Page 7 - Pop History: Rob Zombie

Episode Date: December 3, 2019

Jackie, Natalie and H. Mo recount the history of The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser, Rob Zombie.   Dig through the ditches and burn through the witches to score a ticket to our winter tour! LA, Chicago, Pontiac & Milwaukee come see Page 7 and Wizard and the Bruiser Live!    Want to help the show? Our Patreon supporters get weekly bonus content and extra goodies!   Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Page 7 ad-free.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, Holden here. Hey, and I'm Jackie Zbrowski. We are here to invite you to the live page 7 and Wizard and the Brewers Show in Los Angeles, California. That's right. We're coming to the Regent Theater on Wednesday, December 11th. The tickets are just $22. You can get your tickets at lastpodcastnetwork.com slash P7 Live. Come on out.

You know you want to meet us. Yeah, see you then, y'all. Me. Dead through the ditches and burn through the witches. I'm in the back of my dragula. Hell yeah. You're almost cool. I'm in the back of my a dragula.

How did you make that song sound so not scary? That I have practiced, so I don't appreciate your notes. Oh, you wanted that to sound scary. It was very scary. Was that scary? I don't know. I think it was more like, I just wanted you to clear your throat.

Dig through the ditches. Burn through those witches. Guys, guys, welcome to pop history. We're talking about Rob Zombie today. I don't know if you could tell by how spooky, scary, Holden was singing,

but we're talking Rob Zombie. Rob Zombie, the mastermind behind White Zombie, several films, comic books, prolific in his career. Very talented. Is that he wants to be referred to, as the electric warlock acid witch satanic

orgy celebration dispenser. That's what Rob Zombie wants to be referred to as. That's a power move. That is a power move. By the way, we should say, Natalie, thank you, yes, hello, and I'm Holden, and that is Jackie. Oh, hi.

Yeah, the one that sounds like a dragon with lipstick. Rob Zombie. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna throw it out there, guys. I love Rob Zombie as a director. I'm definitely one of those, but I didn't know this much about Rob Zombie, and now I'm obsessed with Rob Zombie? Uh-oh. So, yeah, let's start with the gush a little bit, right?

I have, like, so I think we all have our own personal history with the man, the myth, the legend, Rob Zombie. Mine started definitely with the music, and I remember my buddy, Pat, who I bring up a lot is this person who turned me onto a lot of great music when I was in, like, sixth grade. And he was also in sixth grade, but he just had a line on music better. and he, I remember, he would give me these like mixed cassette tapes of stuff that he would make. He would like compile. You're old. All right, Susan. That's your name for the podcast this episode.

Susan. How dare you? I'm a witch. I'm a Satanic Gorgeous to Spencer. Whatever, dude. So he gave me a mixtape of all his favorite white zombie songs. And I fucking loved it. I remember like flipping out when white zombie was on.

It was in the trippy part of. Beavis and Butthead to America, right? Oh, yeah. Also, he created that. Rob Zombie actually created that acid trip in Beavis and Butthead to America. Like, he animated it? Yeah.

What? Mike Judge just gave him. He's like, I want you to make an acid trip for the movie. And so he designed the entire thing because that was also the time when he was really working on his cartoons. That's awesome.

The biggest thing I remember about that part, I love that movie, but I remember the most because I was pre-Pvest. and at the time seeing the chicks with the big tits, like slow swinging and being like, breasts are intimidating. They're very scary.

Are my boobies supposed to do that? Yes. And then they are. And you know what now they do. And they do. I remember white zombie being like, it kind of reminds me of when I first got turned on to Wu-Tang Clan. They felt like dangerous to me.

And they felt like something that was so fully realized and so foreign to me. The mixture of those like horror movie. clips. I wasn't a horror person until like college in terms of enjoying the genre. So like hearing all these weird recordings from old horror movies mixed with, it was almost like a almost techno-y. Like it had like kind of a like a weird vibe, like a weird electronic vibe mixed with metal. And it just had its, it was such its own unique thing. And all of the satanic imagery on like the album covers and the names again were very like frightening to me. And that's what I really loved about. Yeah, it was like dangerous.

It was something I feel like I shouldn't be listening to, but I was enjoying it like, you know, on my headphones, like not letting the parents know. I know, it was like the fucking Elvis of our time. It was the kind of thing because I remember. It was because of his hips, because seductive hips. Yeah, he was wiggling them hips all the time.

And because growing up, Henry and I were allowed to watch any horror movie we wanted to watch, but we weren't allowed to watch MTV. For some reason, we were barred from watching MTV. Remember when MTV was fucking dangerous and wild and like it was like the wild west of cool kids stuff? It still is in the sense that it promotes teen pregnancy. Yeah, for sure. For sure.

That is very edgy, actually. Very, very edgy. Did you, did you have a relationship with the music or do we jump to the movies for you now? I actually, my introduction probably was Beavis and Butthead because that is really where he got promoted. Yes. A lot. And I, looking back at those original white zombie videos. it's a little silly.

Yeah, it's goofy, and it was scary at the time. But, you know, when he, like, sort of developed himself into the solo Rob Zombie, I think it's a little actually scarier, but if you see those original videos, he's just like, whoo! Right. He's wearing, like, goggles, and he's, like, early, what's it called, steampunky? Right. Yeah.

But then when I do, and I will say, talk about this later, but I do think that Sherry Moon brought a level of artistry to him. Yeah, I mean, I would agree with that. Their artistic relationship rules is so cool. Yeah, but I think as a kid... Are you trying to say you're the Sherry Moon and your relationship is that we're trying to say? I think Henry's the Sherry Moon. I don't know.

I wouldn't say that Henry is Rob Zombie. I'm the Rob Zombie. If Henry started dressing like Rob Zombie, though, I would be so elated. It would be better than his Tashiki cowboy boot turn in college. I don't think that that's that far off from something that can happen. I mean, that's what got that he's been doing. He's definitely been basing part of his new fashion style on Rob Zombie. He looks great.

Yeah, he looks great. I love it. Like Carney Sheik, sure. And I think for my introduction with him, I think he, I was a little bit more into, like, solid metal and punk during that era. But I really now, I appreciate his music a lot more than I did and I was younger. But I think, yeah, I know him more from Beavis' Butthead in horror than anything. Right. So let's gush on the movies.

and then we'll get, you know, we'll really get into the history and everything, because that's the whole other section of his career. And honestly, like, the first time I saw House of a Thousand Corpses, I don't know, I wouldn't say, like, I loved it. I remember seeing it at, uh, I think I saw it with Ed, but it's something that's really grown on me. Devil's Rejects, though, I feel like that movie was a statement. It still gets me.

Yeah. You watched it a couple of weeks ago, and it still, it gives me nightmares. It's that hotel scene. Yeah. Yeah, definitely the hotel scene, like, digs into something psychological, but I think to me that's his best movie. For sure. For sure.

I do love actually Halloween as well. But yeah, I think that's the one. I understand why so many people give him so much shit, but what I will say is that Rob Zombie as a director, as a musician, as anything that he ever

wanted to be, is inspa fucking rational. Oh my God. Talk about a dude that never gave in to what anyone wanted him to do, much to the detriment of his own projects many times. But there was this quote that I read that I actually put at the top of my research because I was like, this makes me want to create. He said, I feel like I'm the most successful cult person ever.

I mean, I feel like everything I do is sort of an underground cult way, but has had mainstream success. It's weird. I've always liked underground stuff. Underground filmmaking, underground-type bands, underground just mentality. but somehow just made it work in the mainstream. It's just that punk rock way of thinking. I've never wanted to give in to the man.

I want the man to give in to me. Hell yeah. That's gross and grow, baby. I concur. Yeah, for sure. And especially, I'm proud to say that, you know, that spirit is, I feel like, in our network. You know what I mean? Totally.

