Rob Zombie returns to the Valley

By John Benson | June 4, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

Rob Zombie the musician is going back on the road this spring as fans anxiously await the release of his sixth studio album.

A release date for the project hasn’t been given, but his cult audience will be happy to hear the purveyor of horror, sin and sex when he returns to the Mahoning Valley on Monday for a show at Packard Music Hall in Warren.

Zombie, who in his career has sold more than 15 million albums and earned seven Grammy Award nominations, wasn’t available for a phone interview. So instead, here’s a list of 10 things you probably didn’t know about Robert Cummings (aka Rob Zombie).

• As a child growing up in Massachusetts, Zombie was fascinated by Stan Lee, Alice Cooper, Bela Lugosi and Steven Spielberg. One look at his diverse career and it appears those influences still ring true today. He even toured with Alice Cooper in 2010, which included a stop at Covelli Centre in Youngstown.

White Zombie’s 1993 song “Thunder Kiss ’65” broke on MTV based on the airplay from “Beavis and Butt-Head.”

Not surprisingly, while a member of White Zombie, the visionary for the band directed most of the alternative metal group’s music videos.

“La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1,” White Zombie’s third studio effort, reached the top 30 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 2 million albums stateside.

Zombie’s debut solo effort, “Hellbilly Deluxe: 13 Tales of Cadaverous Cavorting Inside the Spookshow International,” was released in 1998, which is the same year White Zombie called it quits.

2003 feature film “House of 1000 Corpses” marked Zombie’s directorial debut. He released its sequel, “The Devil’s Rejects,” in 2005.

He supposedly has been wearing the same boots for 20 years.

Zombie is the only person to direct two movies in the “Halloween” series: “Halloween” (2007) and “Halloween II” (2009).

2013’s “Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor” is Zombie’s last studio album. It includes a cover of Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an American Band.”

For his new movie, “31,” which is due out next year, Zombie used crowdfunding to fund the project.