Rob Zombie Says Grunge Made Rock Music “Boring”

June 14, 2014

Rob Zombie says he holds the early ’90s grunge movement responsible for making rock music “boring” to American youth, forcing rappers to take on the role traditionally held by rock stars. The singer insists this is why it’s impossible to stage a festival like the UK’s Download event in the US.

“When the grunge rock thing hit with Nirvana and all that, everybody thought it was cool to be anti-rock star,” Zombie explained to TeamRock ahead of his set at the UK hard rock festival. “They sort of anti-rock-starred themselves right out the door, because the rap guys came in and said, ‘Fuck it. We’ll be the rock stars if you guys are going to wear flannel shirts and stare at your feet.'”

“US rock music has never recovered from that,” he continued. “A whole generation of kids thought, ‘Rock music is boring. Let’s go listen to rap music.'” The singer added that the situation is different in the UK, saying, “You could never throw a rock festival like this and get this many people. Never.”

The spookmaster said that after he finishes his current run of European dates he’ll return home to finish work on his upcoming new album before starting on his next movie in September, a project titled 31, which he alluded to whilst speaking to Music Feeds at Soundwave 2014 in Sydney.

Listen: Rob Zombie Speaks to TeamRock at Download Festival 2014