So much so. And that's why, in watching so much and watching him speak and listening to his interviews, I started getting choked up by the idea of like, look at this dude that wanted to be so many different things. And yeah, he may not be, you know, he's not, he's ever, he's not going to be like the Spielberg ever. He's not going to be, he's not going to be, but he will be discussed. And he will, you cannot pretend that he doesn't exist. Totally. I always thought the best thing to be, would be to be sort of like an underground icon.

Because you get to do what you. want to do but then you can also live a normal human life and like walk around the streets and stuff because it seems horrible to be I don't I want to be like a J-Lo you know what I mean you are you're close I want to have a butt that just screams I'm in the room you shouldn't share your butt like she does yeah no we're gonna start calling you H-mo are you into that can I be H-Lo no it's the same in the entire horror community that is such a supportive community but it's so cool to watch Rob Zombie be allowed to because he always of obviously what we all do always identified as being an outsider never thought that we fit in and so what he did like we have all done and what everyone I think a lot of our listeners are striving to do is to stay the weird self that they are but be able to embrace it in a community that actually loves and respects you and helps you rise up. Also, I love that because there was a time where I was even considering doing Rob Zombie 4 was in the bruiser specifically because if you pull away all the cool hair and the sunglasses and the look and everything and the crazy scary videos, he is just a big old nerd about horror.

He's just a horror fucking nerdy nerd nerd nerd. And like, I just love that. And he turned that into like sex appeal and like cool, cool dude stuff. But also very responsible in the sense that he's not like a. party rager. It's not like a huge druggie and he's been married to the same woman for like 20 years. He comes off really great in interviews.

Very eloquent, very well spoken, very smart and very like self-deprecating. I mean, you were to refer to what you were just talking about Jackie. I mean, he talks about how he was just like, I was a fucking idiot. I don't know. I just was really stubborn and I, you know, we got a record deal

and I said, no, I want this specific record. I forget who he signed with the first time, but he He just, he made a bunch of, like, crazy-ass moves because he's just like, fuck it. I don't know. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Also, again, we throw it out there, which I think we all are aware of, hot to trot. Give me some of it.

My God, I think that he is still, at the age of 32, I think he is the only white man with dreads that I still want to have sex with. And Sherry Moon is. I know. That's an accomplishment. Yeah. Sherry Moon is a fucking day. Smoke show. Yeah.

So, like, she could just literally cut a man's dick. off in a movie scene and I'd still be like, yeah, I give it. I want it. It's that damn giggle, man. She's got the giggle. She's got the giggle. Well, before the giggle came the boy, let's talk about, yuck. Is that, was that gross to say? Was that unfortunate? Did H-Lo make a gaff? You're not low, your last name's not Lopez. You'd be like, H-me-I. H-Mick. I can't be H-M-H-Ley. You know what I mean? No, I don't know the H-M-O, but I think also H-H-mo is what they probably called you in middle school and what made you very upset.

I don't even want to go back to that point, but I want to go back to the point where Rob Zambi was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1965, with one younger brother who went on to be the lead singer of Power Man 5,000. So weird.

His name is Spider. Yeah. It's so random how that happened. Because I don't know, you guys have done a deeper dive than me, but I couldn't find any reason why they just both happen to be successful musicians.

It's the same, like, genre. Yeah. What I think is really cool, is that they were best friends growing up. Awesome. And so both of them, they were carny. Their parents will get into this, but their parents were carnies. And so when they finally stopped traveling around places,

they found themselves in this small town where there was no record store, no movie theater. There was nothing for them to do except for the two of them to hang out. And they would take, they would like record things on the television with his Super 8 camera and try and make movies over that, just him and his brother. which I know that Henry and I will never be Spider and Rob Zombies. But again, if we could be, it made me start tearing up because that's why I think that they're both into like interesting macabre things in the same vein is because they always work together. They loved what, Alice Cooper, Spielberg, the horror movies with Bella Lagosie, Stanley.

So we're talking about comic books. We're talking about rock music, evil rock music for evil shows. children. He said, when I was a little kid, there was just so much horror on television, it was the late 60s. There was sort of a horror boom. Magazine's like creepy, eerie, vamporella. And then on TV, it was the Munsters, the Adams family. Of course, he's like obsessed with the monsters, by the way, like. Of course. I love it. The Twilight Zone and the outer limits. Even the sitcoms bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, which is something I didn't even think about. Yeah, everything had like a weird supernatural thing going on. He said everything had some sort of musical tie-in. I

think that's what got me hooked on music. And also that all the kid's shows had music. You grew up watching the Banana Splits Adventure Hour and the Banana Splits were a band. The Groovy Goolies had a band. The Archies. Every cartoon had a band. Even when we watched like Gilligan's Island, there was one episode where the mosquitoes landed on the island. Muskees of the Capital M's that was a band.

I would always wait for them. I think the monkeys was the most significant one. I knew about the monkeys before I knew about the Beatles or anything else. That's what really started at all. It was all through television, for sure. Long story short, television. He was obsessed with television. He said he watched it eight hours a day.

And he, and also I thought very interesting. Another reason why he became so addicted to television is, and the reason why now that he eats clean and why he's ultra-vegan is because he was very sickly as a kid. And he said he was one of those kids where it's like, here's your 25 pills and you can't be in gym class. And he said, one day in high school, I was like, fuck it. I'm not taking any more medication.

I'm going to join the track team. And of course, I got healthier. I stopped eating red meat. Even my asthma went away. I still eat super, super healthy all the time, and I take health quite seriously. I haven't had red meat in 25 years. Interesting.

I wonder what pills they were giving him. Yeah. I was iodine. Blood pills. Apparently he was just tiny and sickly. Yeah, just a tiny little man. How long are you? Vegetarian?

I'm technically pescatarian. Okay, gotcha. See that, so you're one of those. I know. It's bullshit. It really is. But it's hypocritical as well because I can still manage to eat seafood because I don't have to look at their faces over. Right. I understand. You seem limber. I am limber. You know what? I am. Or do you want to start going on a boat? Do you want to start fishing that? I think if there's one thing that the two of us should take up, it's fishing.

See, that would probably be what would be able to get me to stop eating fish as if I had to look at the fish's eyes. as they were dying. As they have a single tear come down. It's like, you killed my mother. They'll be black like a doll's eyes. Like a nose eyes. So his parents also big influence, especially you can see this, I feel like, in his films.

Every one of them has this creepy carney vibe, I feel like, at least at some point. His parents were carnies. And Zombie refers to the Gary Bucy film, Carney, as a perfect example of what his childhood was like. I meant to watch that before this episode. Have you guys seen it? No, but at the same vein, though, it says it sounds exciting and interesting now, but as a kid, it was a drag.

I think no matter what your parents do for a living, it doesn't seem exciting as a kid. I know, man. I always wanted to be a carniv and as a kid. I thought it'd be awesome, but I'm sure growing up in that arena, that probably sucks balls because he was around a bunch of creeps all day. You don't get to make any friends. No, that's why he was so close to his brother. Yeah, but it was cool.

I saw an interview with him saying that his mom is like a legacy carny. Oh, wow. Her family grew up doing it. And his mom's job when she was a kid was to walk around the grounds holding a big teddy bear. So it looked like she won a prize. So that was her kid job. I love it. It's very awesome.

I want to win a bear too. Because, of course, none of them were winnable whatsoever. Everything was rigged. And he tells this is a classic Rob Zombie story. So stop me. heard this one before, but he tells this tale of when he... Wow. How dare you stop H-H-low?

