A Biography of Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie, who's given name is Robert Cummings, was born on January 12, 1965 in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Cummings was always fascinated with the classic movie monsters, wrestling, comics, the 1960's gore movies, and any other form of the counter-culture art movement. Throughout his musical career Cummings would draw inspiration for his music and design from these art forms. Robert Cummings and his younger brother Michael Cummings (better known as Spider One, vocalist for Powerman 5000), became interested in design at an early age and Rob soon moved to New York, where he began to pursue a career in publishing at the Pratt Institute.

During his time at the Pratt Institute, Cummings worked a variety of jobs, including working as a cycle courier and as a designer for pornographic magazines. Perhaps his most famous job was as a production assistant on the hit children's TV show Pee-Wee's Playhouse. It was during this time that Cummings met and began dating another young designer by the name of Shauna Reynolds. Reynolds shared the same interest in classic horror, sci-fi, and heavy metal that Cummings did and it didn't take long before the couple decided to form a band. There was a minor problem however - neither Cummings nor Reynolds were musicians. The two friends decided to split the two duties they each had an interest in: Cummings changed his name to Rob Straker and became the vocalist while Reynolds changed her name to Sean Yseult and became the bassist. For the name of the band they chose the classic black-and-white Bela Lugosi shocker White Zombie.