/fit-in/1920x1005/075785a7_975c_449b_8fa4_c5fb9653d799_jpeg_60e463ac744d7d7bbbbc6a98.jpeg)
Rob Zombie, or else known as Robert Bartleh Cummings is an American voice actor, filmmaker, and singer who once was a member of the band White Zombie which he co-founded between himself and Yseult and where his career has originally started.
What’s interesting to know is that Rob and Yseult used to date but broke up after seven years of dating but continued to work together. They proceed to make three albums, ‘’Soul-Crusher’’ (1987), ‘’Make Them Die Slowly’’ (1989) after these two albums the partnership between Rob and Yseult ended in 1991 and later that year, Rob’s band caught the attention of Geffen Records and their 3rd album ‘'La Sexorcisto - Devil Music Vol. 1. Even though they didn’t have much success with their songs but a year later the album did enter the Billboard 200 chart. After that, it became the band's most successful hit and they released two singles ‘’Black Sunshine’’ and ‘’Thunder Kiss 65’’ which were meant to promote La Sexorcisto.
The band would later produce their 4th album ‘’Astro-Creep: 2000 – Songs of Love, Destruction And Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head’’ which managed to make it into the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart! At some point in 1996, Rob changed his name legally from his birth name to Rob Zombie and that year recorded a remix album which would be the last piece released from the band as later in 1998 Rob would disband the band. When asked for the reason for him disbanding the group he stated: I don’t want to blame myself or anyone else in the band – it’s just that the band didn’t work anymore. Rather than continuing and making shitty records and having it all fall apart, I thought ‘Let’s just end it on a high point.’” and the fact that he had some genuine issues with some of the members in the band.
After the band’s disbandment, Rob continued his career as a solo singer. And he had a lot of success in the field compared to most people who went solo after their bands have been disbanded. Now about Rob’s solo albums. Rob's very first solo album was in the makings even before the band broke up somewhere during 1997. He worked on it with one of his former band members ‘’John Tempesta’’ and ‘’Charlie Clouser’’ from NIN. When his album ‘’Hellbilly Deluxe: 13 Tales of Cadaverous Cavorting Inside the Spookshow International’’ was released in August 1998 it became a huge success for Rob. It has been received extremely well. It sold over 100k copies in the first week of its release and sold 3 million copies in the United States alone. It was Robs highest selling piece of work to date. The songs were also used in different things like games and films!
Eventually, in 1998 Zombie proceeded to make his label called ‘’Zombie-A-Go-Go Records’’. Rob also tried his hand at filmmaking with his first film ‘’The Crow: 2037’’ for which he even wrote a script but it was never released. But he did decide for it to serve as a stand-alone project. Rob also was quite vital in the renewal of Universal Studios since he made a new haunted attraction for them which was later deemed instrumental in reviving the Halloween Horror Nights annual attraction. Eventually, he attempted to make another that went by the name House of 1000 Corpses and started its production in May of 2000 and was planned to release the following but was later deemed too gruesome in some parts of the film so the release was canceled.
After his film kind of failed to release Rob decided to work on his 2nd album ‘’The Sinister Urge’’ which debuted in November 2001 which was a collaboration with ‘’Ozzy Osbourne’’. Which became another hit which entered the top 10 in the United States.
This specific album has been the last project on which he worked with his previous band members like ‘’John Tempesta’’ and ‘’Mike Riggs’’. Later in 2002, he proposed to his girlfriend which he has been with for 9 years. Now back to his film which he has failed to release House of 1000 Corpses. Zombie managed to find a studio that would release it and it was ‘’Lions Gate Entertainment’’. Overall the film has received negative reviews from critics saying that the film was too ‘’grotesque’’ and ‘’gruesome’’ but got a cult-ish following from the fans of the film. Though in the later years it got a much warmer reception and has been frequently listed as one of the "best horror films ever made".
Following the release of his film, he eventually decided to make a sequel to the film called The Devil's Rejects. The film did receive a much better reception compared to the previous film but still got criticized for the violence and has gained a cult-like following like the previous film from its fans. As a small bonus Zombies has released some comics that would coincide with The Devil Rejects through 2005. After his films zombies decided to go back to music for a little while and work on his 3rd album which he stated is ‘’Experimental’’ which he named ‘’Educated Horses’’ and which he released in March 2006 which barely reached half a million sales in the United States and it became the final studio album to be released through Geffen Records.
Rob then later proceeds to release his album of greatest hits called ‘’The Best of Rob Zombie’’ in October of 2006. And only a month later the album got a re-release which had the title of The Best of Rob Zombie: ‘’20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection’’ which received a gold certificate from RIAA. In 2009 Rob decided to focus on his career as a director. Mostly because in 2006 it was confirmed that he had signed to write and direct the remake of the film ‘’Halloween’’ (1978). Thanks to the opening weekend the film shattered the box-office record for the Labor Day weekend, surpassing the record set in 2005 by Transporter 2. It still to this day holds the spot as the top Labor Day weekend grosser. The film became Rob’s highest-grossing release to date.
Even though it did all of those things it still didn’t get any good reviews as the critics have stated that rob doesn’t bring anything new to the film. After that Rob announced that he is in the process of filming a new film called ‘’Tyrannosaurus Rex’’ which was meant to be released in 2009 but was later scrapped. And it’s mostly due to the reason that he is working on a sequel to Halloween named H2 even though he said he would not be working on a sequel. The sequel overall has received an even worse reception from the critics and didn't have the success as did the first remake but it did succeed in the box office. Later it was announced that he would be doing a remake of The Blob but later backed out saying: ‘’He didn’t want to make another remake’’.
After his period in film making in 2009, he announced that he is working on a fourth studio album which was a follow-up to his album ‘’Educated Horse’’. Though that did not mean that he stopped working on films. He re-announced ‘’Tyrannosaurus Rex’’ as a film that will be released eventually and also started working on his new film which would be his first non-horror film named: ‘’The Broad Street Bullies’’. All these films would be released after ‘’Lords of Salem would be released’’ which was one of his films that were released in honor of his song ‘’ Lords of Salem’’. After all of these films, he released a new album which was a remix of his and White Zombies songs titled: Mondo Sex Heads.
After that, he proceeds to announce an untitled project which he wants to make and if it doesn’t work they will not release it but eventually, they released an album named Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor. Even though it did well in Charts it became his lowest-selling album to date. And in honor of his films and other horror events in pop culture, he designed the attractions "Lords of Salem Total Black Out", "The Haunted World of El Superbeasto 3D", and "House of 1000 Corpses", which was a music festival combined from artists in hard rock, alternative, EDM, and more in 2013. And now onto the present day where Rob Zombie has announced his sixth studio album in April of 2014. And in July 2018, Zombie went on Twins of Evil: The Second Coming Tour in the US with co-headliner Marilyn Manson and special guest Deadly Apples. On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Rob Zombie among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