It's not H-low. So there was this incident that ended up kind of getting him out of the carney business as a child. In a lot of ways, there was this situation that happened in the gambling tent, essentially probably what happened from what Rob Zombies piece together is somebody got to. super fleeced and got really pissed off and lit the tent on fire. Guns were being pulled out. People are beating the shit out of each other. He said, everyone's pulling out guns. You could hear guns going off. I remember this one guy we knew. He was telling us where to go.

And some guy just ran up to him and hit him in the face with a hammer. Just busted his face wide open. My parents packed up real quick and we took off. And that's actually when both of his parents left working in the carnival world. And then they became very poor. Ah. So they did it to get their kids out of that kind of environment. But what I like is that he has said in multiple occasions that his parents always taught him to work really hard and to always be nice, which I think is really cool because then they just end up having to work a bunch of jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. By the way, I only watched the trailer for Carney, but it looks upsetting.

Yeah, I'm sure it's not a happy movie. No, and if that was what his childhood was like, I understand him not, like, being super into it. But what's her name is in it? Jody Foster, and she's, like, making love to Gary Busey and another dude. Is it making love, though? Yeah. I think it was really, it was romantic.

He was wearing clown makeup, too, during. Oh, that's cute. Yeah, no, it looks pretty upsetting. It looks rough. So, yeah, so this is when he, at this point, all right, now it's 1983. Rob Zambi graduates from high school. He moves to New York City, and that is where he attends a Parson School of Design, where he met his girlfriend and future white zombie bassist.

Sean, how do you spell this last name? Or how do you pronounce it? Isut? Everyone hates the way it pronounced things. Is it. Sean Ysute. I'm sure that's completely accurate. Right?

With the accent. It has to be. Well, there's a Y and there's an S, so it's close. And then the craziest shit ever, he gets a job as a piece. as a PA, a production assistant for Pee Wee's Playhouse. How awesome is that? So great. So cool. And he said that he had a great time while being, he said that he was, I was watching this interview that he's like, I was below a PA. I was like, I wasn't even a PA. I was

essentially just like a go-for. I was a go-getem's boy. And he didn't give a fuck because he loved Peewee's Playhouse so much. Hell yeah. And so with a, he's sealed, zombie ends up decided to form a band. They recorded an EP called God's on Voodoo Moon. which only had 300 pressings and he only sold 100 of them. The rest he just has at his house. What I like to is that he said that the original white zombie was playing art school noise rock in the same scene as the swans and Sonic Youth at venues like CBGB in New York. Yes.

Did you hear any of the early stuff? I went on, there's super early stuff on Spotify that you can listen to. It's very different. It's punk. I mean, it's just, yeah, it's art house punk. It is like stripped down. Kind of what I'm into than I like the theatricality of white zombie, but

the necessary like listening to the music is not really my thing. Yeah, it's like that it came from that era where everything was really produced like super everybody was like embracing all the technology so everything sounds very unorganic to me.

Yes. Which is why I wasn't super... Did through the ditches a bird through the witches I slam! in the back of my Dracula. Exactly. Man. So, yeah,

they had a CBGB debut in 1986. They ended up releasing their second EP, not too long after that, called Pig Heaven, and then a third called Psycho Head Blowout.

And their first album was called, a full album, was called Soul Crusher. And it had the notable element of featuring sound clips from obscure horror and sci-fi.

It first happened in this album of horror and sci-fi film. of horror and sci-fi films in their songs, which, of course, ends up being a very much so reoccurring trend for white zombie and for Rob Zombie's solo stuff. And I think it's such a cool thing. And now it's like people do that all the time, I feel like.

But it really was novel when they were doing it. Like I said, it seems so alien to me. And I think that's why it resembles Wu-Tang Clan a lot. Because I feel like that was the first, like, hip-hop group doing that with Kung Fu movies. Punk bands used to do it, too, in the, you know, late 80s and early 90s. 90s. So I think that totally jives with where they were coming from.

Oh, for sure. And the New York scene. I bet it was such a rad fucking scene to be a part of. All the heroin that was everywhere for free. So easy to get it. And it just feels so good when you use it. Yeah, but you can't imagine how easily they slept. They all, I bet they slept so well. I think they were having a very nice time. Their next album, Make Them Die Slowly, was a change in sound for the band. They mostly had been doing like I said, the punk and noise rock before. Now they're moving into more of a heavy metal sound. That's the sea change for them with make them die slowly.

And then they start getting offers for major labels at this time. He literally talks about it like we were literally the last band in New York that didn't get on a label yet. I guess we may as well pick them up because they are, they still are selling tickets and they are doing shows. They are here. So they, and this is what I was saying before when he was talking about how he turned down. the first couple of offers. He got offered by RCA Records. But he was like Geffen Records is the best, you know,

or at least at the time was the best in his eyes. So he held out for them, which is kind of nuts. Like if you put yourself back in the place of being just starting out in the business and being in this like crazy, you know, uh, uh, scene being broke all the time. I mean like murder fist. You mean like exactly what our sketch comedy group did?

Like for Murder Fist, I'm, The first fucking anyone who would have been like, do you want a production company that wanted to sign us? We would have been like, oh, yeah. Except that we did it, though, because we were kind of offered different offers. And we're like, no, because they wanted other people to write our sketch comedy. They wanted to use our name to do other things. And we wouldn't give in, which is rock and roll, I guess. But also just add on an extra five years of being so broke.

But that's what gives you street cred, though. And it was romantic. We were the Rob Zombie of the sketchy comedy world. Yeah. Just waking up with like just a table covered in Bud Light cans and like Ben taking a shit with the door open in the bathroom. And it was just so romantic. It was like, I was like, oh, just smells so good in here. And I lit a cigarette and smoked in the middle of my living room.

Oh, yeah, it was really romantic. Oh, did we smoke cigarettes in that? apartment. Wow, that place is disgusting. So in 1992, they released La Sextor Cisto Devil Music Volume 1. Again, like, so

unmarketingable, White Zombie is like like, I'm just literally, it's almost like I'm making an effort to make us not sellable, and like the labels like pleading with them, like, name it anything other than La Sexer Cisto Devil Music Volume 1. But how awesome

is that name? I don't even know why they were trying to fight that name because they don't have a, they're soulless, they don't get a shit about God. Exactly, right? But I think maybe just devil music, right? I think they were just trying to make it more compact and simplified. I guess.

It was too many syllables. Yes, easier to say out loud. Got it. So this album is what takes them to the next level. I re-listen to it in preparation for this episode, and I think it holds up if you are a fan of white zombie. I think it's a solid album. It took them two years to hit number 26 on the Billboard album chart.

It took them two years and it was all because of Beavis and Butthead of why anyone listened to it in the first place. Yep. Thunder Kiss 65 was playing on heavy rotation on MTV in 1993 and largely because of Beavis and Butthead pushing them over the edge. Totally. Thanks, Mike Judge. Yeah, thank you, Mike Judge. That video is also where he looks the silliest, in my opinion. He does look very silly in it.

Also, do you remember him? Was it Airheads? Isn't why Zombie the band in Air? When Chris Farley rips the nipple ring out of the guys? Remember that scene? Was that them? Yeah, they were the band on stage, though, and they look really fun. But also, how, can you imagine how much Rob Zombies had probably exploded

when Thunder Kiss 65 earned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance? That's amazing. Yeah, it's just got to be so insane to go, I mean, what a leap from what they were. And so around this time, I believe Zombie and Isuit break up. Yes. Lost Exorcise goes platinum. And I can't even get into the lineage of band members because it's like a constant shifting thing. I mean, the way Rob Zami talks about it, and I have a quote, we'll get to, oh, oh, here it is.

It was great what the band accomplished, but it was never really fun to do. It was always kind of a nightmare. That's why it ended. It didn't really end for any other reason. a lot of people try to rewrite the history about how it all ended. But the truth was, there's nothing weirder than when your band finally gets big and you're playing sold out arenas and you're selling millions of records and you dread being a part of it all. And I think a lot of it was the band dynamic. And you can kind of tell because, you know, different members are just coming and going.

