BlogSeptember 23, 2012 10:55 AM ET

Melvins' Buzz Osbourne thinks Rob Zombie is an asshole

As part of his ongoing tour diary with Spin magazine, Melvins frontman Buzz Osbourne described his thoughts on touring with White Zombie in 1995. Interestingly, Osbourne, who has never been shy about speaking his mind, offers up a less than rosy assessment of one Mr. Rob Zombie.

Easily the worst touring experience of my entire life was the White Zombie tour we did. I could write a whole book about that infernal bullshit. On the first day of the tour, the first person we met from the entire White Zombie cast and crew was a mullet headed road manager who ended up behaving like a mean version of Cotton Mather. He was a "professional" roadie. Now I have never met a group of people who hate music more than professional roadies, and it is clearly obvious that 99.9 percent of them know nothing at all about music. Nothing. I find this to be quite strange really. It's like someone who works in a bakery knowing nothing about baking. Actually this also extends to most of the bands these guys work for as well, but I pretty much lump all of these bands and crew into one big sewage pit. It's fitting.

Mr. Mullet told us straight up that he was going to see to it that we got fucked over every night PA-wise in order to not piss off his boss, the swollen White Zombie dictator Rob Zombie. And it just went from there. He openly told us that Rob acted a prick to him, and that's how life on the road was going to go for us as well. Perfect. One insane thing after another every day for the whole tour. On one of the few times we actually got a soundcheck, Mr. Mullet came on stage and pulled the plug because Rob was eating and that we were to "shut the fuck up" because he didn't like the "noise."

My instant thought was what the fuck is he eating, a Faberge Egg omelet? I'd been to their catering and it was the same swill they always serve at these horrid rock'n'roll extravaganzas which amounts to nothing more than disgusting macaroni and cheese type garbage and an assortment of what appears to be dead things in jelly. You'd think he'd want some kind of booming symphonic distraction to help disguise the fact that he's eating a big plate of steaming dog shit. Or so you would think….

And the idiocy didn't stop there. Rob did this between song speech every night that consisted of unintelligible talking gibberish delivered in a "heavy metal" guttural grunt, and at some point he inevitably started saying "they said we couldn't do it, they said it couldn't be done." Which I'm guessing is in reference to them surprisingly being able to peddle another million records to their highly gullible brainless fans. I'm not sure why he thought his dull minions needed to know this. Their entire thing was just dumb.

Don't get me wrong, it was all our fault for doing a stupid tour like that in the first place and I certainly can't blame them for that. We accepted the offer! Big mistake on our part but we did learn our lesson as a result of that stupidity. I think it's a bad idea for us to try to sell our band like that. Actually, we believed that then as well, but it was their idea to have us along and for some reason that remains a mystery to me, they paid us pretty well. But those days are over for us. Now, I would rather eat my own shit then do another tour with people who behave like that. Actually if not my own, then who's shit would I eat? That's a good question....

28 comments

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anonymous 9/23/2012 10:08:30 AM

Who the fck are the Melvins? Didn't they tour with the Doors back in 69?

anonymous 9/23/2012 11:00:19 AM

fck ROB ZOMBIETTE !!!

anonymous 9/23/2012 11:32:35 AM

Maybe Buzz shouldn't have been a little bitch and confronted Rob about it like a man. If it was all true he could have quit the tour... if you're staying on a tour because you want the fame then you're better off working at McDonald's.

anonymous 9/23/2012 2:33:51 PM

it is called a contract which you are legally bound to fulfill

anonymous 9/23/2012 4:20:59 PM

the Melvins, are responsible for inspiration for probably at least 50% of the heavy music that's out there now. Including the birth of some genres that wouldn't exist without them. They are not for fans of "pop" metal like Godsmack and other horrible crap. They make art, and while not all of it is listenable to the non-musician ear, they took risks and lived with them and made their way on their own terms and nobody elses. If nothing else, that, at least deserves some respect.

anonymous 9/23/2012 5:05:13 PM

You mean glorified stripper techno metal is better the Melvins yep America's taste in music is top notch. My band just played with Static X and the roadies were cool but the band wasn't. Tried to talk to them and tell them I was a fan and they just pretty much straight ignored us. They definitely aren't in it just for love if music though. Long live The Melvins

anonymous 9/23/2012 6:53:07 PM

the faberge egg thing was funny although they gotta admit its hard to listen to shit while you eat shit and he already had to put up with looking at their shitty faces so give him a break. if they want respected they should have done something respectable, like being a fcking scientist idk. opening for rob zombie hardly even merits getting eye contact when talked too

anonymous 9/23/2012 7:31:58 PM

I've heard that several times. No matter how cool the man wants/wanted people to think he is, many who've met him have reportes his pedantic attitude. Not worth it if you consider his best work was just a couple of discs as White Zombie. And those two movies as well...

