Zombie In Family Values Feud

07/23/1998 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(7/23/98, 6 p.m. PDT) - We promised that the official details about Rob Zombie bailing out of the Family Values tour would be announced today, but we didn't expect fireworks.

The tour's organizers, who call themselves the Firm--not to be confused with the 1985 Paul Rodgers/ Jimmy Page rock act or 1997's Nas/ AZ)/ Foxy Brown/ Nature hip-hop collective--issued a release through their publicists that stated the tour had "already made a move for the better."

It announced that Zombie had been "removed" from the bill--which features Korn, Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube and Orgy--and will be replaced by Germany's Rammstein. The release went on to say that Zombie objected to various "production design ideas" and complained, "through his manager," that he did not want to work with a hip-hop act on the bill. In addition, the release claims the Firm believed it had signed on White Zombie, not the Rob Zombie solo project.

Not true, says Zombie. "It pretty much hit me like a bomb today," the singer says of the claims made in the press release. "I don't really understand what is going on. They're saying all of these things that aren't true. They say they thought they were booking White Zombie on the tour and not Rob Zombie, which is not true. They always knew it was me."

"I didn't leave the tour because who was on the tour, the reason I wanted to be on the tour, was because who was on it," he adds. "The only reason I left the tour was over the production, plain and simple. When I signed on, I was told I could do a whole show. It became apparent over the two months of negotiations that went on, it wasn't going to happen. That's when I bowed out of the tour."

To make the accusations stranger, Zombie claims he never spoke to any member of Korn, any of the other acts on the bill, or any of the managers. "I've never even met any of these people," he adds.

Zombie was most upset of the claim he didn't want to tour with a hip-hop act. "That's a fantasy world they're creating," he adds. "I have nothing against rap. I like Ice Cube and I've liked him for a long time. I listen to N.W.A. I was always into rap...I've always said part of the creation of White Zombie was to try to take the excitement of Public Enemy and Slayer records and find a new way to put it all together." Zombie also points out that six months ago he worked with Puff Daddy on the rock remix of "It's All About The Benjamins."