It's like a revolving door. And then he broke up with the bassist too. Yeah, breaking up with the basis. There's always that element. It's just like, no doubt. Yeah, just like No Doubt. We'll do an episode on No Doubt. We'll do an episode on No Doubt.

Oh, for No Doubt. That's also around the time when he started going solo. So I think that as much as he says that, like, you know, the band broke up for many reasons that he doesn't need to disclose to anyone else. But he did then immediately start going solo, which I get. If you rather just go by yourself, it's hard to say that out loud. And I wouldn't want to say it either. but he did even better when he went solo. I want to go by myself.

I want to go by myself. I will say AstroCreep, the LP AstroCreep 2000 came out before they broke up. That had the hit single More Human Than Human, which I fucking loved when that came out. More Human than Human. More human than human. You know Jackie. Sing a long. More human than human.

Natalie, come on. We all know. More human than human. You're messing up the sound. I'm the hook. We're going to have to do some harmony work after this so that you can be a little better on that. No.

I'm the living dead girl. Yeah. Sherry Moon, because you feel like you're Sherry Moon in your relationship. You're such a Sherry. I'm the rough. Henry's the living dead girl. What if Henry just next time we see Henry, just like, hey, it's me Henry and I like to be a man now? What if Henry starts wearing slouchy hats?

Yeah. What if Henry gets white mandreds? I'm telling you this is not that far off from what will probably happen. In his old age, I actually have a mental picture and it's rocking my world right now. So yes, Rob Zombie says it wasn't some master plan to go solo. I was just like, I would rather do my own thing, be happy and have it be 10 times less popular. That was really it. It just wasn't fun, the stress.

I like the fact that the band ended at its biggest point. It's always good to go out on top. I wonder too if it was the kind of thing where being in a band was like democratic, but once he went solo, he could just be calling the shots and not, I think, probably. I think that he's, you can see throughout his entire career that this is a man that wants to do it himself. Because he doesn't trust anyone, I don't know, I'm speaking for him, but I'm assuming as someone that I get it, that he doesn't trust other people to do it to the extent that he wants it to be done. Because he's a perfectionist that wants it the way he wants it. And there's nothing wrong with that. No. I imagine though if you're trying to collaborate with him, it could be difficult.

Yes. And I don't think he makes any, I don't think he pretends like he's not difficult. I think he just is like, yeah, I don't want to do whatever I want to do. Right. He seems to be pretty aware of the fact that he wants what he wants when he wants it. And again, then that's why you work alone. And I think it seems that it happens time and time again that when he does collaborate, things don't, they aren't released the way that he wants them to release. They don't come out edited the way. they want that he wants it to come out edited and I get it he has a vision and he wants that vision to be released and I mean arguably hellbilly deluxe 13 tales of cadaverous cavorting inside the spook show international is the full title hell yeah is he likes his best album yeah he likes a lot of words I will say that he's got away with them he that is his arguably the best thing he's put out musically it is very strong again I was listening to it I love Dracula as you noticed before when I sang such lyrics as

Did! You gotta. Oh, burn through them witches. You're so cool, Holden. I am pretty cool. How's it getting worse every time? So now this is actually around the time

that Rob Zombie started to get the screenplay bug. Because at this same time is when he started working on his supposed directorial debut, which was a franchise installment of The Crow. It would be a follow-up to the Crow City of Angels, and it was called The Crow 2037, A New Age of Gods and Monsters. Now, I just need to throw,

so this is written. He took it and wanted to also then release it when it wasn't going to be made. He wanted to release it as a standalone project called Black Racer X, but just please listen to this plot. The movie starts on October 31st, 2010. A young boy and his mother, who probably would have been played by Sherry Moon, are killed by a satanic priest

who most likely would have been played by Christopher Lee for a cult who worshiped the fallen one. A year later, the boy is resurrected as the crow. 27 years later, and unaware of his past, he has become a bounty hunter on a collision course with his now all-powerful killer. I want to see that movie. Well, and here begins the first installment

of Damn, Robbins. zombie. I really wish I could have seen that movie. We're going to talk about some other projects of his, as is the nature of being a director in Hollywood. You're going to have a lot of projects that never actually get made. And he's got some really enticing ones. The blob is one

example, a movie called Tyrannosaurus Rex. But yeah. We have to talk about Tyrannosaurus Rex. Of course we will. We cannot gloss over this. I want to know if it's actually about a dinosaur. Is this what's happening in the movie? Oh, it's not about a dinosaur. Yeah, it's a sequel to that Whoopi Goldberg T-Rex movie.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, Rex, I believe is the name of that. I forget. Are you talking about Bogus, the one with Girard DePardue, where he's a... No! No, it's like an actual dinosaur. Was she the voice? No, she was Whoopi Goldberg.

It was Whoopi Goldberg and a actual dinosaur. Is she play a live-action dinosaur? Yeah, yeah. What's the name of it? It is Theodore Rex. Yes. And it is a classically terrible film. Apparently, like, Whoopi Goldberg accidentally got roped into it, like, tried to get out of it desperately.

That's its own. episode of pop history. We'll talk about that later. But anyways, when we do our Whoopi Goldberg episode, which actually would be a lot of fun. That would be great, yes. Do you know what around what year that is, Jackie? Do you have any idea around, like, what year he was working on that?

Because Sherry Moon is about to come into the picture. It was right when he met Sherry Moon. Okay, which coincides with our theory that she really helped move his career into, like, another echelon. And help him also, I think also just focus a little bit more to actually get projects made. Before that, in 1998, he forms his own rights. record label, Zambia Go Go Records. He's going to release so many more albums.

It's kind of insane. He marries Sherry Moon in 2002. Which I also love this line when she says, I was kind of mean to you the first night we met, right? She asked, and Rob replied with a quiet, whispered, yes. And they just met none in normal way at a club. Yeah, at a club in New Haven, Connecticut. They were at a place called Todd's Place in New Haven, Connecticut. He was still a lead singer for White Zombie at that time, or no?

I think it was before he went off on his own. So I think she just met him when he was performing. She was like, you should like go solo. Yeah, she's like, fuck these people. Get out of here. And then she broke them up like the Beatles. Right. She was the yoke.

Because it does seem like all of this was happening at the same time. Yeah. Sherry Moon moves to L.A. after high school to become an actress originally wanting to do cartoon voiceovers and or an MTV VJ give. but found herself on tour with Rob Zombie. And she's dancing for him on stage. She becomes the choreographer, the costume designer for his solo tour.

All this stuff just really becomes very immediately wrapped up with him creatively. She was like, you got to get rid of those goggles. Could you just put down the goggles? Thank you. And it worked. Oh, Sherry. You're such a Sherry, nah. I just don't do it.

She ends up appearing in 11 of zombie's solo music videos, most notably as The Living Dead Girl in the song of the same name that we already mentioned, that is a great song, by the way. And over the course of his career in film leading up to the present, Zombie released six more studio albums as well as live albums, remix albums, nothing I don't think, quite gets to the level of Hellbilly Deluxe, but they're pretty strong in their own right, even as most recent. I forget when it came out,

but it has some really great stuff on it. But fuck all that noise. Yeah, because in 1999, Universal asked Rob Zombie to make a maze for Halloween Horror Nights. So the reason why they asked him was because they... By the way, that it wasn't... It revived Halloween Horror Nights. I love that he also is like...

And you guys can speak towards this more than me. You guys fucking, or especially Jackie and Henry, I know. I love, love, love, love Halloween Horror Nights. We go every single year. That he was instrumental in making it a thing that you know of now. Well, before the House of a Thousand Corpses, the first one he made was called the thrilling, chilling, chilling world of Rob Zombie. And that is what took it, like, really took Halloween Horror Nights to the next level.