anonymous 9/23/2012 8:16:35 PM

fck rob zombie, long live the melvins. rob zombie is for mall core, radio goths who are still anticipating a new disturbed release. rob zombie sounds like he enjoys the smell of his own dick cheese, fck that guy, his music, and his fans. the melvins have done more for music than that tool ever will.

anonymous 9/23/2012 8:24:32 PM

Rob Zombie was an jerk at the Pantera/White Zombie/EyeHateGod show at The Summit in Houston back in 1996. Interestly, that was the same show where Phil and all of EyeHateGod overdosed on heroin.

DrMartinLutherKingJr 9/23/2012 9:08:04 PM

Me and my cousin were backstage at a rob zombie / anthrax show and rob zombie and all his bandmates were dressed in cowboy getups and skeleton masks waiting to go on. Not knowing who was behind the masks, we were calling them gays and whatnot right next to them and loud enough for them to hear us.

anonymous 9/23/2012 10:34:12 PM

Who cares.

anonymous 9/24/2012 7:50:56 AM

I appreciate the mall core reference. Mall core(90's) > Nu-Metal(2000's). Thanks you.

IG88 9/24/2012 9:16:47 AM

People shit talking The Melvins need to go be gays elsewhere

anonymous 9/24/2012 1:29:00 PM

Waited 17 years to talk shit. Brave guy.

anonymous 9/24/2012 2:19:43 PM

^^ This. Buzz comes off like a total bitch. Great. You ripped off Sabbath riffs and the B side of Black Flag's My War album for decades now. Who seriously cares about the Melvins right now? In the early 90's, I could see but not now.

AdamSuperfan 9/24/2012 8:43:30 PM

RAZ! but what about this!: http://www.buddyhead.com/w p-content/uploads/2009/08/ z00.jpg

stooooopid 10/1/2012 7:17:50 PM

What a fcking douche. Melvins fcking blew then and they still blow now. Who gives a shit if Rob Zombie is an jerk.....White Zombie still shits on the Melvins.

anonymous 10/5/2012 6:24:03 PM

Rob Zombie is a fcking jerk, which is why White Zombie didn't last long compared to Zombie's solo stuff. Melvins have more respect than Zombie in the music community anyway. It's just weird that WZ would request Melvins and treat them like shit.

anonymous 12/11/2012 2:32:08 PM

I meet Riggs at a Powerman 5000 show back in 03 (he lives a couple hours from me) and even he says Zombie is an ass hole.

anonymous 3/9/2013 2:09:43 PM

Rob Zombie is a fcking dick. A while back, on Ozzfest, they had to threaten him with permanently banning him to get him out of his trailer. He was bitching about it being too hot, and he actually spit water all over my mom and her friends because there was no ice (it all melted). My mom used to be a manager for FYE and they went on tours frequently. That, and the way he treated all of us at the tour.

anonymous 4/27/2013 11:06:48 AM

Who are the Melvins? And a Doors reference? You truly are a moron.

anonymous 4/26/2014 7:15:34 PM

Yeah,as a musician I was interested as well,as to his appeal. Appears after a few great guitar riffs in the 80's it made this dude,he has little substance.Everything else has been much below average. Look at some of his Pics online,it's as if you can see it in his expression he knows he's a Fraud.Glad I didn't spend any money on him.Only reason I cared was because college GF used to get naked when she heard a WZ song.

anonymous 6/9/2014 12:38:10 PM

If you're asking WHO the MELVINS are...I can't even go there with you. Buzzo is a GENIUS

anonymous 10/11/2014 10:23:14 PM

It's funny that Rob Zombie wanted the Melvins to tour with him, since his vocals are a total rip-off from Buzz Osbourne!

anonymous 10/11/2014 10:24:09 PM

It's funny that Rob Zombie wanted the Melvins to tour with him, since his vocals are a total rip-off from Buzz Osbourne!

anonymous 6/21/2015 5:32:24 AM

King Buzzo has been mouthing off about Cobain as well as other artists over the years,juvenile and boring... The only reason Houdini,Stoner Witch and Stag were released on Atlantic was because of Cobains involvement with the Melvins. The Melvins may have shaped Cobain and Nirvanas early sound but great bands like Killing Joke and The Pixies were the real catalysts to inspire a record that altered radio and rock forever.Smelvins will always be a mere footnote in the seattle music history books.

anonymous 96 days ago

Buzz isn't half the genius Rob was back in the early WZ days. If any of you Melvin's fans listened to WZ in their noise days you'd know who the innovators were in this scenario.