Rob Zombie


Rob Zombie was with Geffen Records for 18 years and suddenly made the switch to Roadrunner's Loud & Proud for his new album, 'Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool.' So far so good, says the guy who sold about 15 million albums with his former label, as a solo artist and former band, White Zombie.

"It reminds me of the early days of Geffen," Zombie tells Noisecreep. "Because in the early days, Geffen was a very hands-on label. Every time you went to a city, there was a label rep and knew everyone's names, and everybody was your friend and if you had a Christmas party, they'd come."

However, things at his former label aren't as welcoming for Zombie these days. "Now every single person I knew at the label since I signed is long gone; they've all been fired 10 times over, and the label is just this big corporate entity that doesn't return phone calls anymore."

Zombie, who has no problem telling the label when he doesn't want to make a video or doesn't like a certain song for a single, finds Roadrunner operates much in the way that he remembers from those early days.

"Roadrunner is more back to that old-school approach, where they understand that every little thing matters. It's not just about trying to get some big monster single and not work," he says. "Because rock music's different than pop music. You can have a big pop song and put it in a TV commercial, but that's not what we do.

"I think for some people, rock bands became too much work. But rock bands are the things that survive. Pop [acts] do not sell out arenas when the guys are in their 60s like rock bands do, and are forgotten six months later."

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