So the next year, they asked him to come back. So he created Rob Zombie's House of a Thousand Corpses. So the movie House of a Thousand Corpses was built because of the sets, the characters, and the props created for the maze in Halloween Horror Nights. Which makes sense. It looks like a haunted house. Yes. Yeah, the movie really has a feeling of a haunted house ride in a lot of ways. How long was the Halloween Horror Nights going before Rob Zombie jumped in?

Do you know? I'm not sure. I mean, it's got to be, I know that there was at least a couple of years because there, There was a Clive Barker maze too before then. But I don't think it was like, I don't know, I should have looked into this, but it seems like it wasn't a thing, really. Well, I don't think haunts were a huge thing until the late 90s. Yeah, and he had.

He probably kind of helped the entire genre. Yes. It's been, it started in 1990. Okay. Okay. Interesting. I'm not into, I don't like paying people to get into my personal space, so I'm not huge on haunted houses like that.

Because that's what being a woman. It's called being a woman walking around. outside, especially in New York. And Jackie loves when people get in her personal space. But I know. Jackie just loves it. I am a haunt worker's dream because I openly look like I want to be scared and I scream. I kick.

I kick and claw. That's the bad form. Yeah. The reaction is self-defense. I fetal. I get in the fetal. I do love, especially because I've been to Halloween Horn Nights, I love the set design and they really have done it in a way that.

makes it look like this huge production. And I love that aspect of it. And I think Rob Zombe probably had a hand in that. And that's what's awesome is that they actually, they did actually use these sets and the props from the maze in the movie. Yeah, which is fun. So Zombe says, I was in the office of the head of production or something.

And he asked me if I had any movie ideas. And I pitched him corpses, which was very rough at the time. Because I wasn't ready and I made it up on. the spot. He liked it. I went home, wrote a 12-page treatment, and met up with them. Two months later, we are shooting. Production begins in May of 2000, and it was finished by Halloween of that year, which coincided with the attraction we were just discussing. So there were all these references to the film. It was all tied in together, and it had a budget of somewhere between 7 and 14 million. Zami later admitted that he didn't have the funding for a solid ending. Well, see, this, okay,

So this is like one of those, I'm so glad you sent me the Factor Fiction Wikipedia thing, right? I know because it was finally debunked, which I like that it was debunked, by Rob Zombie himself. They just ran out of money and therefore just didn't have an ending, really. And so they ended up getting more money to finish the film. And a lot of the things online say that he purposefully made a bad ending to get more money to redo the end of the movie. But he didn't. He's just like, he said in this interview, I'd never done a movie before. So we just didn't really know how to end it.

We kind of just ended it. And it just, you cut, you kind of ran out of money and time. You're just like, all right, the end. This is the end of it. And at that point, it wasn't even end up being distributed by Universal. It wasn't distributed until 2003 by Lionsgate. And at that point, and if you think about it, I feel like Rob Zombie really is the pioneer of torture porn because this was before.

And so Lionsgate picked it up because they were in the process of, of making saw. They were in the process of making hostile, but neither one of those had been released yet. So they picked up House of a Thousand Corpses and released it as a way to see like, how are people going to take this? And it went well, so they kept going.

Yeah, it was panned by reviewers, which is going to be a trend for Mr. Zombie. And I mean, I don't think he was going for like a critical darling. Right, right. And it definitely has its flaws. I mean, even with the extra money to make a new ending, it is weirdly like cut

it still feels cut short in a weird way It's not my favorite of his Henry loves that movie And it's great and it's great I mean I still enjoy it And think it's uh you know especially with the one to punch of devil's rejects Zombie wants to make something

quote something that was almost like a violent Western sort of like a road movie Along the lines of a Bonnie and Clyde or Badlands or the Wildbunch and I think he totally nails it but he also wanted it to be more horrific less cartoonish than the last entry.

It is. It's terrifying. Yeah, and especially due to that handheld documentary look that makes it feel so raw and real. And the acting is fucking awesome. But it's done in a really, it's well done because you can just make a movie kind of shaky and go like, yeah, it's handheld.

It's supposed to be... It's supposed to be like that. Found footage. But he did it in a masterful way. I do think this is his master's. What I love about both of these movies, too, is that again and again it kept getting brought in and it would come back as having an NC17 rating.

And what I like is that over and over you see that what I do love about Rob Zombie is that he does seem to be a stubborn person to work with. But again, he knows what he wants. So he would cut what he needed to cut to get the R rating for both of these movies. And when people would come at him and essentially say like, don't you feel like that's giving in? He's like, well, part of this is a partnership of do I want people to see this movie? And so in Devil's Rejects, he cut four minutes out of the hotel scene to take it from an NC17 to a rated R. What happened in those four minutes? I don't know, man.

Apparently you can watch it on the director's cut on the DVD, but honestly, I don't know if I want to. I don't know if I want to because I think that scene's incredible, but it is so upsetting. Oh, yeah. I should have also mentioned for House of a Thousand Corpses that it is the first film featuring Sid Haig, which would turn into a long-lasting working relationship between the two, the late great Sid-Hake, and of course, Devils Rejects, he's incredible in it. I just love what he said in his,

so Sid-Hag, RAP recently passed, and you can tell when we start talking about three from hell, he passed in the middle of that movie being made. And but when he's, Rob Zami said in his tribute to Sid Hague after he passed, he said, I was a fan of his, as a kid watching Jason of Star Command. all the way through our 20 years of working together. I can still clearly remember the first time we met.

It was at the Edith Head costume building at Universal. Sid came out of the dressing room wearing a clown suit, which was a few sizes too small. He said, hello, then. We both started laughing and how ridiculous he looked in this ill-fitting suit. We would find him a much better suit. And this was four House of a Thousand Corpses. Hell yeah.

Going back to Devil's Reject, zombie said, I just took an Old West approach because I was always obsessed with the Old West as a kid. Because of course, Westerns back when zombie was growing up were like hugely way more popular than they probably will ever be ever again. Like they were way more of a big deal. He said that's why Forsyth's character is a total reflection of that. I'd read books and backstories on sheriffs and detectives from the 1890s, rather. And that was always their thought process.

Total vigilante justice. Kill the bandits and hang their corpse in the street for all the town folks to look at. I was putting that in a modern setting and having that character ride that line and then, of course, cross it at some point. So, yeah, and that great ending, you know, and he was talking about, what's the song again? It's a Freebird. He was talking about how, like, one lesson you learn early on is, like, if you write a scene around, like, a specific song, you will be a lot of times upset to find that, like, you can't actually get the rights. He secured the rights for Freebird, like, super way ahead of times.

He always envisioned that scene that way. I mean, with that's the soundtrack of that movie, it's lucky that he had his music contacts because I can't imagine how much money he had to pay for any of that shit. Hopefully he got some discounts from being a musician. Shall we move on to Halloween? I mean, let's do it. I know that a lot of people will say how much they hated Rob Zombie's versions of Halloween. I know so many people that hated it.

I really enjoyed it. People are very sensitive about those, like, iconic killer people. And so was he. He definitely made it a point to reach out to John Carpenter and get his blessing. And Carpenter told him to, quote, make it his own, which I think he really did a great job of. I saw that in the theater. I fucking loved it. I really enjoyed the sequel, too, actually, to be honest with you.

