Industrial metal icon Rob Zombie recently reflected on his time with multi-platinum outfit White Zombie. That band somewhat infamously came to a seemingly permanent end back in 1998 amid various personality conflicts, strained relationships and other issues. While Zombie revisited White Zombie‘s “Astro-Creep: 2000“ onstage for last year’s ‘Louder Than Life‘ festival, his trip down memory lane for that 2x multi-platinum opus saw him backed his current solo band.
Some fans still hope for a proper White Zombie reunion, but it’s been made fairly clear over the decades since their breakup that Rob isn’t interested. He still performs various key songs from that band’s catalog via his solo touring, and in a newly published interview with Revolver, he once again confirmed he has long since moved on from resurrecting the group.
Speaking of the above-mentioned 30th anniversary performance of “Astro Creep: 2000” last year, Zombie stated:
“It was a bit of a challenge. Thirty years is a long time, so it’s sort of hard to remember where my head was at when I was making that record. It was not exactly the greatest of times [for White Zombie]. I knew as we were making that record that it would most likely be the last one since the band was falling apart, but obviously, I wanted to stick it out… I’m definitely proud of the record. It was a good one to end on.”
Zombie also went on to discuss his thought process in launching his solo career after White Zombie came to an end:
“After White Zombie disbanded and I had to create another band, I really wanted to be very exacting with the people that I chose to work with again. I couldn’t deal with any more conflicts. Everything worked out perfect, both of these guys [guitarist/vocalist Mike Riggs & bassist/vocalist Blasko] contributed greatly to the ‘Hellbilly Deluxe‘ tours being the absolute best time I ever had in my life being on the road.”
Later confirming he had has closed the book on White Zombie as it was, he offered, “That was a very long time ago and I’ve moved on from it to do other things.” The now 61-year-old musician/filmmaker, etc. also looked ahead to the future and if he has any plans to slow down. He stated:
“I think all the time about what it would take for me to step away from the stage — the main thing would be if I didn’t think we were capable of delivering the show at the level it should be delivered. Once I feel that the excitement and the energy and the drive is gone, I will just walk away. I take the show very seriously and I want it to be great, simple as that. And if I feel that it’s not great anymore, then I’ll be done.”
Zombie‘s eighth studio album “The Great Satan” is set to be released tomorrow, February 27th.
