Rob Zombie has managed to infuse horror into his two artistic passions, music and film. Following in the footsteps of his musical hero Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie has been a shock rock trailblazer in his own right. He rose to fame as a founding member of the metal band White Zombie before transitioning to a solo career that includes writing and directing several horror films – all with a name that embodies his artistic pursuits.
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Meaning Behind the Name
Born as Robert Bartleh Cummings, Rob Zombie has been known under a few different aliases. One of which is Rob Straker, which he used when recording the first two White Zombie albums, Soul Crusher and Make Them Die Slowly. In 1985 Zombie co-founded White Zombie, which was named after the 1932 film, White Zombie, which is regarded as the first feature film about zombies. He later changed his name to Rob Zombie, and the band released four studio albums before disbanding in 1998.
He legally changed his last name to “Zombie” in 1996, solidifying the permanence of his stage name. He’s also been referred to as Rob Zodiac, which stemmed from a flub by actor George Takei. Zombie was performing at Howard Stern’s 60th birthday party in 2014 where he was introduced onstage by Takei, who accidentally pronounced his name as “Rob Zodiac” instead of “Rob Straker.”
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In between releasing albums, Zombie is actively exploring his passion for cinema. He made his directorial debut with the cult classic horror film, House of 1000 Corpses, in 2003. He also wrote the screenplay and co-wrote the score. He was also a writer, director, and producer for the 2007 Halloween remake, Halloween II in 2009, 3 From Hell in 2019, and the 2022 adaption of The Munsters, among others. He also directed an episode of CSI: Miami and prior to rising to fame, Zombie worked as a production assistant on Pee-wee’s Playhouse.
“Doing anything interesting seemed impossible, I was just a little kid dreaming of things,” he told American Songwriter about his childhood in Massachusetts, adding that he “loved” both film and music. “That was my whole life, 24/7. I didn’t care about sports; I didn’t care about hanging out with other kids or anything. I’d watch TV, watch movies on TV, and listen to music. That is all I wanted to do, every day.”
Zombie fulfilled a lifelong dream when he got to collaborate with the original shock rocker Cooper on the 1996 song, “Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn),” which was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 1997 Grammy Awards. The two have also toured together several times. All seven of Zombie’s albums have reached the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 while a handful of his solo singles have achieved the same feat on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.
Photo Credit: Travis Shinn