But the first one was like, hell yeah. I think I probably saw that with Ed and some other people. And we had a blast. This is why it was the first time that he'd been. given a bunch of money to make and he had originally said that he never wanted to touch a reboot of any sort and then after he made both of these he really is laying into the fact that he really never will do another reboot ever again yeah i think they were trying to get him to keep going with it but he said they wanted him to yeah i think he i think it was after the second way because he

didn't want to do a second one and then it was one of those situations were after like a little recovery time. They're just like throwing cartoon bags of money at him. Yes. Well, I mean, you have to understand too, the Halloween franchise. I mean, this came out in 2006, but 2002 was the last Halloween that came out, Halloween Resurrection, which did not do well. They tried to bring Halloween back to varying degrees after Scream became a big success because they were like, oh, we can bring these slasher franchises back because people are excited about them again. But it really, after resurrection, which really fell flat. It needed a new feel, a new vibe.

Four whole years without a Halloween movie. Without a single one of them. How did we survive? I really do love, though, that Rob Zombie is very candid about how he felt about making Halloween. He said, making Halloween with the Weinstein's was a miserable experience. And I love that he's just so open. Apparently, there's a very long behind-the-scenes documentary highlighting the problems he was

having with Halloween because he really really. was going head to head. I know that obviously wine scene means a lot of other things right now. I hate that I have to keep... So many wisdom bruiser episodes. I'm like, I got to bring up this fucking asshole. But we have to bring it up in the fact that he wouldn't let him have his movie.

That apparently, I guess he was known, which I was not aware of, that he was known for editing and cutting bunch of the movie without the director or the producer's opinions involved and without asking them and that he would go in and edit a bunch of shit. Like in general?

just generally he would do that? Yes, this is just a thing he did, which is also what pushed Rob Zombie forward into like, why am I letting other people telling me what I can and cannot do? Right, right. And he, I mean, I think he did accomplish a lot of really great things. He renewed the character in a lot of ways by giving us this backstory, the childhood of Michael Myers,

which made him like a little more human in a good way. But that's why people were upset is because the reason why people were so scared of Halloween is because he murdered for no reason. And the fact that Rob Zombie gave him a reason behind it, but what I love about Rob Zombie is something that he also continues to say is that he identified as a monster as a child. That's why Frankenstein's monster is his favorite universal monster

because he felt like he never fit in. So he wanted to bring more understanding to the people that are considered the monsters like in Devil's Rejects to give them a little bit more backstory. Right. And Frankenstein's monster is a sympathetic character. Right. Michael Myers didn't really have that going for him.

And he also didn't really need it, but I still liked it. Zombie said, basically, I just did research about kids who kill or kids who grow up to be killers, and they all seem to share certain things. These early warning signs, they are obsessed with fire. You can't discipline them. And the big thing is they love torturing animals. And that's always an early warning sign. And I feel like zombie was leaning into what makes a serial killer.

before that became this like... It's called the McDonald Triad, which I think also includes bad wedding. Uh-huh. Yes, and bad wedding as well. And I feel like before we hit the boom, thanks to certain podcasts and things, of really starting to explore what makes a serial killer,

he was playing in that, I think before a lot of people were addressing that, and really that was more of a mainstream thing. Also, he was a huge fan of Clark Quartz. My favorite thing about Halloween might be Malcolm McDowell's portrayal of Dr. Loomis. He's amazing. And he's so funny in the sequel. Like, I love that they, like, made him funnier in the second one.

And he just kills it, man. He's just so, I've always loved his work. And I am also a big fan of Clockwork Orange. Oh, me too. And Kubrick. Yeah, in general. Check out the Stanley Kubrick episode with featuring Movieson with the Mads on Wizard the Bruiser.

So upon release, it broke the Labor Day weekend box office gross record. And it remains the record breaker, which is, pretty cool. And that is why the producers immediately are trying to get Zombie to make another one. And they, I think, finally convinced him to because they were trying to get across, like, we'll let you do have more freedom,

I think, a little bit. And I like I said, I enjoyed the sequel. It didn't do as well as the first. What I love, he said, okay, well, the first one was a miserable experience, but it did well, so maybe it'll be easier the second time. Yeah. It was worse. Oh my God. It was so much

worse. I felt like they weren't trusting me on the first one because they wanted to make sure it was a hit. And now they weren't trusting me not to fuck up their hit. Once any money comes into play, everything gets more complicated. It gets a lot more difficult. And that is why his next movie is going to be like a full reaction to that, an incredibly low budget of just $2 million to make Lords of Salem. But actually, before he got into this, this is why he directed the 2011 Woollight commercial titled The Torturer. because he needed money to make more movies. So please, everybody, look up the torturer.

It is a wool-light commercial that all these zombie fans said that he sold out to make this commercial. But he's like, whenever anyone talks about selling out, it's the most absurd statement anyone could make. I've never done anything I didn't want to do. To me, selling out is changing your music, your image, everything based on some sort of corporate manipulation to become rich and famous. I've never done that. Also, he stays true to his brand. For sure.

No, I think people just use the term selling out whenever somebody they like changes the narrative they have in their head of what they're supposed to be doing basically. Right. Right. But yeah, it's the oldest trick in the book to have like an independent career. Crispin Glover talks about it all the time too where he did Charlie's Angels so he could make all the movies he wanted to make and do his documentaries and everything. You have to do it sometimes. You have to have money from somewhere. So if you're not going to give in to these big production companies, you got to figure something out.

So yeah, you make a wool light commercial. This is also around the time he made a CSI episode as well. Right. And it's a funny wool, I remember that commercial. I didn't realize it was Rob Zombie directing it. What is he whisper? It's like a horror themed wool light commercial. What does he whisper at the end?

It's like, protect it says at the end it says some detergents torture your clothes. Save them. Long live your wardrobe. Because it's just this grotesque character. Save them. torturing your club. It's so funny. It looks totally like his movies.

Totally. It's hilarious. So, yeah, now he wants the shackles to be removed. He makes a deal with Bloomhouse productions. Which is this is the beginning of Bloomhouse, too, which that's fucking awesome. I mean, paranormal activity, the purge, get out, all these

major horror movies that came out all from this production company. They hit him up. They want something that has a short shooting schedule, something that's psychological, something that's very dark. And so he does Lords of Salem. I have a funny memory of this because there was a weird time for Lexi and I where we made a deal.

We were like, let's give each other like our own requested date night. You know what I mean? So I think her date night, we went to like, um, saw some burlesque and went to like a fan, like get oysters and cocktails and whatever. Well, that's not even hard. That's bullshit. She should have made you have like a bad, like a date you didn't want to do. You just, you want to go look at boobies.

I made her too. Pretty pretty princess and have you to read about the town. And I definitely made it, especially because she's not real, you know, she ain't friends with Satan. And I was like, I want a steak dinner and I want to go see Lords of Salem. So you made her go against her religion. Yeah. She's just like mortified because this movie, this is like super art house. A lot of very upsetting, satanic imagery and all this sort of stuff.

It's very over the top. It's weird. I liked it. I enjoyed it. I would say quickly in Lexi's defense, she's around all of us heathens all the time. Exactly. She's so not judgmental about any of us. Not at all.

That was the beginning of the numbing, I believe. I will call it. The great numbing. The great numbing of Alexis. Well, it especially, I think that Lords of Salem was one of his weirdest ones because Jason Blumhouse essentially, he specifically said, we'll give you 100% of the money you need. We'll stay 100% creatively out of your way. We won't say anything.

and you can do literally whatever you want. And Rob Zombie said that sounded like the greatest thing ever and was the exact opposite experience I just had for three straight years of Halloween, which is why Salem was one of my weirdest movies yet. I can't believe they shot that in four and a half weeks. That's bonkers. And $2 million is like, unbelievably low to shoot a movie.

Four and a half weeks for an entire feature is something that I've done in the past when we've had a budget of like $3,000 because... There was literally no option. Like four and a half weeks for a full huge production is insane. And you say that about Lords of Salem, but then never mind, both 31, 31 was shot in 20 days. Three from hell was shot in 19 days. Wow. That's insane.

