“My advice: Don’t quit. When I got to New York City, I lived so far below the poverty line, because I didn’t give in and get a job at 7-Eleven. I think you can thrive in misery.” — Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie’s path from poverty in New York City to a multimillion-selling music career is the backdrop to his advice to keep going. He’s described accepting severe hardship while trying to build that life: “I think you can thrive in misery.”
His ambitions stretched across music, movies and comics. As a child, he wanted to be Alice Cooper, Steven Spielberg and Stan Lee.
He eventually found an audience as White Zombie’s frontman, combining heavy metal and horror imagery on La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One (1992) and Astro-Creep: 2000 (1995). Going solo brought Hellbilly Deluxe in 1998, an album that sold millions and included “Dragula” and “Living Dead Girl.”
Filmmaking became another outlet for those interests. House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil’s Rejects (2005) put violent outsiders at the center of grimy horror stories.
His love of B-movies, exploitation cinema and camp also shaped his theatrical concerts. Across both careers, he’s described protecting the creative process from too many outside opinions.
“I really just do what I like. I don’t understand what the general public likes sometimes,” Zombie said.
His directing credits grew to include Halloween (2007), its 2009 sequel, The Lords of Salem (2012), 31 (2016), 3 from Hell (2019) and The Munsters.