ROB ZOMBIE Says 'Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor' Might Be Turned Into Movie One Day

ARTISTdirect.com editor-in-chief Rick Florino recently conducted an interview with Rob Zombie. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ARTISTdirect.com: Given how heavy and dark they were, do you feel like those three songs you did with Joey Jordison (SLIPKNOT, MURDERDOLLS) on the expanded edition of "Hellbilly Deluxe 2" were a bridge for "Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor"?

Rob: Yeah, they definitely were. We did those songs so fast. I made a conscious decision about three years ago to not take my focus off the music at any point because I had been when I was doing the movies. I had to. I'd go off to do the movies, and I'd take my focus off the music sometimes for years at a time. Every time you'd come back to start it back up again, it was odd. It was awkward. You sort of felt like, "What was happening here?" This time my goal was to not do that. When I was making the movie, in between breaks, we'd still tour, write, and work. I'd work on the movie and come back. I was going back and forth so I was never away from the music or the guys in the band for very long. Sometimes, when I'd be caught up in a movie, I literally wouldn't speak to the guys in the band for six to eight months at a time. It's not for any bad reason. It's just because you're so swept up in the film world — which they're not a part of — that time flies by. I think that has a lot to do with it.

ARTISTdirect.com: What's the story behind "Lucifer Rising"?

Rob: It's funny because that song had been kicking around back to those other songs you mentioned when Joey played with us. We had one version of it that Joey actually played on. Several different people have played on that song. Obviously, we didn't use it because I wanted it to be all the new guys in the band playing so we recut the drums. That was early on. We didn't have time to finish it for the special edition of "Hellbilly Deluxe 2", but we always liked it and kept it around. In a sense, we knew that was the spirit of what we were going to do.

ARTISTdirect.com: Do you feel like this album could translate into a movie at some point?

Rob: Well, I think it could. I made it with that in mind. At least in my mind — no one else knows this — I wanted to have a storyline that runs through the record so if someday I wanted to make it into a movie musical like THE WHO's "Tommy" or "Quadrophenia", there was a structure to follow. I'm not really talking about what it is because I think it's sort of relevant at this point. Maybe that's why that sense comes through.

Read the entire interview from ARTISTdirect.com.