My deepest connection to Lords of Salem is at the time, well, a little after it came out, I was working, one of the jobs I did was I was doing this show for Comcast Internet called like, Philean focus and I was I interviewed people at a horror convention for one Philean Uh huh? Did you interview Nathan Phileon? No, no it's from Big Mouth we talk about they talk about Nathan Fillion all the time No we're not talking about Big Mouth right now holding Oh my big mouth!

Turn through the ditches Tell all the witches H-Ley h-me h-mac Sh-H-Moh I like H-Me H-me H-me suffice to say I was not prepped in any way when I was interviewing for these.

It was like a very low budget interview show and I was terrible at it at the time. I did have any experience with like improv. I think it was like 2011 maybe. So I did this absolutely horrible interview with Lisa Marie who is regular with she's been in a couple I think a couple Rob Zombie movies and she's worked Tim Burton.

She was in Mars attacks but she's in Lords of Salem. So I was like asked to give you. this interview and it is the worst thing and Rob Zombie ended up posting it on his Facebook page and it is so bad and I actually just

Googled Lisa Marie Lords of Salem and it's the second link that comes up still and it's like crazy it's not even fun bad it's just so boring if you want to go watch something Natalie's embarrassed about just Google Lords of Salem yeah it's really sad

not fun sat. I wish that it would have been awkward like I would have like burped in the middle of it and asked them some really inappropriate question but it's just like I don't ask good questions she doesn't answer good answers. Oh by the way, Lord Salem, it's about a female radio DJ

in Salem, Massachusetts who gets wrapped up with a coven of ancient Satan worshiping women. Zombie said the movie's pace is very 70s almost like an Italian horror movie so the pacing and the structure and the fact that I wanted the movie to at times be purposefully confusing One of the main things when you get notes from a studio is they don't want anyone to be confused ever

Everything has got to be so obvious at all times unless it's a twist ending I just wanted to unfold in a sort of surreal dreamlike manner it definitely does It starts off like kind of logical and then it just goes by the end it is just It's madcap It's a bonanza of imagery like he's talking about 70s horror Gialo films were like Italian horror mysteries basically and it's definitely got that vibe to it. Yeah, and I haven't seen it since I saw in the theater, but I did enjoy it. I remember a lot of people not enjoying it. It's nuts, but I loved it. Yeah, I thought it was good. The imagery is super cool. Yeah. Yeah, it's really, like it, art house. Like, I don't think you want to go see it in any logical way.

Like, like, be on drugs. Yeah. And a lot of these movies are not for everybody. I am aware of that, but they are all for me. Exactly. So, and some of them were not made that feel so for me. The biggest heartbreaker for me is that he was unable to make Broad Street Bullies which is what was about the Philadelphia Flyers? The Flyers, yeah. And in the 70s

they essentially were just a bunch of, there were a team of goons. Like the goon on the team is like the fight starter guy or the guy that can like beat people up essentially is his role. Well the whole team was goons. Like they just sat down and they were just like, we want to literally make people afraid to come after us.

He says, uh, Broad Street bullies as far as I know is the next thing but every time I thought I knew what was the next thing it always becomes another thing so all signs on that are looking great to be the next thing the story is crazy but it's a true life sports story of the philadelphia flyers and how they literally sat down one day and had a plan to quote let's build a team that's so tough that other teams would literally be afraid to play us I've been researching the script for over a year and when you read the script there's no way this is true it sounds like such a bunch of bullshit but it's all true it's just the craziest fucking stories apparently there is

or was an HBO documentary that I really want to watch. Yes, that's also called Broad Street Bullies. And I think it's one of those where a lot of the difficulty in getting the movie made was the Philadelphia Flyers brand, not being like super squeamish about this part of their history being like a big movie, because it is really fucked up. Yeah, and I think too, from everything that I've heard, and I don't know if this is completely accurate, but he was trying to move away from horror. Yes.

And he really wanted to make these sort of, he had other projects that were out of that genre, but people kind of typecast him into horror. So he was having a hard time getting funding for stuff that wasn't like just gore. Another one that I really hope, I think he's still trying to get this made and I really hope he does, is raised eyebrows, which is a book, it would be a book adaptation. And it's about the real life of Groucho Marx. That sounds super interesting to me. I want to read the book. It's written, I believe, by a. who was like his caretaker, I think,

during the last years of his life. So you watched as this old groucho, you know, moves into the later stage of his life. It's why it's important to take care of the elderly, so you can get stories and make money. Yes, but there's also other projects that I really want to see from Rob Zombie that are in the horror genre,

that he had openly said that he was going to remake Chud, which, you know what, Chud, in rewatching, of course it's a classic, and I will always love it, but like, I would love to see zombie make chud. Sure. And I think it would be awesome.

He also, in 2009, said he was in talks of making The Blob. The Blob. He wanted the film would center on an original creature from outer space rather than a gelatinous mass of goo. And it would be very dark and very serious. That would be cool. But then why is it called Blob? Yeah. Was it called the blob Jackie?

I don't know because I guess it's still going to be a creature and I guess it's still going to be blobulous. Oh, okay. as long as that's still globy. What we have to talk about is Tyrannosaurus Rex. So what is the premise of it? You're going to have to teach me. Ah, ha, ha, ha. About this.

Ah, ha, ha, ha. H me. Don't hate me. This is based on, so we are also going to talk about some of the comic books that Rob Zombie created with Steve Niles, who created 30 Days of Night, after they created a company called Creep Entertainment International. So Tyrannosaurus Rex is based on a. comic that they wrote called The Nail. Please listen to the synopsis of this comic. You have no choice.

Hunted in one of the most desolate regions of America, preyed upon by an evil that does not sleep. Rex Houser is the nail, and it's time he took a stand. A semi-pro wrestler, Houser, has been touring the country performing at small-time arenas until the fateful night. He and his family run afoul of a bloodthirsty gang of satanic bikers stalking the North Dakota badlands. Now he's a lone man fighting for the survival of his loved ones in a no-holds-barred standoff against the forces of hell itself. The nail is a relentless, unflinching portrait of the heart of darkness and what one man will sacrifice to hold it at bay.

And they had already started creating it, and he had gotten Tyler Maine, who played Michael Myers in Halloween, to start training with a Vanderbner Holyfield to be in it. Which is why he's actually so ruthlessly jacked in Halloween 2. Yes, that's exactly why, because it was at that same time. Yeah, so he like, like, he would, and he also grew out this big beard for, for that as well, um, that they just kept on him for Halloween 2. But yeah, that sounds rad.

Is that still even possible? It seems like it's kind of done. It is possible, because that's what I love too, is that whenever people ask him about, like, would you ever go back to these projects that you were halfway in the middle of He's like, I'm definitely what he's like, but you know, it's like looking back at something. When you jump back into a project and you see all of the things you didn't that you now don't love about it and the things you've moved past. Right, right.

He also, since you brought up the comic books, he wrote, he did several comic books, Spook Show International's another one. He did a series on Bigfoot. He released a line of Devils Rejects comics. He also did a comic called The Adventures of El Super Bisto that got an animated film adaptation. The animated film you can rent on Amazon and it is weird as weird. So Tom Papa, he worked on it with Tom Papa, for whom he actually directed a stand-up comedy special. Tom Papa is a stand-up comedian who's great.

