Interview: Rob Zombie
Just call Rob Zombie the second coming of Rodney Dangerfield. The two differ drastically in appearance (Zombie prefers graphic tees and unruly bedhead to Dangerfield’s trademark white collared shirt and sloppy red tie), but both curse the establishment with the same mantra: “I don’t get no respect!”
Despite the throngs of fans salivating at the double bill of Zombie’s fall jaunt with fellow shock rocker Marilyn Manson (dubbed the Twins Of Evil Tour, which stops at the Allstate Arena on Oct. 11) and the Toronto International Film Festival rolling out the red carpet (albeit at midnight) to premiere his latest supernatural thriller, The Lords Of Salem, the suits in Hollywood still give Mr. Hellbilly and his goth brethren the stink eye.
“There’s two things that I’m sure of,” Zombie explains, “that horror movies and heavy metal equals zero respect. Sometimes, the lack of respect actually becomes detrimental to try to get . . . projects done. Halloween was a huge movie. It came in at No. 1 and made a fortune. Had that been any other type of movie it would have been such a different situation, but since it’s a horror movie, it’s almost like it’s not considered. There’s a real prejudice about it.
Metal doesn’t fare any better. “They don’t even have a Grammy any more for heavy metal. You can sell millions of records, be the biggest band in the world [and] it’s like you don’t even exist,” Zombie rages on. “You can record an instrumental polka record that sells four copies and they’ll present you with a Grammy on television. I mean, it’s just ridiculous.”
Not quite so fast – the Grammys abandoned its sole role as an awards show broadcast long ago when the Recording Academy decided to focus on brainstorming ill-fitting duets instead of handing out statuettes. Even those polka players have to send mom to an online stream to see their acceptance speech, but Zombie has a point.
“There’s a disconnect between the people who run these companies and the people who buy the products that they make to keep these companies running,” Zombie continues. “That’s the problem I have. When I’m talking to quote unquote Hollywood executives about film projects, they are so disconnected from the average person and what the average person likes and is about. Because they don’t really leave Beverly Hills. What the fuck do they know what some kid in Wisconsin likes that hangs out in 7-Eleven? They have no clue.”
— Janine Schaults
For the full feature, click on the issue cover or grab a copy of Illinois Entertainer, available free throughout Chicagoland.
He’s absolutely correct – The idiots who run Hollyweird and what passes for a ‘music’ industry have ZERO idea about what people want – and now that they’ve merged they DON’T EVEN CARE about what the public wants – which is why so many people download music and movies for free – not because they can’t afford to pay but because they either cannot get the music THEY WANT on the radio and want to sample the bands the REALLY like before buying their album or going to a concert or have been burned so many times at the cinema by watching a lousy flick that they just can’t be bothered anymore! The disconnect that Rob spoke about is SO severe that you can see it in the type of products they deliver – they put out music THEY want, NOT what the public wants! Which is why there’s so much emphasis on the ‘bling-bling’ stuff which THEY like, and which most of the public cannot even AFFORD! The lack of respect to musicians is NOT surprising – the want a PRODUCT, not art! Quick point: I live in Asia, and when MTV stopped playing metal and rock people STOPPED watching it! Nobody likes rap and RnB here – despite what the suits in the US think! Anyway, the US record industry is a dinosaur that’s well past it’s sell-by date – expect it to go extinct (along with all the pop princesses and boy-bands they peddle) soon once the rest of the world gets fed up of all the garbage America peddles as ‘entertainment’ and dump the dollar which will lead to a REALLY huge collapse that they won’t recover from .. at least Rob and The Hard Rock Genre has the talent to survive THAT apocalypse … can’t say the same for The Backstreet Boys or Trey Songz now can we? ….