of famed ’70s horror movie “Halloween” earlier this year, the musician-turned-director returns to his music with his first concert CD, “Zombie Live.”

“The first reason was I had been wanting to do this for many, many years and then recorded a lot of shows over the years,” said Zombie in a recent telephone conference call. “I would always do band lineup changes and different things would happen, so I would always shelve it, and this time, everything seemed very solid. The band wasn’t going to change.

“I knew it was probably the best-sounding band I’d had, and if it was ever a time to record a live album, it was at that point. So we recorded it last summer. And you know, if you wait much longer, no one’s going to buy records anymore anyway, so there’s no point.”

Zombie is also returning to the road this year in the familiar role of supporting Ozzy Osbourne on tour. The high-powered bill is scheduled to stop in Cleveland for a Thursday show at the Wolstein Center at CSU. A recent set list finds Zombie playing all of the crowd favorites, including “More Human Than Human,” “Thunder Kiss ’65,” “House of 1,000 Corpses” and “The Devil’s Rejects.”

The former two songs date back to Zombie’s early days in alternative metal act White Zombie, while the latter two tunes are actually title tracks to the director’s first two feature films. The notion of combining both his loves isn’t lost on Zombie.

“The main similarity is that everything you do has to somehow be entertaining,” Zombie said. “You’re always thinking about the person who’s going to see it. It’s a weird balance. You’re trying to create something you like first, because if you don’t like it, how can you present it to somebody else and expect them to like it?

“And so, it’s essentially the same thing, I mean, you know, it’s funny with the way things start, like you just come up with this crazy idea and then suddenly it becomes a reality. That’s the excitement of it.”

Apparently, Zombie is quite excited when looking ahead to 2008. Not only is a new Rob Zombie studio album in the works, but there’s another feature film in his future.

Ironically, Zombie finds himself in the middle of two different crises facing musicians and movie makers. While CD sales have the music industry in a downward spiral, Hollywood is currently shut down due to the writers strike. Despite the current climate, Zombie said he’s optimistic he can continue his existence as a musician and director.

“The only thing is, I’m disenchanted with the music industry, not with the music,” Zombie said. “I love being in a band. I love touring, and I love doing all that. It’s just the industry [has] kind of like destroyed itself through just greed and stupidity, But you know, that’s like all businesses — greed destroys them all eventually. I still love doing music and that’s why I’m still here.

“I never really, you know, stopped [playing music], but I love doing movies too, so as much as I can try to balance the two, I always will.”