By the way, I love him on podcasts. Paul Giamatti and Rosario-Dalson, Rosario-Dalston, also are due voices for it. I looked up, yeah, I looked up some of it, and it's ridiculous. And also apparently, Lords of Salem was originally intended to be a hybrid of an album and a comic book that was going to be about an evil rock band that captivates and possesses teenagers

who, of course, become hideously violent. So I also kind of want to see that as well. Yeah, totally. His most recent comic came out in 2010, and that was called Whatever Happened to Baron Von Schock. But let's get to it, his last two movies. You're going to have to give me more info on these. I have not seen these. You have 31. Actually, based on the premise, I think I want to

watch it. I haven't heard the best things about it, but it was released in 2016, about five carnies in 1976 who were kidnapped by a gang of clowns and forced to play a survival game called 31, in which clowns chase them through a maze of rooms for 12 hours. And it was inspired by him reading that Halloween, October 31st, is the number one day of the year when people go missing. And he had to crowd fund in order to raise the money for the film. And it is a not great? I'm gonna say his, he doesn't seem like his heart in it.

I think what I get from it is that he wanted to make something. People will only pay for horror from him. So he crowdsourced it. Gotcha. Made a movie. But I didn't feel like there's any passion in it. It's super violent.

The cast is great. I love everybody involved. It was made in 20 days. And they were filming under such grueling conditions that there's actually a four-hour documentary of the making of 31 called In a Hell Everyone Loves Popcorn. And I want to watch it because apparently they were all just having such a miserable time because it was because they had no money and it had to be done in such haste.

And that it was a very nasty, gritty, guerrilla style approach of filmmaking where Josh Hastings, who created the documentary said that there were times that like they were stuck in this hot, smelly and sticky bathroom. and is it the whole night they do their thing in the scene and then wait for Rob D.L. something like, be nastier or grab a big handful of hair. Meanwhile, the camera crew all looked like they were questioning everything about their career choices.

In hindsight, it was hilarious. And those kind of conditions can actually really benefit for... Yeah, sometimes you get amazing stuff. Yeah. Yeah. From that, like, Evil Dead, for instance. For sure. But I think when you're that far in your career, it's not your first movie.

Yeah, when you're like a little bit older and a little crankier, maybe it's not. The best. Not conducive necessarily, but I love the premise. It's pretty, if you like, gory stuff. Sure. Yeah. It is fun.

If you love torture porn, you will love this movie. I don't love torture porn, but I enjoy some guts. You know what I mean? I like a little guts in my butts. Whoa. I think that's, is that a hernia? We're getting near the end. I don't think that's good.

We're getting near the end of us. It's called a pink sock. Burn through the ditches. Scare all those witches. So now we bring ourselves to three from hell, which is, again, is shot in 19. days. So originally it was supposed to be all about Captain Spalding, Otis, and Baby. It's supposed to be after Devil's Rejects. And if you've had, if you've seen Devil's Rejects, spoiler alert, you think that they die at the end. But what? They don't die and they go to jail. Jackie, can I just ask,

I have not seen it as well. Do they explain it all why they're alive still? They just didn't get all of them. They were riddled with bullets, but not enough. Okay. Got it. That's literally it. And then they all went to jail. And so this is years after they are in jail and they break out of jail. So zombie says, truthfully writing it was pretty easy. Figuring out the exact story and where they were going to go took a while. But bringing the characters

back to life and the dialogue and how they were going to act was pretty easy. I don't know why, but these characters are just, I know them so well. But the problem was, is that Sid Haig was supposed to be a large part of three from hell. So he called up Sid Haig

three weeks out because he was going to do the movie. And so he called him up. He said, so I was like, oh man, I kind of realized yeah, he's in rough shape. So at that point, I was kind of fucked. I created this charter, Foxy, for Richard Brake. So essentially, he created a whole new character that was supposed to be

Captain Spalding's character. So he had just worked with Richard Brake on a movie called 31, and he knew he would fit the vibe. He was on another movie in Spain shooting, and he flew right to L.A. and started working instantly. But the problem is that he went from one moment thinking, this is the

most prepared I've ever fucking been to start a movie. Everything is locked down tight. And within one phone call, the entire production went into complete chaos for three weeks. But at the end of the day, it all worked out great. So what happened to was that he needed Sid Haig to just do one scene. So in the movie, he's in it with one scene. And you can tell that he gave it his all, but he was not doing well. I think it's awesome in the sense that I think, Sid Hague thrived in movies and I think he got, he was happy. He got at the very end of his life to do a scene in that movie. That's why this actually touches me so much.

So if you're familiar with the people working in the movies, you have to pass a bunch of tests, a health test for insurance to cover you on set or else you can't be in the movie. And Sid Hague had said yes. He failed all of the tests that Lionsgate had given him to get the insurance to be on set. and essentially Sid Hague went to them and was like, please let me just do one scene. And Rob Zombie said,

Lionsgate was fine with me sneaking him on one day to shoot as much as I could. It was on me to make sure that nothing went wrong. So I got him in, I shot everything I could shoot, and I got him out. Which I just, like, that gives me tingles of like the fact that this is not,

I mean, I felt even weird saying this on a podcast, not that it really matters, but it's like, because they get all getting a lot of trouble, over this, but nothing happened, thank God. But I love that they worked together like, no, I need, because Sid Haig knew that he needed this button in the movie.

Yeah, that's so amazing, and he did pass five days after the film was released. That's so sweet. Which was released in September of this year. And he was 80, and what a badass he was. He was just so cool his whole life. He was still doing cons and stuff into his 70s,

which was pretty rad. I saw him like a month before he passed. And his wife seemed like she was super cool. Yeah. And I mean, for him, what, because I think it was, when was he, he was like 60 when he got House of a Thousand Corpses? Is that career? 50?

Probably around 60. Like, he had, his career was dead in the water. And he had a, he had an illustrious career earlier in his life, too. He was big in Jack Hill movies who I love very much. Oh, we should do a whole separate episode on Sin Hag. I love to do that. I would love to. He's got a cool background.

But yeah, and then he kind of just stopped. And then he was revitalized by Rob Zambi. And I think he loved that. Yeah. Like, and it's really amazing. Yeah. So, and Three From Hell, unfortunately, though, again, feels rushed. And I think you're right.

I think the travesty here of this story at the end of the day, not to end on a sad note, but is that, let Rob Zobby make non-horror movies. I know. Let the man make a movie that's not scary. He's trying. He's really trying. And I'm going to keep watching and supporting everything that Rob Zobbi's. Zombie does because he's a man after my own heart, someone that is just doing what he wants to do in any way that he can and always has. And that's fucking badass.

Yeah, he's awesome. Yeah, super cool. All right. Is there anything else? Are we wrapping it up? No, but if Rob Zombie, if you're listening, yes, I'll kiss you. Yes, we can get married and I would love to be a sister wife with Sherry Moon. We would be such great sister wives.

Oh, cool. I just want to be friends with Sherry Moon and make stuff. I also want to be friends with Sherry. That's why I'm saying I want kisses as long as, you know, Sherry Moon says it's okay because she will slice and dice me. Yeah, you can't fuck with her too hard. And I just want to say, dig through the ditches and burn through the witches. I slam in the back of my.

Did you just? Did you not learn any of the other lyrics? It's the only one that you're going to say. Dead I am the one exterminating son. You really want him to keep going? Slipping through the trees, strangling. the breeze. Because it sounds like you wanted him to keep going, Natalie.

Watching angels cry while they slowly turn. We love you guys. Thank you so much for joining us. I am in a taco world. Dig through the ditches. H-mo cannot continue because this is all we have on Rob Zombie. We love you guys. Thank you so much for joining us on this week's episode of Pop History.

We love your Rob Zombie. We love you guys. My name is Jackie Zabowski. I slam in the back of my Dragula. I'm holding McNeely. The Spider-Man of the Internet. I am HG, NG, I'm NG. HG? That's right, Henry Jean, the co-hose.

We've become one. Oh, no, it's already she, they're becoming one. Everyone runs. It's like that Spice Girl song, which, who we should do an episode on at some point. Oh, fuck yeah. I'm N-G, N-G, the living dead girl. Yeah. Have it going, everybody.

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